Journal Entry
From the journal of Minnow Gray
My shark Luna came and went with the tides or the cycles of the moon or on some mysterious shark schedule. She would be there
one day and sometimes hang around for a week, and other times and I wouldn’t see her for months. But she always returned.
I told myself it was because she and I had this special relationship. Some kids have imaginary friends, and in some ways I
guess Luna was an imaginary friend because although she was very real, our friendship was one sided—I loved her and she was
curious about me (at best).
The social lives of white sharks are murky. For the most part, they are solitary animals, but the ones we’ve observed and
gotten to know can have some pretty distinct personalities. Some are pushy and direct, others more shy and cautious. Some
seem angry, others almost playful. We also know that they often appear at the Farallones or Guadalupe with the same sharks
several years in a row, as though they might travel together. And when they lift their head out of the water to look at you,
you get the feeling that some kind of connection is being made. Like they are observing you in the same way you are observing
them. It gives me goose bumps every time.