The Octonauts and the Overfishing Incident (complete)

Chapter Four

Peso spotted them first, from above the reef.

"Captain! There they are!" Captain Barnacles followed Peso' s gaze, his eyes widening slightly as he took in the situation. He could see Dashi and Shellington frantically pulling at the rope that made up the net enclosing them as it was steadily pulled upwards. He looked over at Tweak in the Gup D and pressed the button for the radio to contact her.

"Tweak we need to get them out of there. Use the Gup D' s claws to cut the net open, we'll be right here to help."

"On it Captain." Tweak moved the Gup forward towards the swaying net, her eyes narrowing as she concentrated. Dashi and Shellington had seen the Octonauts and were moving the fish away from the area that Tweak would have to cut so none got hurt. The net was writhing with all the wriggling fish in it trying to escape.

"Captain, I can't cut the net while it's moving so much. I might cut one of the fish by accident," Tweak told Barnacles.

The Captain pondered for a moment. "We haven't got much time. You have to try. Get Dashi and Shellington try and stop the fish from moving the net so much. I'll get the Gup A to try and steady the net."

"Okay Cap." The Captain moved the Gup A towards the net and came close to the outside to stop it from swaying to and fro. Dashi appeared to be calming the fish while Shellington was moving them away from the Gup D' s claws. Dashi gave a thumbs up to Tweak, she nodded and began to cut the rope. It was thick and tough, the first few times the claws couldn't cut through it. Tweak strained harder, making the claws close firmer around the rope. Eventually it snapped and a small hole opened up in the net exterior. Tweak smiled and Dashi from inside the net whooped in relief and reassurance for Tweak. Tweak started to cut another rope as the net was dragged up even further. They were only a few metres from the surface now, the fish were making even more noise as they all frantically tried to burrow away from the top of the net to stay in the water. At one point Tweak lost her grip on the rope and had to catch up with the ascending net. The Captain knew they had to delay the net's progress and signalled to Kwazii to follow him outside. Kwazii yowled in adrenaline as he flipped out of the Gup and got a hold on the bottom of the net, pulling as hard as he could to pull it back into the depths. The Captain joined him with pulling, then called out to Peso who had stayed in the Gup.

"Peso, suction line!" The penguin touched a button and the trailing line shot out and attached itself to Captain Barnacles. Barnacles gave a thumbs up to Peso and the medic put the Gup in reverse, pulling the net down slowly.

Tweak meanwhile had cut a large hole and was snipping at the last cord for the net to fall apart. Kwazii lost his grip on the net and spiralled away head over heels. The Captain held on, his arms straining as the Gup pulled him backwards.

As the engineer cut through the very last rope, suddenly the whole net fell apart and the fish flew out from all directions, past the Captain and the Gup D. Dashi swam up to the Captain, followed by a beaming Shellington.

"Thank you Captain! Peso," she addressed the medic who had joined them now. "Some of the fish bruised their fins by being crushed by that net. Can you help them?"

"Of course Dashi." Dashi and Peso swam off back towards the reef. Tweak was collecting some of the stray pieces of the rope. "I can use these in my workshop sometime. Might as well put it to good use I guess!"

"Put it in the back of the Gup E," Barnacles suggested. Tweak carried it over to the waiting Gup that had come out of the net, her arms full of decaying rope. Nobody noticed the dark shadow moving over ahead of them and the large net coming slowly down into the depths behind them...