There were three beluga whales there, and while the Aquarium talks about conservation and preservation, I still wondered if these animals would prefer to be out of the tank and in the wild. This one is swimming upside down. The whales were much whiter than I would have expected.
We also saw a big sea turtle, swimming with small sharks and manta rays. It was fun to see them, but I wondered if they also yearned to swim freely.
As far as I know, jellyfish aren't sentient, so maybe they didn't care that they were in this small tank. It was back-lit in a way that made them look really great in pictures.
These guys had a really big tank with real coral and regular feeding times. I'm sure they'd rather be in this tank than a small tank in someone's house, but they'd rather be on a real reef than here.
The Aquarium staff, programming and advertising are really good at forwarding an agenda of conservation and behavioural change that will benefit the world's oceans and sea life. And there are probably hundreds of people who wouldn't have thought about ocean conservation if they didn't come to the Aquarium, so maybe it's OK to sacrifice a few soulless sea creatures for the betterment of many.
Those thoughts aside, Carmella and I had a really great time. One of the highlights was the BC section, where they showed what kind of sea life is living in select regions of our province. I also enjoyed watching the dolphin show from the underwater viewing section. The dolphins would swim, jump up and out of the water, and be out of the water for a really long time. Then they'd suddenly re-appear and swim around a bit under water, and then do another trick.
The dolphins in the show were netted dolphins from fishing boats that probably wouldn't survive in the wild again, so they live in the tanks at the Aquarium. Maybe it's not such a bad life. They don't have to hunt for food, and they just get to swim around all day and don't have to worry about orca whales chasing them.
It was a fun day with Carmella, and I got some fun pictures of the sea creatures. The day made me want to journey to other spots in the province and experience the ocean and the sea life there. There is so much to learn about the different species and habitats, and it'd be fun to travel around checking it all out.
Sunday is almost over, and I'm not ready for the weekend to end. But I'm really tired, so I might as well go to sleep.
