One
and half hour drive from San Jose takes you to Monterey Bay Aquarium.
I
wish I could have spent the whole day at the Aquarium. I have missed out on
some of the exhibits and in some cases, just had a glimpse.
What
a place and what a treat for the eyes. Never ever thought that such marine life
existed on planet earth. The two things that really captures you are the
variety of Sea Horses and Jelly Fish.
I
have to confess that I could not capture all of them with my camera as I was
just staring at these wonders of nature.
Sea
Horse is the only family in the animal kingdom in which the males get pregnant!
Sea
Horses don’t have stomach. Food passes through them quickly. So they have to
eat and eat and eat.
Leafy
sea dragon: This one may look like a twig with some leaves but it’s a relative
of the sea horse.
These
rare and beautiful members of the seahorse family are found in the waters of
southern and western Australia. Like the
seahorse, the male sea dragon carries the eggs (on a brood patch located on the
tail instead of a stomach pouch) These “leafies” can grow up to 13 inch long.
Leafy Sea Dragon
Weedy
Sea Dragon: They are slightly darker when compared to the “leafies” and has
lesser leaf like appendages. Both Weedy
and Leafy are threatened by habitat destruction, and potentially by people
buying them for their home aquariums.
Weedy Sea Dragon
Potbelly
Seahorse: In this case the bigger the pot belly the better to attract the
females, so courting males pump their pouches full of water.
These
Dragon Pipefish resemble skinny seahorse stretched out straight.
Dragon Pipefish
The Leopard shark being docile towards people,
swam close, allowing them to caress its back. They lack the swim bladders that
other fish use to fine tune their buoyancy. So they are always about a foot
above sea floor. If they don’t swim they sink !
Leopard shark
The
bat ray swims gracefully by flapping their batlike wings (which are nothing but
their pectoral fins) They have strong teeth that can crush the strongest clam
shells.
The
exhibition of the seahorses closed on Sept 2nd so we were lucky to
get to see them just a week before its closure.
The
Pacific Sardines are slightly different from the ones seen in the Indian Ocean.
It is nice to see the school of sardines swim against the light from the top.
Pacific Sardines
The
upside down Jellies. They are 95% water, and don’t have bones, brains, blood,
teeth or fins.
Upside down Jellies
The
variety of the Jelly fish was mind boggling. Flower Hat Jellies, Cross Jellies, Elegant
Jellies, Spotted Jellies, Blubber Jelly,
Moon Jelly . . . . . the list is endless.
It
was a sight to see the fish being fed in the large glass enclosure. The
ferocious looking fish were so docile and friendly with the feeder inside.
The
otters enclosure was packed with visitors who were waiting to see them being
fed. Sea Otters have the world’s densest fur – up to a million hair per square
inch. (human head has about 100,000 hair
on the whole head)
Otters
Birds
that are abandoned or injured are also brought here and taken care of.
The
Long-billed curlew has a long curved beak (which cannot be seen here).
They
are the largest shorebirds in Northern America.
Like Anne Stevenson said "This is as close as we can get to another world"
Managed
to capture their movements, added some appropriate music and prepared a 11 minute
video.
This
once again confirms the fact that a good picture (or a video) depends not on
the camera or the photographer, but on that magician namely “the light”
The
lighting in each of the enclosures was so good that it was a photographer’s
delight.
Had
to discard a lot of footage to keep the video short.
By
the way this video will fall flat if watched with the volume low or on mute. So
turn up that volume and enjoy.
