Q: In the documentary Aware, you say that you were studying fish on the coral reef in Australia, and something happened one day that made you change direction.

Q: In the documentary Aware, you say that you were studying fish on the coral reef in Australia, and something happened one day that made you change direction. Can you explain what that was? A: My book “Thus Spoke the Plant” starts with that episode because that moment changed everything. I went through the entire training: I was a Marine biologist, I received a post-graduate Fellowship after my Ph. D. and I was in the field doing my research on the Great Barrier Reef with this fish (Ambon Damselfish) that I had worked with for years. I was doing a long experiment for three or four months, so I was in the water every day and these wild animals would come and sit in my hand – I could close my hand around them because they knew who I was. Then, on the last day of the experiment, I knew I had to finish with the capture of the fish, to pull them apart and take the organs, because that is what we have to do as scientists. So in the morning, I felt like I needed to go and say goodbye. I went in the water carrying nothing, no bags, no knives, except I had that thought, “This afternoon when I come back, I have to kill you all because it’s part of my science.” And I took it for granted that nobody could know what was in my head, but nobody came out. The fish knew exactly what I was going to do, and with their behavior, they told me, “Not only do we know, but this is not good news for us, you’re betraying our relationship of trust, and now we know that you’re not trustworthy anymore.”