#4 Sorry, Charlie (pg. 141)

"Kids love talking animals. Can you blame them? Animators have been piquing the interest of children and adults alike by personifying animals with human traits and characteristics, from the ability to speak and read to whole environments that are made to feel like their human counterparts.

What if...animals could really speak and read? What if fish, for instance, could actually understand our language and visual communication? That's your task.

Imagine fish can comprehend visual and verbal communication; they can read and understand. Now imagine you are a surfboard manufacturer. What would you design for the bottom of your surfboards?

Whatever sea life is under those surfboards while they are in the water can comprehend the message you put on the bottom. What is it you could say to them?

Create the bottom of your surfboard."



MARIA:

STEVE:

LAWTON:

In my experience fish are a cold and self centered bunch. They pretty much don't care about you unless you're feeding them or about to eat them. That being said, I don't have much to say to the vast majority of the fish out there if I were to send a message while surfing. One major exception: sharks.

The design of my board is specifically aimed towards that segment of the undersea population.

In the wild, camouflage is often used as a survival tactic. However, there is one fish that goes the opposite route and seemingly goes out of its way to be garish and conspicuous - the lion fish. Armed with poisonous barbs, it roams the ocean without fear of predation, its markings a clear message to would be assailants: you don't want a piece of this, buddy.

Borrowing this natural visual language, I want to convince any hungry sharks out there to think twice about taking a bite out of this surfer. Of course it's all a bluff and there's nothing I can do should Jaws want to make reverse sashimi out of me. But hey, it was worth a shot. If I do end up a shark happy meal, tell Faith Yanagi I love her... and no go out with Mits Funai.