Check out this view, will ya? Can you imagine, swimming around the coral and fauna, wouldn't that be somethin...
Let's say you swim around the coral and emerge from the shadows to see this:
That's the giant whale shark, the largest fish in the sea. They are actually harmless to humans, and prefer to swim away from scuba bubbles when they encounter divers. These picture were taken at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta this past Sunday. There were four sharks in the tank, purchased from Taiwan where they were to be slaughtered for food. The sharks traveled via UPS on a B-747 freighter bound for Atlanta. It still amazes me they can still get that type of weight up in the air.
This one was approximately 18 ft long; my pictures really do not show justice to the size. They reach a good 45 ft in length and yet they only use their 3,000 teeth as sieves or filters. Water enters through their gills, passes through "gill rakers" and any food that is caught in the rakers is then swallowed. With a diet composed mainly of plankton, krill and macro-algae, it's amazing they can reach this size at all. I also found it interesting that they can give birth to 300 babies at a time. Three HUNDRED!
I've always had mixed feelings about aquariums. Where they are used primarily for research and care, such as Mote Marine and Clearwater Marine in Florida, I think they serve good purpose. But where the object is to showcase the typical tourist style Dolphin shows, I'm left disgusted by lack of care and size of tanks allotted to these wild animals.
I admit I wasn't really expecting to be impressed by the Georgia Aquarium, despite it's massive size. That's only because we have been to so many aquariums in Florida, such as Mote Marine in Sarasota, which is a major research institute, the Florida Aquarium in Tampa, and Clearwater Marine, where Sam used to participate in the marine biology programs every summer. In fact, as walked through the first exhibits, it looked like what we had seen already.
Georgia Aquarium was so packed with people that if you are as used to these types of aquariums as we were, I would seriously consider waiting until the crowds have let up some, or try to go on a weekday when there are fewer people. Check out the number of people jammed into this exhibit here. You'll have people in wheelchairs and kids riding on their dad's shoulders, which means elbows in your face from time to time.
However, I thought it was impressively designed and decorated, with exhibits where you can touch the the fish, a children's area where they can climb through tubes and slides and the otters, which were a lot of fun to watch. But it wasn't really any different than we had seen in Florida... just bigger.
The best part is the giant viewing room, where you can sit down and just watch the fish swim by.
The signs were uh, very informative:
Man, you just don't mess with nature! LOL!
Also very cool were the Beluga Whales, which I had never seen before.
If you go, DEFINITELY consider buying your tickets online so that you can reserve a time to enter the building. The lines for the walkup tickets are very long, and out in the hot sun. You'll need to download adobe acrobat to print up the tickets, as they are bar coded. I found it a waste of ink, because they put a big whale shark on the page that needs to be printed. What's the point of wasting all that ink on a ticket!
All in all, a great day, and thanks to Bernie Marcus of the Home Depot for his $200 million, money well spent in this case.
Tomorrow: Hiking, Blairsville, Georgia.
Wow...thanks so much for sharing these pictures...I've no plans to go anywhere on vacation this summer so it helps me to look at everyone else's pics...I love the aquariums and you made really good pictures of it all!!
:-D
Posted by: tammy Ky Gal | July 23, 2006 at 01:18 PM
Why are all those people trying to call the whale on their phones? Don't they know whales prefer text messaging?
Loved the pics ... if there are no crowds around, bring in a well-designed aquarium can be such a serene, restful experience ...
Posted by: Nils | July 23, 2006 at 02:32 PM
I wanted to go there the first time I read about it, and you have just renewed that interest. Thanks for all the good pics!
Posted by: kenju | July 23, 2006 at 02:48 PM
Terrific, Laura. Thanks a whole bunch. Great pix, you clever little thing.
Posted by: Old Horsetail Snake | July 23, 2006 at 07:24 PM
Great photos. I love aquariums, too, but I don't think they have one near me now. Oh well, I'll settle for the mountains. ;)
Posted by: FTS | July 23, 2006 at 11:43 PM
WOW... what an impressive display of pictures! It makes me want to visit the aquarium, on a weekday of course. You have really outdone yourself with all these pictures.
I will probably wait to go to the aquarium once school has started back and on a weekday.
Posted by: Sandy of AIP | July 24, 2006 at 10:00 AM
Beautiful shots and great triptips. AAA could use you!
I love aquariums and agree with you on the dolphin show types...they just don't feel right anymore.
Pretty incredible that they have whale sharks in captivity. I had no idea that they were possible to keep in captivity.
Posted by: FloridaCracker | July 24, 2006 at 10:34 AM
great shots. I like most aquariums although I was never to crazy about seeing bottlenosed porpoises and whales in captivity..but then again..for every porpoise in captivity that is just one that will not be chasing the fish away from my boat..
Posted by: GUYK | July 24, 2006 at 06:00 PM
I love aquariums. Being in a land-locked area, we don't get to see this kind of wildlife too often. For a brief period in high school, I wanted to be a marine biologist. But I was scared of diving more than 10 feet! And being surrounded by that much water. If only the fish weren't so deep!
Posted by: InterstellarLass | July 25, 2006 at 12:39 AM
Laura, I came over here from Nils' blog. I love the aquarium pics -- The circus and I went to the Tampa Aquarium a year or two ago, and were impressed with it. It wasn't too crowded and all the littler kids were trying to "Find Nemo". :)
Posted by: CircusKelli | July 25, 2006 at 03:23 PM
Hi Kelli, Welcome! I haven't been to the aquarium in Tampa in a few years. They were near bankruptcy for awhile and I think they're still trying to find ways to keep it afloat financially.
(Oh Gawd, I love that pun). Glad you liked these pictures, I'll bet your kids will really like the Atlanta aquarium as well. If you get a chance to see it through your kids eyes, it'll be a real trip. ;)
Lass, yeah.. those fish are a real pain about deep sea diving, LOL ;) Come to Fla and we'll take you out to some of the aquariums here. :)
GuyK makes a point some of you might not know about! Dolphin are known to cruise behind the fishing boats and steal the bait off their rods. Beautiful animals, but that's really frusturating for the fisherman.
FC, Their captivity has raised some controversy among the enviromental groups who feel they can't survive long in captivity. I was glad to hear the staff at Mote Marine is working along with the Georgia crew. That should help ensure their health over the long run. It will be interesting to see how this works out. The whales were destined for slaughter in Taiwan, so I guess it's a worthwhile risk... at least in my opinion.
FTS, you never know. The Denver aquarium just might be the next possiblity. Although it begs the question.. do they really need one? I think not.
Sandy, I think you'll love it. You'll have a field day with that camera of yours! ;)
Hoss, LOL, thanks you. you always crack me up!
Kenju, thanks. I'd wait till after school starts again, however. The crowds were something else.
Nils, they were voting, of course. Seacrest was stuck in the tank and was begging to be let out....
Tammy, thank you!!
Posted by: Laura | July 25, 2006 at 09:56 PM