My Story

The visit to the Samudrika Naval Marine Museum was an afterthought and I am glad we made it (just a few hours before our flight took off from Port Blair)

As you enter the museum, you get to see this skeleton of the Blue Whale which was recovered from Kamorta Island.

It possibly beached due to the bio magnetic navigational syndrome which occurs at places where the geomagnetic contours cross the coast at right angle.

It is said that this mighty mammal can grow so large that eight elephants can easily stand in a row on its back. The Blue Whale can stay under water for about 20 minutes between inhalations. The signature water spout of the whale is the exhaled air by the animal and can reach as high as nine meters. (reminded me of the story of Ahab and Moby Dick)

These trees with the Noni fruit was a part of the exhibit. The plant originated in the islands around Pacific ocean. 

Thousands of years ago, sea going people journeyed in outrigger canoes. Space in the canoes was precious, so they brought only what they required to survive. Noni was a prized cargo in these canoes because of its healthful properties.
PS: See the comment below by Mantis Hugo regarding this fruit. Also read his blog regarding the benefits of the fruit. 

The aquarium gives an insight into the marine life underwater. This stone fish sits still with no movement at all. The only sign of life is the slight movement of the gill which can be seen in the video.

The exhibits of corals and shells could be a delight for marine biologists. I liked the shape of this Mango shell. The outer periphery also looks like the path of an involute.

What really caught my eye was a write up along with these three turtle shells. The title was “My Story” It goes like this: I am the centre turtle on display and flanking me on either side is my family. We traveled extensively all around the Indian Ocean from east coast of African continent, including the seas surrounding Madagascar to all along the coast of Asia, the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, along the entire coast of the Indian subcontinent, across the entire Indonesian Archipelago and the North-Western coast of Australia.

Our lifestyle was relaxed and we found abundant food in the coral reefs of the Indian Ocean. However because of human fishing practices, we were always under threat and had to be very careful of illegal poachers. We were aware that certain waters were dangerous, especially in China and Japan, people valued our flesh as delicacy and in other places we were hunted for our shells.

We were on our way from Philippines to our nesting site in these islands when we fell prey to one such greedy poacher.

At the time of my death I was about 85 kg and my wife was about 50 kg and our lovely child was just stepping into adulthood and was about 30 kg.

(The above turtles were recovered from a foreign fishing trawler engaged in illegal poaching by a Naval ship of the Andaman and Nicobar Command)