7th July - Vancouver Aquarium

The other night I was talking to Brendan's girl friend Leslie, an environmental scientist, and I mentioned I was going to the Aquarium. She was keen to come with me. I slept in and called up Leslie, about an hour after I said I would call. Got ready and walked down to meet her. After a quick coffee, we headed to the Vancouver Aquarium, reportedly to be really good.

The aquarium is in Stanley Park, a lovely spot. On arrival there is a big whale statue out the front symbolising what is in the sea only a few hundred metres away. I'm keen on aquariums so I bought a season pass which is the cost of two trips so for me it was a bargain.

I got my "member" pack and then we checked it out. First up were the sea fishes from the local waters. It was amazing to see this large halibut, 1m long, swimming on the surface and spurting water out of it's mouth. A halibut looks like a giant flounder and my experience eating it was mediocre. There were sea running salmon and all sorts.

The aquarium is more than fish. The "Amazon" area was "amazing". Giant Pacus (which reminded me of Nobby the Pacu in the pet shop in Kalgoorlie), massive cat fish and the long mean looking fish which I didn't catch the name of. Outside there is a butterfly sanctuary with scarlet ibis and a sloth (the sloth was elusive and we didn't spot him). Back inside we saw more sea fish and then found the otters, one that was playing with a pipe but it appears more like his best mate.

The beluga whales are a highlight of the aquarium. We watched the show and they were trained very well. They are a cold water species and to see them in the wild you need to go to Churchill in Manitoba. These whales could verbalise on command, dive, roll, wobble their blubber on their heads and body and splash unsuspecting people. The wierdest part was this Aussie trainer put his hand in the whales mouth and rubbed the whales tongue. Now I don't think I would be doing that in a hurry. These whales have teeth!!

The otters were much bigger than the ones I have seen elsewhere and they were really cool. They had blonde whiskers and were quite playful, chasing each other around. The otters get a lot of donations which are now spread to further understand other species within the aquarium.

The underwater viewing area was good. The belugas like massive lumps of blubber swimming past.

So for me, the aquarium was well worth and I can't wait to go back and share it with Tan.