Fluffies of the Sea - 3

Fluffies of the Sea - 3

	In an archipelago South of the United States a small team of marine biologists are wrapping up their survey of an artificial reef.  Initial surveys were promising, and examining the coral shows a robust improvement over natural coral, but something troubling has come up.  After an extended survey of the food chain it appears that the invasive vermin known as "sea fluffies" are becoming essential to the reefs rapid expansion.  Over the last few days Dr. Mor, Liam, and Segan pour over data collected from other Water World Reefs.  The trends seem to confirm their hypothesis, reefs without fluffies grow nearly five times slower.

	At his colleagues surprise Liam's suggestion the fluffies be removed from the reef to examine the effects on biodiversity.  For two days the trio debate and hypothesize other reasons why fluffies would correlate to the rapid growth of the reef ecosystem.  However, no answers are outwardly apparent.  Temperature, local marine life, latitude, longitude, nothing seems to affect the reefs sucess as much as the presence of sea fluffies.  The mystery prompts Dr. Mor to call for a special request to alter and extend the survey.  With his report and compelling argument Dr. Mor receives a small fleet and extended operation time to complete the experiment.

	In only three days two new ships appear from the EPA.  The vessels are slightly larger than the research yacht and are crewed by five men apiece.  Briefed on their mission the operation begins.  A quarter mile away a small island is home to hundreds of sea fluffies, many of whom journey out to the reef to feed on richer algae deposits than they can gather in the shallows around the island.  Sea fluffy mothers have to either leave their children on the beach or bring them along to feed.  Up to nine hours a day the mothers eat to produce milk for their babies and to rebuild their depleted fat reserves after birth.  In a few sheltered pools foals and mothers jockey for time to teach their babies to swim and hold their breath.  Fights are frequent over the coveted sheltered pools.

	"Dummy mummah weave! Dis pwace fow guud mummah bebbehs! Mummah bebbehs nee swimmies time!" The 'swimmies time' is a type of play that fluffy pups engage in to learn how to swim in open water.  It is a type of doggy paddle used only on the surface. These four day old pups are too young to practice diving yet, but the more practice they get the sooner the mother can take them out to eat on the reef.  It has been two days since either mother had a full stomach.  "Nuu! Mah Bebbeh swimmies! Dummy mummah weave!" "Ou' Dummy!" "Dummy" This continues for a good minute.  Like fluffy ponies sea fluffies are highly susceptible to verbal battering, but hunger and necessity lead both mares to blows.  "Mummah giff dummy mummah swappies!" Unlike 'owies' or 'biggest owies' slapping with fins isn't able to kill most adults, but it does hurt a lot.  Used by mothers and male sea fluffies to fight for resources, territory, and other rights the slapping won't kill but will usually beat another adult into submission.

	Rearing up the two mothers inch towards each other balanced precariously on their rear flippers and tails.  Clapping as loudly as they can with their front flippers to scare their opponent the mothers get within slapping range.  Then the slaps begin.  "Owies!" "Nuu! Mumm- OWIES!" "You Dumm- Owies!" The smart fluffy slaps first and throws insults later, but these mothers aren't catching onto that.  Slapping once and then talking each mare is hit in the face back and forth.  For only twenty seconds the fight goes on until one mother loses her balance. Unable to stand, her head still spinning from the slaps, the victor turns around and positions her tail above the loser.  With the most powerful muscle in the weak fluffy bodies, the tail, the victor slaps down bruising and occasionally dislocating joints.  Now screaming in pain the defeated mother begins to cry.  "Nuu! Sowwy! Huu huu huu! Mummah weave! Nuu swimmies fow bebbeh! Wan guu! Sowwy! Huu huu huu!" Bruised and bleeding the defeated mother gently places the baby on her back and waddles away, clumsy fins occasionally causing another painful belly flop on to stone.

	With victory keeping the pain in her face at bay the champion mother quickly enters the shallow pool.  Her babies, barely able to speak and see are ushered into the water.  Normally this would spell death for any foal, but these pups are graced with larger fat reserves, less fluff, and a special natural buoyancy.  At first afraid the pups soon are splashing around their mother, who struggles to keep each pup in sight.  Despite their ability to float a pup that flips upside down or dives accidentally will lead to death.  The mother has to work quickly to teach her pups the proper stroke for swimmies, but after only ten minutes another mare with pups in tow approaches.  This vicious cycle continues for each mother nearly every day.  What little time they have outside eating is dedicated to raising their pups.

	But, this small island now has new visitors.  Mothers, pups, males, and females alike all recognize the new guests through some buried instinct. "D...Daddie?" Soon the hundreds of sea fluffies are being lead by the men into "Howses"  What the sea fluffies don't realize is they are being gathered and removed from their island.  "Whew mummah? Bebbeh scawed! Wan mummah! Wan miwkies! Waaaaah! Huu huu Waaaaah! Mummaaahh!" The beach, now abandoned, is littered with pups and wounded fluffies unable to waddle over to the large boxes.  "Huu huu... huwties... wan daddeh... wan howsie... nuu wike awone... wan daddie..." Their prayers are answered if only temporarily.

	Reaching a single flipper out to the man standing above him a wounded male begs for hugs to make the pain disappear.  While his pain disappears it isn't in the way he prefered.  A spear punctures the skull and mercifully ends the pathetic wounded fluffies life.  Pups are gathered in small carriers and brought to the large pens.  A wiggling, slapping, yappy mass of wet fluff and fins the pens are all smelly, unhappy, and full of territory fights over the limited space.  Many pups have already been crushed by fighting fluffies.  Slapping tails hit those below them at random as they try to intimidate.  The EPA workers don't quite know what to do.  They've dealt with sea fluffies before, but never this many.  The island is cleared of fluffies, but the pens meant only for a few dozen fluffies each are filled with nearly fifty a piece. And, the built in pond is already clogged with corpses of all ages and fluids of every variety.

	Meanwhile the boats clear the seas of the fluffy creatures.  Using a simple technique of "Call out squiddies then throw a net" nearly every fluffy is captured.  Those who escape are rounded up by hand and placed into bins on the island.  Over the next three weeks the sea fluffies are cared for by EPA workers while the researchers carefully study the changes in food chain.  The ten pens meant for 120 fluffies had to accommodate a grand total of 407 fluffies of varying age and health.  However, after only two days this number plummeted to around 300.  still used to the territory lifestyle on the small beach the fluffies went into protective over drive in the much smaller pens.  Fights were commonplace and many died from 'biggest owies' including biting and tail slaps.  The workers could do little to break up the fighting.  But, eventually the fluffies calm down.

	Life in the pens is relatively safe for the fluffies after the workers fix the kinks.  Predators are kept away by the high walls and protective screen.  Fresh water is pumped into the pond and filtered so they can drink and swim freely.  And, food is provided in the form of a high protein industrial mash.  The fluffies dub this green mash 'icky nummies' like the algae they eat in the sea.  After the initial blood bath the males have been separated from females and pups are taught to share time with each other in the 'swimmie pouh' Mothers are able, like no time before, to have fun with their babies.  They play, give milk, cuddle, and even nap together.  Normally foraging for food on land and in the sea the fluffies are all much happier being cared for by the EPA workers.

	But, the survey is completed and the results are in.  Fluffies are an essential food source for predators in the reefs, at least in the short term.  Almost immediately after the removal of fluffies from the reef environment the sharks nearly all disappeared.  The remaining morays feed on fish but are noticeably smaller than before after a three week period.  Strangely the algae also decreases in thickness and spread when the fluffies are removed.  Confirming their suspicions algae blooms are removed from the filtration systems of the water pools in the pens.  It seems like their land counterparts fluffy excrement is a powerful growth enhancer.  Convinced that the fluffies are essential to feeding the larger predators and algae eating microorganisms in the fledgling reefs the fluffies are to be released for further study and placed near Water World reefs whenever possible.  But, how to ensure that fluffies can live in reef systems with no islands near by.  This question haunts the crew as they give the all clear to return the fluffies to the island.  But, with nearly a whole generation born in captivity the fluffies don't take well to their abandonment.

	"Nuu! Wan safew howse! Wan yiyki nummies an fun pouh! Nuu wan beachies wif munstahs! Wan safe! Nuu wike scawy pwace!" The EPA workers aren't interested in conversing and have to bear the audio assault of whining.  But, after only a few hours all the surviving fluffies are returned to the beach they came from.  The fluffies however aren't prepared for this.  Like fluffy ponies these animals are meant for captivity.  Public aquariums, family pools, ponds, and even just a kiddie pool is enough to keep these fluffies happy.  But, when you take comfort, safety, food and care from them they are devastated.

	For nearly two days the fluffy population doesn't engage in anything but crying on the beach and occasionally nursing pups.  "Hhhhhhhunngwwyyyyy!" "Whew nummies?" "Why daddies meanie? Fwuffy hungee!" "Nuu mow miwkies, daddie! nee nummies fow miwkies! Bebbehs nee nummies! daddie?" The EPA workers are long gone.  Completely rediscovering their environment the mothers of hungry pups are the first to venture out onto the wave smoothed rocks around the edge of the beach.  There they find to their delight algae or, "Yikkie nummies!" Licking, chewing, and biting clumps of algae off rocks rebuilds their stamina.  Males, re-introduced to mares are the second to venture out to find food.  After giving many many special hugs the males have to find food for their mates who become incapacitated with size of pregnancy.  Many other fluffies starve on the beach still searching clumsily for their owners that never truly were.

	With Dr. Mor called to install other reefs, and Liam called in to study sea fluffies in a controlled environment only Segan is left for the extended observation.  Resupplied with several cases of beer, food, and a laptop with entertainment the single scientist takes up little space on the large yacht.  With remote cameras set up on the island he monitors the fluffies agonizing learning process.  Even some fluffies that were born and raised on the beach have to completely relearn their survival techniques so painstakingly accrued over generations.  "Amazing how little it takes to completely reprogram these little guys..." Segan idly says to no one in particular.  In fact, no fluffie has yet to try swimming despite the apparent obviousness of their desi... Segan stops himself mid though, nothing could be so poorly designed for sea life as these creatures.

	Only the adolescents seem to like swimming in the shallow pools, which were rediscovered after weaning and the following search for food on their own. Soon the pools are filled with young fluffies learning to paddle and playing swimmies, all without their parents who were still afraid of "bad wawa!" like land fluffies.  As weeks wore on the parents died of starvation, heat stroke, and fights which resumed over limited food.  The gulls and crabs feast on the corpses littering the beach.  And, in another week the fluffies witness in horror as several adolescent fluffies swim out to sea.  "Nuu! Wawa bad! Bad fow fwuffies! Come back! Nuu swimmies! Nu.. s..swim..swimies?" Nervously the adults approach the waves as they remember lessons from their parents.  Within the day the fluffies are back in the water, playing, splashing and hugging in the shallow beach water.  Then as the sun sets some young fluffies try to sleep in the rhythmic and calm waves.

	Keeping noses above the water the fluffies splay out and snooze in the waves which rock them to sleep.  But, those who return to the safety of the beach have learned better through horrible experience.  Not even the care of man could remove the ingrained fear of the dark waters below the naive sleeping fluffies.  In the night fluffies tip over in the waves and drown, are eaten by night time hunters, float off into the deep ocean waters, and only a few manage to awaken shivering in the cold ocean water and return to the warmth of fluff piles on the beach.  Segan slightly drunk and alone in his cabin with the laptop and feverishly making sausage cream awakens the next day and to his delight finds fluffies returning to the reef.

	For almost three weeks fluffies numbers dwindled through naivety, forgetfulness, limited food, and predators.  But, in a period of only two days everything seemed to turn around for the small population.  Around 50 fluffies, many of whom are about to give birth, return to the reef and begin eating on the large blooms of algae on the top of the pillars once more.  In another week over seventy pups are born.  With only a few sharks and morays left the population explodes over the  next month.  Each time Segan returns to check in the population grows until it returns to the 400 mark.  After three months on a final visit Segan notices a fluffy mare swimming with two pups on her back babbling happily to them.  Then, as if on cue a Great White burst through the waves tearing the family to shreds.  A smile crosses Segan, Liam, and Dr. Mor's face knowing their efforts will help rebuild the worlds reefs.  All thanks to the sea fluffy.