Swimming With Fish!

It seemed like Balmorhea State Park was just another campsite in Texas with just another pool in it, but the Nothin’ But G’z were in for a big surprise. The pool that they were going to swim in was a natural pool fed by San Solomon Spring, keeping the water at temperatures between 720 to 760 F0 year round.1 It was 1 3/4-acre pool going down to depths of 25 feet, holding a total of 3½ million gallons.1 It is home to endangered species of fish, assorted invertebrates, and turtles. This wasn’t just another day at the pool, it was a unique experience. There were many things in the pool to occupy the SOAR students, from a low and high diving board, to getting a manicure and pedicure from the swarms of small fish in the pool, to going snorkeling to see the catfish and other creatures at the bottom of the pool.
The diving board was a big highlight of the pool visit. There were diving, splash, and most outrageous trick competitions galore. Ricky Diaz, A.C. Berry, Isaac Vaisberg, Ben Sacks, and Andrew Berry all participated in these competitions. The splash, trick, and diving competitions were all won by IV (Isaac Vaisberg, aka four)! This was a great triumph of IV’s. Another thing that was done on the high dive was a trick invented by Jeremy, the director for the south west part of SOAR. It was a trick in which you lie down on your belly and lean of the edge of the diving board and flip over the end and end up hanging onto the board, followed by letting go and dropping into the pool, this dive was therefore named The Jeremy Dive. This dive led to the creation of yet another dive, following the same beginning of leaning over the edge of the board, but instead of flipping upside down you grab the board with your legs so that you are hanging from your legs, head down, feet up to the sky. You then let your grip on the board go and fall head first into the water, often doing a belly flop in the process. Isaac Inglis, otherwise known as two, invented this dive.
Another thing that was done was to sit on the edge of the pool and leave your feet in to be nibbled on by the small fish that swarm at the edges of the pool. Often if you had feet that were filthy and stunk to high heavens, after leaving them in the pool for the fish to nibble on them for 30 minutes they would come out clean in both look and smell. The fish would bite and nibble off all the excess skin, dirt, and anything else. You could also leave your hands in to get the same treatment. Isaac has this to say about the experience, “It was really freaky and weird at first. You would put you feet in and within a minute the fish would be nibbling on them. The very first time they nibble, it is supper odd and creepy feeling and you just jerk your feet out of the water, but as you get use to the feeling, your reactions to the nibbles become less and less until it’s just the occasional foot twitch when one bites a patch of thin skin. But at the end it’s really cool and a practically once in a life time chance”
The other thing that was done was to dive down deep in the water to go look at the catfish and other creatures in the deeps of the pool. When doing this you could even touch a catfish on the back, even if only for a second. However, for some, this idea was a bit scary and freaky, Whitney Theriot was one of these people. For a while she even refused to go into the pool do to the knowledge that there were catfish in it, it was a new thing that we learned about Whitney, that she was scared of catfish. It seems irrational at first, but when you look at the facts about catfish, like how they could bite of a finger, and take into account the other fears of the group, like how Ben Sacks is afraid of small spiders, and Isaac Inglis is utterly creped out and scared by weevils, you can see Whitney’s fear as rational. Overall though, the experience was amazing and truly breath taking to do.
The Nothin’ But G’z visited this pool twice, one day after the other, and there were great times had by everyone in the group. This experience was quite unique and not one that many people get to experience. If other people in the world got to have this experience I’m sure it would severely change their outlook on both the prevention of Global Warming and the conservation of what little nature we have left, because when you get to swim with fish and nature in such a great environment, it seriously changes your view on the world and what humanity is doing to it with all it’s pollution and urban development. It is hoped that others will experience things like this in their lifetime to make them think about their actions and effects on the planet, I know that it made me think hard about what I should be doing for the Earth. – Written by Isaac John Inglis

Bibliography
1"TPWD: Balmorhea State Park." Texas Parks & Wildlife Department | Welcome. Web. 16 Feb. 2010. .