April 11 Summary and Analysis

At mid-morning, the vessel heads toward the mouth of the Agiabampo estuary. Steinbeck, Ricketts, Tiny, Sparky, and Tex head ashore to do some collecting. However, there are not many organisms here other than puffer fish, various crabs, conchs, and eel-grass. Sea-birds are feeding in great numbers on sand-worms. The group decides to head back to the boat and they begin their sail back across the Sea of Cortez toward home. That night, as they are sailing, the group has a spirited discussion of the waste of fish by the Japanese. Tiny, as a fishermen, is enraged by it. As biologists and philosophers, Steinbeck and Ricketts present an alternate point of view—the fish thrown overboard are not wasted, but eaten by the gulls, other fish, and invertebrates. All of it is part of one big cycle of life. If everything...