Shallow Breath (29 page)

Epilogue

Pete

P
ete’s sister collects him from Terminal 1. ‘How’d it all go?’ Maggie asks, once he has thrown his bag in the boot and climbed in beside her.

‘Well, we found Berani, but in general the situation is horrendous,’ Pete replies, kissing her on the cheek. ‘I’m going to speak to people in the different organisations about going out there again, and where the best place is for me. I think I might be of more use nearer to Aceh, rather than at the release centre. Perhaps I can help to lobby the government. Any lasting change is going to have to happen there. One thing’s for sure: we need swift action if the orang-utans are going to have a chance – and I mean today. Tomorrow isn’t good enough any more. Do you realise that, on top of everything else, the region is being assessed for coal mining? We’re fighting a losing battle right now.’

‘Jesus. How do you do it, Pete? How do you keep going, day after day, when you’re aware of all this?’

Pete hesitates only momentarily. ‘You start small. One solid safe haven … that’s all we need to build on. One orang-utan at a time, returned to the wild. Do you know what makes the Jambi release station a prime spot for their reintroduction to the rainforest? Because there used to be orang-utans there, one hundred and thirty years ago, but they died out. So that patch of jungle has everything they need to survive. The place has already lost them once, but now over one hundred and forty orang-utans are swinging through those trees again, four with new babies clinging on to them.’

Maggie smiles. ‘So where can I take you?’

Pete hesitates. ‘Actually, if we head to your house, can I drop you off and borrow the car?’

When Pete gets to the shack, to his disappointment the place is dark and gloomy. Chug waits patiently under the carport. There’s no sign of Desi.

Pete sits on the verandah for an hour or so, staring out at the lacklustre water, then decides he really must get on. As he runs down the steps, he’s compelled to turn around. All he sees at first is the empty seat facing the ocean, but, next to it, something is glinting from the door handle.

He climbs back up, astonished to find Desi’s pearl necklace. He stares at the little dolphin, its body curled around the small white globe. Realising Maya will be thrilled, he decides not to leave it there, and puts it inside the zip pocket of his jacket for safekeeping. As he walks away, he tries Maya’s mobile, but she doesn’t pick up. He debates going up to Lovelock Bay to find her, but there are other things he needs to get done first.

He pushes the speed limit all the way back to the city, wanting
to make sure he reaches the zoo before it closes. He’s got a stack of paperwork to hand over concerning Berani. The staff on the front desk radio his arrival to the orang-utan keepers, and he hurries through the park, to the gate that leads behind the scenes.

As he approaches the door to the kitchens, Wendy is waiting for him, ‘Hello, stranger,’ she says. ‘I’m about to bring Indah and Langka in for the night. Do you want to come and say hi?’

He follows her through to a small room, where she unlocks the little barred gate. Within seconds, Indah swings inside, with Langka clutching on to her mother.

Pete kneels down as Indah spots him and slowly approaches.

‘Hey, Indah,’ he says, savouring every moment of being this close to her again. ‘I’m pleased to report that Berani is safe and well, and doing great.’

Indah studies him with her gentle brown eyes. How much he would give to know what she sees. But then, to his surprise, she swings her baby in front of her. And he meets little Langka’s steadfast gaze, as Indah solemnly places her daughter’s precious fingers across his palm.

Author’s Note

Blending Fact with Fiction

W
hile the characters and the plot of
Shallow Breath
are entirely fictional, the backdrop of the book is grounded in real places, events and stories. Atlantis Marine Park was a top tourist attraction for roughly a decade and is well remembered by Perth residents. The ruins are still there today, and in the middle of them King Neptune can be found staring fixedly out to sea. The seven dolphins who were the stars of the park – Frodo, Rajah, Nero, Mila, Rani, Lulu and Karleen – were much-loved during their time at Two Rocks, and the extensive efforts at successfully releasing them and their offspring were considered groundbreaking, despite mixed results. The three who were recaptured (Rajah, Mila and one of the juveniles, Echo) were moved to the aquarium at Hillarys, where, sadly, they were poisoned in 1996. Their deaths remain a mystery, and they are commemorated by a bronze statue and community wishing well at Hillarys boat harbour.

Monkey Mia is a world-renowned spot roughly 800 kilometres north of Perth, where the dolphins come into the shoreline each day of their own accord to be given a small ration of fish and meet visitors. Scientific research at Monkey Mia took off in the 1980s and continues to this day. Nicky the dolphin has been visiting almost every day since she was born (a year before I was) in 1975 and is now considered a dolphin of advanced years. The careful and thoughtful management of tourism at Monkey Mia has, so far, shown that it is possible to successfully sustain human-dolphin interaction.

The Zambian elephant population dropped alarmingly due to poaching in the seventies and eighties, although it is hard to find reliable figures. Elephant poaching is currently on the increase in various African countries, and poachers are now using high-tech weaponry to decimate populations. An msnbc news article in May 2012 reported that tens of thousands of elephants were estimated to have been killed in 2011 for their tusks, largely due to increased Asian demand for ornaments and traditional medicine. Without another international outcry, elephants may soon, once again, be heading towards extinction.

The natural wonders of the Galapagos have not escaped the attentions of poachers either. Longlines are regularly set illegally inside park zones, which target sharks for the shark-finning industry. As well as decimating shark populations, their by-catch also puts other unique species at risk. In countries where shark fins are highly prized, the most valuable is the biggest one, which belongs to the whale shark.

Indah, Langka and Berani are a fictitious orang-utan family, but their story is based on the groundbreaking efforts underway at Perth Zoo, which has already seen two orang-utans relocated to the Sumatran jungle. I was assisted in researching this storyline by Leif Cocks, Curator of Exotics at Perth Zoo,
and founder of The Orangutan Project (
www.orangutan.org.au
). The last few lines of
Shallow Breath
echo one of Leif’s moving encounters with these great apes, as recounted in his book
Orangutans and their Battle for Survival
. Eighty per cent of the orang-utans’ rainforest has been destroyed in the past twenty years, and without immediate action it is predicted that both Bornean and Sumatran orang-utans, with whom humans share 97 per cent of their DNA, will go extinct within the next decade.

Half Moon Bay is a small town on the west coast of America, and I would love to go whale-watching there one day. A short drive north is San Francisco, where, in 1985, Humphrey the humpback really did swim down the river, before he was serenaded back out to freedom using the songs of his own kind.

In contrast, every day between September and March, any dolphins found swimming, foraging, leaping or playing too close to Taiji, on the east coast of Japan, are hounded into the merciless waters of the Cove. After a few are picked for the lucrative captive trade, the rest are bludgeoned and butchered under tarps. We only know about this because of small groups of determined people from Save Japan Dolphins, Sea Shepherd, the filmmakers of
The Cove
and other independent demonstrators, who all risk their freedom to draw attention to what is happening. I stood with a number of these people for just one morning on the cliff-tops of Taiji, and, thankfully, it was a day where the boats returned empty-handed. These protestors are courageous individuals who stare unflinchingly at suffering while their hearts are breaking, so they can rally the cry for change before it is too late. It is because of them, and those like them the world over, that this book has been written.

Captured dolphins at Dolphin Resort, Taiji (© Sara Foster)

Acknowledgements

O
ver the last year I have met some terrific people in the course of my research, and this book would not be the same without their generous contributions in one form or another. Thanks first of all to Leif Cocks for allowing me to quiz him so I could get my orang-utan facts straight. I have long admired Leif’s charitable organisation The Orangutan Project (
www.orangutan.org.au
), which does vital work in trying to keep the last of these magnificent primates safe. The project always needs support, whether through volunteers on the ground or financial contributions, so please check out their website.

Thank you to Jeff Hansen, Louis Bell, Scott West and Rosie Kunneke at Sea Shepherd (
www.seashepherd.org
), who were extremely generous in providing information about Taiji and helping me work out the logistics of getting there. Thanks also to Leah at Save Japan Dolphins (
www.savejapandolphins.org
) for providing information. I would also like to acknowledge the small group of people who were protesting at the Cove while I was there – Rosie, Tarah, Peter, Martyn, Robyn and Heather – who answered my questions and made me think further about all sorts of things.

I couldn’t have done the local research without the wonderful books and archives at Wanneroo Library, Joondalup Library, Clarkson Library and the State Library of Western Australia. It
was a real thrill to be able to go back in time and piece together the information about Atlantis, and everyone I spoke to was extremely helpful. I’m indebted to Robyn Barone, who allowed me to interview her and provided me with a fascinating DVD showing the history of Two Rocks. Thanks also to Arthur Shelton for the photographs, and to Chris Pash for answering my questions on the Albany whaling protests.

I read a
lot
of books and articles to try to make sure I had enough background detail and was keeping my facts in check. You can find an extensive list on my website, but in particular I’d like to acknowledge Rachel Smolker’s
To Touch a Wild Dolphin
, which provided excellent insight into the scientific research being done at Monkey Mia.

I spent a fascinating morning with Kerry and Kerry Littleton, where I learnt about caring for joeys and met some of the beautiful animals that had found shelter with them. My thanks to them and their daughter Sue Littleton for being so welcoming – your compassion makes you all heroes in my book. And thank you to my lovely new friend Paula Demeza, another hero, for providing further information about kangaroos and the different ways of keeping joeys alive in those critical first hours.

My friends have rallied round yet again to help out. So, to Jen Shelton, Marina Hansen, Claire and Justin Moritz, Connie and Kurt Sawyer, Lisa and Brett Spinks, and Punita and Bimal Mandalia, I am very lucky to have you all there for support. Thank you to Marian and Raymond Agombar and all the Fosters for everything you do. I’m also grateful to Meg and James Sawyer, and Diane and Lindsay Sawyer, for generously providing me with homes away from home in which I could work peacefully and productively as that daunting deadline approached.

Thank you to Claire Jones, vice-president of communications at the Jane Goodall Institute, for her support in gaining permission to produce transcribed material from an interview featuring Dr Jane Goodall, DBE (founder, the Jane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger for Peace) with Lara Logan at CBS. And also to Emma Cheshire at Faber & Faber and Terry Barber at Parallax Press for their assistance in gaining permission to use the T. S. Eliot and Dalai Lama quotations.

To the entire team at Random House, who work so hard to get my books out there, I appreciate each and every one of you. In particular, a huge thank you to Bev Cousins, for her steady guidance and generous support, and to Kevin O’Brien, Tobie Mann and Kirsty Noffke for all their hard work. And, as always, I am extremely lucky to have such a talented agent in Tara Wynne, who champions my books and does all she can to help them go further into the world.

I wouldn’t have made the finish line without the constant encouragement of my husband, Matt. Whether celebrating my successes or acknowledging my frustrations (as well as cooking a damn good meal and knowing when to pour the wine), he never fails to come through for me. At times when my confidence faltered, he gave me the courage to go on, and he provided me with a sounding board when the story got difficult. The last twelve months of writing have been a true team effort, and I cannot thank him enough.

The final shout out goes to our beautiful Hannah, who puts up with an incredibly busy mum at times, and whose sheer joy when encountering animals reminds me of how important it is to fight for them, so her children might experience the magic of these precious connections beyond words.