Khhrrk had come up, feeling the ocean waves roiling high above. How fun! When they rose this high- A rare occurrence, for sure- He could actually come to the surface and ride on them, as he had seen some of the "surf"-ing people do before, though they usually stuck to waves that... Well... Weren't deep ocean swells. His size, however, required it.
Thirty feet of laughing half-mer sailed through the waves, doing his best to hold his long body still and straight so the waves would carry him eighty, ninety feet above the usual sea level. When he inevitably tumbled down, and the waves crashed down around him and swallowed him like he was nothing, he would laugh and shake the dizziness and bubbles from his head and rush for the next try.
One time, though, as he crashed down, a strange shape rushed to his view to meet him- And CONK! His face slammed right down into a floating something that had definitely not been there a little bit ago. Probably.
Genuinely stunned by the blow, red blood flowed from his nose, and he had to wait for stars to settle from his eyes before he could swim straight, and look for whatever that had been. A bit of swimming, and he found it bobbing in the trench of waves. He tugged it down to get a look at it without being smacked again, and was confused to see a... Hunk of wood? A really flat chunk, almost like a board, but... Broken.
It took him a bit to realize it was much like the wood row-boats or holding-crates he had seen here and there from sunken ships, and with the fact it wasn't yet waterlogged enough to have sunk- This was fresh. Had the storm given the ocean another toy? He should probably find it! There were always interesting things on those sunken ships!
He took a moment to scan the water for any more broken bits, and while he didn't find any here, he knew the ocean loved to scatter wreckage, and in a storm like this, it could be from very far away. So, after noting the current and the most likely direction it came from, the half-Mer headed off, clicking here and there to "see" in the storm-dark waters.
A mile off, he found a larger plank of wood. Probably the right direction! Half a mile, most of the rest of a box, with what seemed to be food (now soggy) in it. He'd drag it along with him, in case there were survivors.
As the ocean floor grew shallower, rising to meet the sky, he followed it, imagining a ship full of land-walkers would probably try to find safety on land. A massive gash in the reef sprayed ship-gut across the water, and the waves battered and splintered the contents on rocks and sharp coral. That was NOT something he wanted to get rushed against, for sure, and he'd have to leave the humanfood behind. Twisting so his belly lay against the sand before the reef, he watched the brightening and dimming of the waves above, counted their movement, and waited. And waited. When finally a large enough swell rushed its way over the reef, he took his chance, shooting through the jagged hole caused by what seemed to be a truly massive ship. He scraped his belly on the coral, but not enough to do more than bleed him, and once through, the reef took the brunt of the crashing waves.
Now, he could lift his head safely above the waves once more, and the slightly-stinging rain pittered off him when he did. There! Hoh wow, that was a REALLY big ship alright. He'd never seen one like it in his life! Excitement made his spots glow all the brighter as he headed towards it, ducking up and below the waves like a dolphin. Perhaps five-hundred feet away, he was able to spot a figure sitting by it. A survivor! Probably. He'd yet to see a dead person sit, at least. Hopefully they wouldn't be afraid of him, even if he was big. The Yoreiqi people around here knew he was friendly, if rare, but this person seemed to be from somewhere else, one of those Single Big Lands the topside Mer whispered about. Well... No way to know if he didn't approach. Four, three, two, one hundred feet away. The water here was shallow enough that a tall human would be able to breathe if they stood on tiptoe, and was starting to get difficult to swim easily in. He bobbed along the surface and waved at the person on the shore.