“They’re pushing them out,” Tess said one dawn, holding up a trap with only two undersized crabs inside. Her voice was flat with disbelief. “The whole sea bottom’s gone nervous.” Elias nodded, because he had felt it too, even before the nets proved it.
He tried farther north and burned extra fuel he could not spare. He tried before sunrise, after sunset, near the eelgrass, beyond the bell buoy. Each trip returned lighter than the last. The sea had stopped speaking in a language he understood.