There is no relief, and people often get a little loopy from the exposure. Jeremy Sterk holds the hydrophone with his feet in the water. Licky says that's nothing. She tells me she was once positive, on a night track, that an alien ship was hovering above the boat. The coast guard helicopters sometimes buzz the boats and shine bright lights on them, but Licky is sure it was a space ship.
Tracking is tedious, uncomfortable, peaceful, exciting, tiring and incredible.
Out on the water you can see sunsets, sunrises, lightning storms, meteor showers, sharks, rays and UFOs. The sun relentlessly beats on your body. Sometimes at low tide the shark travels across parts of the lagoon that are too shallow for the boat to follow, so everyone has to get out and drag it. There's always something. When the shark is following its normal routine, it moves from one milling spot to another.