30
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FALL 2014
T
hree South Africans, a Frenchman, a
Norwegian and a Turk bail out of a boat
backward at night. Although it may sound
like the beginning of a bad barroom joke,
it’s actually the beginning of an amazing
real-life adventure.
The divers, guests at a resort in Lembeh Strait,
Indonesia, decided at the last minute to organize a night
dive to search for a legendary sea monster said to live
in the depths of Teluk Kembahu Bay. I wasn’t about to
miss out on the escapade. Once underwater, I fell into
formation behind the others, following our Indonesian
guide down a sand slope. At 40 feet the guide stopped
at the edge of a rubble patch and swept his beam across
the bottom. As if on cue, a giant segmented worm —
far larger and more fearsome than expected — sprang
out of the sand with the speed of a cobra. The team
backpedaled in unison.
Every eye locks onto the creature’s claim to fame and
the source of its common name: a twin set of retractable
jaws, snapped wide to the side like switchblades retooled
with curved tips and serrated edges — perfect for
maximum carnage. Agitated by the flood of lights, the
worm disappears back into the sand as suddenly as it
had appeared.
After collecting our wits, we begin switching off our
lights as instructed in the boat briefing until only the
glow of the guide’s beam, filtered through his fingers,
illuminates the sand. The worm surges up again, this
time stretching an arm’s length above the bottom before
plunging back into the sand like a piston, where it
sits with the tip of its head exposed and its angry jaws
flared. No one moves. Finally, our guide motions us
closer, and we creep forward, one at a time, and stare
down at the jaws designed for violent death.
By fate, giant tropical worms such as this one, now
known universally as Bobbit worms, came to the
public’s attention shortly after the 1993 story broke
about Lorena Bobbitt taking revenge on her philandering
husband in a most memorable way. The name remains
ENCOUNTERS
A Touch of Ripley
T E X T A N D P H O T O S B Y N E D A N D A N N A D E L O A C H
