Free Island Ambush by Bindi Irwin

Bindi looked up. Sleek and majestic, Big Mouth cruised above them, blocking out the sun.
    Bindi wanted to shout in amazement but she was 10 metres underwater. Instead, she turned to her friend Kelly and gave her the thumbs up.
    Kelly nodded and smiled, her eyes wide.
    When the great whale shark had passed over and the sun was again visible through the crystal clear water, the girls followed at a respectful distance.
    Finally, Big Mouth dived down and disappeared out of sight.
    Bindi motioned to Kelly, and they swam across to the reef overhang. Here it looked just like an octopus’s garden, a wonderland of different corals alive with myriad fish in a rainbow of colours. It was spectacular, and the perfect setting to see the world’s largest fish.
    Kelly had the idea to come to see the whale sharks here at South Ari Atoll in the Maldives, a tropical island paradise of beautiful coral reefs and atolls in the oceans south of Sri Lanka. Kelly, who lived in Oregon in the USA, was totally mad about these enormous but harmless fish, which mainly fed on plankton and fish eggs.
    The girls were helping Meena, a marine biologist who was studying the whale sharks that swam through these waters. There was much to learn. While people knew that some whale sharks travelled thousands of kilometres around the world’s oceans, no-one really knew how or where they bred.
    It was Meena who dubbed this particular fish Big Mouth, because his mouth was so wide. Now she swam across to the girls and motioned for them to follow her. Together they skirted the reef and then dived down.
    As Meena paddled on ahead, Bindi pointed out a stunning blue parrot fish to her friend. Nearby, a little clown fish was darting in and out of a colony of sea anemones. Through their diving masks the girls smiled and laughed.
    With a kick of her flippers, Bindi dived down even deeper. Below her a long ledge of pink coral jutted out from the reef side. She swam above it, admiring a pair of striped yellow butterfly fish.
    Then she spotted something lying on the coral below her. It was long and grey-brown. She swam a little closer. Bindi recognised it immediately due to the shape of the fish’s head. It was a baby hammerhead shark.
    But something was wrong. Bindi knew that sharks have to keep moving. They don’t lie down and take a nap.
    She swam even closer to examine the fish. It was still and lifeless. Dead. But worse, it was missing all its fins. Bindi could see where the fins had been cut off, with a sharp knife, by the look of it.
    Bindi looked around for Meena and Kelly. They were not far off. She swam over and led them to the baby shark.
    Meena shook her head. She pointed towards the surface. The girls nodded, and together they swam up slowly, heading back in the direction of the boat.
    â€˜That shark has been finned!’ Bindi shouted angrily when they surfaced.
    Kelly tugged the air hose from her mouth. ‘Who would do that?’ she said. ‘I thought shark finning was illegal in the Maldives!’
    Meena pulled up her mask and shook the water from her face. ‘Shark finning is illegal here. But it still goes on. At least they didn’t get Big Mouth. I’d hate to see him killed off for a bowl of shark fin soup.’
    â€˜So would I,’ Bindi said. ‘But hammerhead sharks are endangered. And it was just a baby! That’s so wrong!’
    â€˜Come on, Bindi,’ shouted Kelly. ‘Let’s get back to the boat and see if we can catch those shark finners.’
    â€˜And if we do catch them,’ Bindi called out to her friend as she swam off, ‘I’ll turn them into soup!’

Back onboard the boat, Bindi, Kelly and Meena pulled off their diving gear and stowed it below deck.
    When the girls had raised the anchor, Meena started the motor and slowly they chugged off in the direction of Male Atoll, where they were staying for the night at Meena’s place.
    It was early afternoon, but they had a