112 ALBACORA 



know enough to stay clear of some of their natural 

 enemies." 



Studying the Humboldt Current is not part of Luis' 

 area of specialization. It more properly falls into the 

 category of oceanography, which is Dr. Walton Smith's 

 department at the University of Miami. The director of 

 the Marine Laboratory there, he has written several 

 books on the Humboldt Current. It was through Dr. 

 Smith that we became familiar with the work that is 

 being done in allied fields, and with the studies of a 

 man named Gerald Posner, another expert on the Hum- 

 boldt. I had always believed that the Humboldt was 

 cool principally because it flowed up from Antarctica, 

 but this theory now appears to be out of date. 



"Oceanographers think that something else explains 

 the coolness all year round," Dr. Smith has said. "The 

 steady winds actually turn the water over. The winds 

 blow the surface water away from the coast, and cold 

 water rises from as much as 1,000 feet below sea level 

 to take its place. The water is low in oxygen but high 

 in nutrients — and nutrients are what attract the fish." 



No scientist knows all there is to know about the Hum- 

 boldt. The red tide that killed so many fish a year ago 

 still defies explanation. So does a cheerfully named but 

 terrible phenomenon called El Nino. The word nino 

 means baby in Spanish, but to the people who live 

 around Iquique, it refers specifically to a catastrophe 

 that strikes every seven years. It takes place shortly 



