Aquarium of the Pacific

We recently visited the the flora and fauna of the Pacific Ocean from Australia to the icy Polar regions when we checked out the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California.  The parking lot was full of school buses, so it is obviously a popular field trip destination.

Inside were halls representing different areas of the Pacific.   Young people were standing in some areas of the halls showing off specifics of some of the various sea creatures.  We asked them if they were paid employees or volunteers.  They said they were students from the Marine Science Academy in Long Beach who volunteer several hours each week at the aquarium.  We had to laugh at one of the stations though.  It was near the seals.  The students there had plastic bags of blubber so kids could squeeze the bags to feel what blubber is like without actually touching the blubber.  We mentioned that blubber can be used to make Eskimo ice cream, but that sometimes it is made with Crisco when blubber is not available.  One of the students then whispered to me that their blubber was also really Crisco.

Seahorses

Penguins

Ray

I think this one was a dragon fish.

Bat Ray and halibut

Some of the tanks were as pretty as any flower garden.

This is a cutaway showing a baby shark developing from a shark egg.

Seahorses

Jellyfish

There was a tank where visitors could carefully touch some of the sealife.

This one looked like it was yelling about something.

It was a fun place to visit while we waited for our next adventure.