Took a break from studying today (we'll just pretend I actually HAD been studying, OK?) to go to the aquarium. My friend Amy was back in town to do some training with JASON, and she and her fellow trainee Pat had the weekend free. I hopped the bus to the Quarter (no sprained ankles this time), met up with the ladies, and we headed off. We ran into Hector (the tech in Barney's lab) as he was also on his way to the aquarium for his weekly volunteer session, so I got to introduce Amy to one of my new science-geeky pals down here.
I've heard as aquaria go, this one is not that remarkable. I, however, enjoyed it immensely. The Gulf of Mexico exhibit was one of my favorite stops where I quizzed myself on how many of those blasted fish I could remember from the lab practical. Amazing how different they look alive versus preserved for thirty or forty years!
Favorite exhibit number one was the seahorses. Three tanks had hundreds of tiny babies, and one bigger tank had several hugely "pregnant" males. Poor guys looked miserable. Amy and I marveled at what evolutionary processes could POSSIBLY have driven the development of seahorse shape, then we saw the seadragons. Also a seahorse, these guys have multiple protrusions all over their bodies which mimic the vegetation in which they hide. Obvious advantage, but the energetic cost to maintain! It boggles the mind . . . . OK, maybe just mine, but I'm a nerd like that.
Favorite exhibit number two was the jellies. I LOVE jellyfish and comb jellies. So delicate, so beautiful, so relaxing to watch, so dangerous. Reba, though, was not impressed. She liked the jacks and sharks and rays and pretty much everything NOT a jellyfish -- they move more quickly and apparently are much more entertaining doggie TV.
Speaking of rays . . . saw an incredible one. Called simply an orange-spotted ray, it is all-over pure, unadulterated black (total absence of color black) with orange spots. The contrast was astoundingly beautiful, and it looked as soft as velvet though I KNOW it was rough as sandpaper.
Man, I love Nature.
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