Breaching the Canopy

Morning light cut through the water column, illuminating the floating plastic kelp forest. I needed to test the upper boundary. Angling my pectoral fins upward, I gathered momentum from the gravel bed and drove straight toward the illuminated surface. Snout broke the tension with a sharp pop. Cool morning air struck my head while my lower flank remained buoyed in the current. I clamped my jaws around a green plastic leaf dangling from the tank rim, gave it a firm downward tug to gauge its root strength, and let the buoyant recoil glide me backward into the center channel.