Effobe

“Fish are friends, NOT food” (Part 1)

With all the war, pollution, and corruption going on in our world, sometimes we forget to stop and smell the roses. Amid a busy school schedule, I found time to visit the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, CA. I’ve always been interested in aquatic organisms (having 2 myself), and this experience was simply educating and deeply fascinating. It really reminded me of the little things in our world that serve a greater purpose than we think. I highly encourage everyone to go support your local aquariums – they’re here to educate tomorrow’s generation. THEY’VE GOT THEIR OWN IPHONE APP TOO! Always a plus.

As mentioned, I learned A LOT from this visit. Besides information on sea nettles, bonnethad sharks, and clown triggerfish, I realized that I NEED A NEW CAMERA.

A lot of these underwater hooligans were really hard to photograph because of their constant moving. I did get lucky a few times. So I guess you could say these are the best of the worst (photos haha)!

The Aquarium of the Pacific sits along the water in Long Beach, CA. Architecturally, its very diverse. You’ll see more of this later.

Adolescent sea nettles

Moon jelly!

These are adult West Coast sea nettles. Why are they swimming downward and appear to be upside down? For them, perhaps upside down is right side up!

You can’t tell that this octopus is moving, but when I saw him, I instantly thought “Rolling in the Deep” (word to Adele!)

Something I really enjoyed about each exhibit was that each one was set up to both accurately simulate the organisms’ habitat and to be aesthetically amazing. Or maybe because the real life habitats out there in the world are naturally breathtaking. You’ll see what I mean in the coming pictures.

What a mean, spineless invertebrate.

Now I know why they’re mean looking, they be fighting all the time!

The Shark Lagoon! Pretty cool if you ask me. Here’s an exhibit where you can touch the sharks and rays. I never touched them though. Call me a coward? Think about this: If outdoorsman Steve Irwin (RIP) was wrestling crocodiles for years and years, and then gets killed by a stingray, what makes you think I’VE got a chance? Yeah, that’s what I thought!

Wait, are these really sharks? I thought they’d be bigger, like the ones seen in “Jaws” and on TV! SIKE, enter the various species of sharks. They’re tight too, I assure you!

Did you know that the stinger on a ray is not at the end of its tail, but at the base of its tail? The aquarium staff clips these stingers from time to time and say that its painless. I guess its like when we cut our fingernails.

What is that fish pulling? That’s a shark egg. I learned that these sharks are extremely happy, and the staff have to remove quite a number of eggs from this exhibit on the daily.

So there are tiny fish in the pool too? Why aren’t they eaten? That puzzles me as well. I do know that the staff feed them more than 3 times a day.

Below these pools are a more grand exhibit of those bigger sharks you’ve been waiting for. Sand sharks, black and white reef sharks, you know, those ones you wouldn’t want to swim with…