The best part about working at the Aquarium, though, is seeing the inner workings of the place. I've watched archer fish get fed, pet an anesthetized sea otter, watched the new white shark be put in its tank, helped move tuna in slings from the Tunabago to their new tank, saw the inner workings of the plumbing system (which is way more interesting than it sounds), danced with an albatross, released newly-caught animals into our exhibit, and more. It's been a pretty busy summer.
Top of the list, of course, was getting to dive in the Kelp Forest Tank. Realize that this has been a lifelong dream since I first saw the feeding show as a little 4-year-old. So what does it look like inside the fishbowl?
Yeah, just about what you'd expect. You can see everyone outside with not a whole lot of distortion. That's not to say there aren't any optical illusions, though.
This shows you just how thick the acrylic windows are. Don't want that water going anywhere it's not supposed to...
The only part that's truly different (aside from being walled in, of course) is the concentration of fish. Sure you see fish out in the real world, but not nearly this many all in one place. This is a rockfish sleeping on a window pane, about 15 feet off the bottom.
Labor Day is the last day of the program, after which we have a few days of cleanup. Then I have two days of getting ready and it's time to go back to being a small fish in yet another big pond.
