John had just finished his freshman year in college, and had come to Ocracoke to spend a few days unwinding. He had been on the island for the first time last summer with his friends to celebrate their graduation from high school. This year was different. There would be no celebration, and he had come alone. He was in fact, an angry young mad frustrated by his parent’s relentless drive for him to be successful. He hated college, and had mostly taken a few electives to get through the year. Determined to drown away his problems, he had brought a case of beer, and was in the process of consuming as much of it as possible. When he had finished his tenth beer, he noticed a group of porpoises swimming by. "Dumb fish!" he yelled, as he threw the empty bottle that he was holding in his hand at them. He missed of course since they were swimming quite a distance from the beach, but he continued in the attempt to hit them until all of the empty bottles were gone. Drunk, exhausted, mad and frustrated as ever, he slumped down in the sand, and fell asleep.

After some time had passed, he was awakened by a nudging to his arm. As he opened his eyes, he realized with disbelief, that he was looking face to face with the largest turtle he had ever seen. Its head was as big as his own, and its flippers were as long as his forearm. John thought to himself that he must be dreaming. Then the old turtle spoke to him, and he was sure that it was a dream. In a low voice the old turtle said to him "John, come with me. There is something that you need to see." Almost instinctively, John climbed onto the back of the old turtle, and they headed down toward the ocean. As they entered the water, it felt soothing and comforting as it splashed against his body. John was not afraid of drowning, for he knew that it was only a dream, and if turtles could talk, then surely he could breath underwater, and he was right. As they submerged, a whole new world filled with life opened up before his eyes. He saw bustling crabs working as if late to meet a schedule. There were schools of beautiful fish swimming in unison as if rehearsing a waltz. He saw delicate jellyfish suspended in the water as if floating on air, porpoises playing together like children, and majestic whales nuzzling and calling to each other in the depths. John was in awe at the site of such an abundance of life and beauty.

After they had traveled some distance, the turtle took them down into a dark and ominous place. As they reached the bottom, John’s eyes began to adjust, and he realized that they had landed in the Graveyard of the Atlantic. All around them were the remains of great ships and vessels. There were wooden sailing ships with cracked hauls and broken masts. There were German U-Boats with gaping holes, and cargo ships with the remnants of their spilled containers littering the ocean floor. The old turtle began to sweep away the silt where they had stopped, and soon uncovered shining gold and silver objects. John bent over and picked one up, and realized that he was holding a gold coin. "This is what some men hold as dear," the old turtle said with sadness as they looked down at the coins lying at their feet, and while John thought that the old turtle wasn’t looking, he put the coin in his pocket. Then the old turtle told John to climb on his back again, for there was more to see.

They went for some distance, and came upon a tangled mess. It was an abandoned net, worn out, and cast overboard from a fishing vessel. As they got closer, John could see that a Great White shark had become tangled in the net, and was gasping its last breath. A little further on they saw a small turtle lying still on its back with discarded fishing line wrapped around its front flippers and head. And further still, they saw dead fish surrounding rusting barrels leaking an orange cloud of death into the water. John’s heart grew heavy, and a great sadness overcame him.

John awoke the next morning, still lying on the beach, with the warm sun shining in his face. He sat up thinking to himself how that had to of been the weirdest dream that he had ever dreamt. As his eyes focused, he saw the ten bottles that he had thrown into the water the evening before laying on the beach where the receding tide had left them. He thought to himself that it probably hadn’t been a good idea to have thrown them into the water like he had done, so he began to pick them up. As he bent over to pick up the last one, he felt something poking his side. He reached into his pocket, and pulled out a gold coin.

When John returned to college in the fall of that year, there was no doubt in his mind as to what his major was going to be. Today, after many years of devoted studies, he is a professor of marine biology at the University of North Carolina where he is within driving distance of the ocean that he loves. With exuberance, he teaches his students about the delicate and intricate complexities of aquatic life in the oceans of the world, and our need to preserve and protect this beautiful and magnificent resource. The gold coin sits in a small glass box above the fireplace in his home as a constant reminder of an important lesson well learned. And……John is happy.