Captain Fly and the Plastic Current

Captain Fly and the Plastic Current (Book Two, ages 5-10)

Short summary

This time the Guardians leave the tournament grounds behind and travel to Big Z's home waters, the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia. Big Z, who learned to free-dive from his Uncle Rashid before he could ride a bike, becomes the teacher, guiding the crew over a reef with "more colors than you've got crayons."

Then Big Z stops kicking. Part of the reef is gray and tangled, choked with fishing line, a plastic bottle and strips of plastic wrapped so tight the coral can't grow. Captain Fly finds a label that isn't even in Arabic, which means the trash drifted from far away. He shows the kids how ocean currents carry trash around the world, and David discovers microplastic: plastic that never really goes away, just breaks into smaller pieces that little fish eat, and then bigger fish eat them. When a sea turtle swims toward a floating bag that looks just like a jellyfish, Big Z dives and grabs it just in time. Uncle Rashid explains that the trash comes from ships, beaches, and even a river 300 kilometers away, and Kurtis maps it all in his logbook.

The crew can't clean the whole ocean, but they can save this reef. Big Z calls his club, the Saudi Arabia Fishing Club, and eight more divers join in. They gently free the coral, fill six bags with trash, and log every piece, because "numbers get people to listen." By evening the coral can breathe again and fish are already returning. The club promises to check the reef every month and send Kurtis the count. Before parting, the Guardians say the Pledge with a new line: "I will remember: what I throw away doesn't really go away."

Back-cover blurb

Big Z takes the Guardians diving in his home waters, the Red Sea. When they find a coral reef tangled in plastic that drifted from far away, the crew follows the currents to find out where it came from, then gets to work setting the reef free. Because one reef isn't the whole ocean. But it's not nothing, either.

What kids learn: how ocean currents carry trash around the world, what microplastics are and how they move up the food chain, why sea turtles mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, how to treat coral as a living thing, and why counting and recording data helps protect the ocean. The big idea is that small actions in one place still matter: "One reef isn't the whole ocean. But it's not nothing, either."