A Kid with Big Fishy

On my story to Krakatau, I did tell you that I “crossed path with the most gigantic non-whale fish I ever seen with my very own goggle” — right?

Well now, I’d like to talk more about this.

No, no, I didn’t change the script. I still have no evidence. The photograph is still non-existed. I was fool enough to get down the water camera-less, fool enough not to borrow any from my friends who got GoPro back then, or AT LEAST, any camera from ANYBODY who were swimming around me—yes, I was that fool.

Then the story has been left unveiled. I get to swallow what I saw all by myself. I’m feeling like Harry when he escaped from the graveyard in “The Goblet of Fire”—returned from a shocking scene he just witnessed with his very own eyes, only to be blamed by everybody about Cedric's death. But our things are different on so many level. Mine is real, and the struggle to convince people is, real.

I failed reassuring in real life, but who knows if I can succeed here?

It was in an island called Labuan Cabe. One of many pearls scattered throughout Mount Anak Krakatau. As usual, to get away from those amateur snorkelers, I swam around the area alone. Far away from the boats, far away from people who was floating with heavy, fat life-jackets. Maybe it was like, around one hour of swimming, until finally I heard the signal that our time was up and we needed to return to the boat.

Labuan Cabe from my camera

I, of course, reached the boat a little bit faster than anybody else. But seeing people still struggling to drag their sea-turtle-weighed body back to our station, I eventually ran out of patience and did some more swimming—you know, rather than doing nothing and just wait.

So I snorkeled just nearby. Just around the other boats, around other people, with shallow seabed, and... This gargantuan fish swimming still by the shore.

I stopped moving. My eye caught his –not sure tho if it was a male or female but, let’s just say it’s a he. His size stunned me. His flat figure reminded me that I saw that kind of fish at least once on TV, but my logic was distorted due to fear. Fear, because he was just there, floating like a dead body-less fish head, not moving either, being the biggest thing I ever seen in my underwater life.

Well I swam with whales in Philippines but that was totally secured, with guides, and fishermen and stuff. Plus, it was a whale. Everybody expected whales to be big, so I was mentally prepared before I dived back then. This one, was A FREAKING FISH! A fish in adult pig size, apparently existed just near the place we were swimming—who would’ve not panicking!?

The fact that I was alone, accidentally spotting him without prior warning, and that he was just there, petrifying –I had this terrible feeling that he might have been shocked too, seeing me seeing him, and he was planning to attack in 3… 2… 1—I left as fast as I could. As a matter of fact, I was literally screaming in panic. Salt water rushed into my snorkeling pipe, filled my throat but fuck I don’t care, I have to fucking run away from fucking here.

I told everybody about that fish. They seemed to trust me, but they also laughed. It was like being a kid again, when I tried to tell my dad that I just saw a Godzilla following us when we were driving, then he obviously pretended to be scared and told my mom to take cover—only to make it seem like what I saw was real, and he believed it.

Those kind of responses stopped me from telling more about the fish. But I promised myself that I would definitely see that fish again so I can proof to people that I didn't tell a lie. But then, long ago I also promised myself not to visit the same destination twice so—I changed my promise to AT LEAST, make myself sure that the fish I saw, was real.

So I began my observation.

Collecting pieces of my memories about that fish –it was ruined, really, his color, his figure, I was too frightened by the size and his eyes– Googling “largest fish in Krakatau”, “largest fish in Indonesia”, browsing anything I could do to find the best visual to restore my mental picture of him. A guy I met on my trip to Krakatau said that it could be an ayam-ayam fish, but when I googled that, no, it wasn’t him.

I met a dead end. All keywords I browsed didn’t match with that fish. Until today, several weeks after I left my case untouched, I came back with smarter mind.

And smarter keyword: “Largest Fish List”

Wikipedia appeared with its page. I opened it up, felt nervous, and finally stopped scrolling when I saw a picture of “The Ocean Sunfish”.

Because well, this is it—it's him.

Obviously, what I saw was smaller than these. Pics are from here, here and here.

I swear, this is just what I bumped into. The size, the figure, it all matched. I didn’t remember if he had dorsal and ventral fins but—I swear, this is him. I opened the links to all types of fish mentioned on that page in Wiki, but no, nothing came closer to sunfish—because I swear, this is him. So I dig deeper about this fish, and after reading sentence “The species is native to tropical and temperate waters around the globe”, I stopped reading—that's when I'm sure enough to swear, that this is him. Or at least it's close to him.

Well this is the best I can do.

I don’t have the visual proof, I can’t even make sure the real name of that fish, this is the best I can do and I hope it’s near the reality.

I hope it was really a sunfish that I stared at,
I hope there’s actually a sunfish living in Sunda Strait,
And I hope I’m right about what I saw because otherwise—

It means that I’ve been telling a

Stupid kid nonsense