The Third Morning

The young dolphin is one year old. He swims all day at his mother's side, over the warm rocks of Ningaloo Reef. In a pod, no dolphin gets free fish. Every dolphin catches its own, and the young one is still learning.

On the first morning, his mother finds a fish under the sand. She swims in a slow circle and blows a ring of bubbles around it. The fish comes up out of the sand, into the middle of the ring, and she catches it. The young dolphin blows bubbles too, but they go everywhere, and the sand stays quiet.

On the second morning, an older male finds a fish under the sand. He swims in a slow circle and blows his ring of bubbles. The fish comes up, and he catches it. The young dolphin tries again. His ring is better today, round and almost closed, but it is too slow, and the fish is already gone.

On the third morning, the young dolphin is the first to hear something under the sand. He waits. He swims in a slow circle. He blows one ring of bubbles, small and quick.

The fish comes up into the middle of it.

The other dolphins do not stop, and they do not wait. They swim on across the reef, and for the first time the young dolphin follows them with his own fish in his mouth.