The Boy Behind the Curtain: Sea Change Summary & Analysis

Early in the morning, Winton and his father take the dinghy out to go fishing. Tim’s father is over 80 now and can’t pull himself into the little boat, so Winton helps him climb in. As Winton gets in after his father, a dolphin rests its head on the dinghy, trying to win an easy feed. Winton shoos the dolphin away. They take the dinghy out and anchor it to begin fishing.

Winton’s father asks him how many fish they’re allowed to catch. When Winton tells his father 30 is the limit, his father is a bit disgruntled; years ago, a limit wasn’t imposed. In an hours’ time, the men will have caught enough fish to feed two households. Tim’s familiar with the coastal landscape, having grown up next to the shore. Though his family wasn’t wealthy, he felt that they lived well, doing every day what families in other parts of the world would only do on their holidays, snorkeling and diving off the jetty. The bounty of the sea, like squid and crayfish, was a constant part of the family’s diet. The ocean served them generously.

Last summer, Winton took his granddaughter into the ocean for the first time and was thrilled by the opportunity to pass down his love for the coastal life. But he knows that his granddaughter’s relationship with the ocean is far from certain, because the complex underwater ecosystems are under great threat. Reefs are in peril and fish populations have been decimated. Winton grew up assuming that the bounty of the sea was endless, and it took him a long time to realize that it was more fragile than he could’ve imagined, and that he—a frequent fisher—was part of the problem.

Tim’s understanding of the threatened oceanic world was mild and distant until a catastrophic oil spill occurred near the Western Australia coast. The huge threat this posed to his own backyard spurred him to become an activist, first serving in the Australian Marine Conservation Society, then helping to lead the Save Ningaloo campaign. After Ningaloo, Tim’s found himself unable to disappear from public campaigning—he’s properly involved for the foreseeable future.

Though there’s some resistance to the building momentum of both governmental and non-governmental organizations to preserve and protect parts of Australia’s coastal wildlife, Winton thinks that in a few decades, those voices will be less common. Most of those who fish for recreation understand the need for protected habitats where fishing is prohibited. Winton knows it’s important that the fishing operations affected by preservation are bought out with dignity; this will be a necessary struggle for the government, as will disrupting the gas, oil, and coal industries that threaten these underwater ecosystems. The natural world Winton’s grandchildren and their children inherit will be based on the decisions of the current government.

When Winton begins to despair at the incremental changes humans make to protect the natural world, he thinks of a nuclear bomb crater where he once swam north of Ningaloo Reef. When he swam there, there was only sand and strange white worms, but now it’s a place of huge natural diversity. He marvels at the force necessary to transform a place from a bomb site to a natural wonder. It brings him hope for the changes that might be on the horizon.