Saturday, February 9, 2013

Aquarium Spotlight: Georgia Aquarium

In 2006, my family and I visited what would soon become my most favorite aquarium I have ever been to: the Georgia Aquarium!  It was fantastic, and they had a ton of really cool animals that I had never seen before!  So join us for this Aquarium Spotlight on the Georgia Aquarium, with a bunch of pictures that my mother took while we were there!  Let's start off with the penguins.  The Georgia Aquarium has a colony of adorable African penguins there, sure to be a favorite on your trip!
Another animal that is sure to be a favorite is the whale shark.  The largest shark and, for that matter, largest fish, still alive today, the whale shark behaves more like a whale than a shark, being a filter-feeder, consuming copious quantities of krill.  (Like that alliteration back there?)
Now, the photo below I originally thought was a whale shark, but it looks like its tail might move up and down like that of a whale, dolphin, or porpoise as opposed to side-to-side like that of a whale shark, so I'm not really sure what the heck that is!
The four whale sharks are all in an enormous tank with a ton of other animals, such as large schools of fish, stingrays, and guitarfish, amongst others.  Something that seems to be pretty standard in aquariums these days is the circular walkway thing (pictured below), but, in my opinion, that never gets old!
 
 A stingray
A guitarfish (left) and a stingray (right)
Another fast-favorite will undoubtedly be the beluga, one of my favorite animals of all time!
 
Another smaller and more unassuming creature that is just as interesting as the African penguin, whale shark, or beluga is the leafy sea dragon, THE SUBJECT OF A PREVIOUS ANIMAL SPOTLIGHT
 
Another really cool animal was the giant Japanese spider crab!  Inhabiting the seafloor of the Pacific Ocean near Japan between 150 and 1000 feet below the surface of the ocean, the giant Japanese spider crab has evolved to be able to cope with the extreme cold and lack of light experienced so far down in the ocean.
A sea turtle swimming around.
 
 
Greatly interactive, the Georgia Aquarium also has a number of touch tanks for a hands-on experience!
 
Finally, some jellyfish!

2 comments:

  1. Going to aquariums feels like you're underwater together with the other marine animals. I think, penguins are just the cutest, don't you? Walking through the aquarium tunnel is very amusing and entertaining! You can see a lot of different and unusual and creatures every time you go to the aquariums.

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  2. Penguins are pretty fantastic! We definitely talk about them a lot on this blog! You are right, no trip to an aquarium is ever the same as the next!

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