1 post tagged “miami seaquarium”
sooooo, remember when i dropped that squid jar last week? i did it again. made it all the way through four full days in the collections without incident, and then, wouldn't you know it? the very last jar i was handling - i swept it off the table in a spectacular slow-motion arc of impending entropy. and i have good taste in well-aged, alcohol-infused calamari, let me tell you. this one was collected in 1922. fortunately, although the jar shattered everywhere, the specimen was not damaged, and i don't think too many glass shards disappeared under the shelving.
on to more positive things. because there is no such thing as too much marine stuff, as soon as i finished working today i toddled over to the miami seaquarium. i suppose i should have realized, being in florida and all, that it would be less aquarium-like and more theme-park-like - fewer display tanks and more of, well, this:
not that i'm complaining - i like to see big marine mammals as much as anyone else, even if (embarassingly) they do put a lump in my throat. seriously, i don't know whether it's imagining their life in captivity, or just being in their presence, but there you go. true confessions of a bleeding-heart squid-hugger. luckily i am more composed around other large marine mammals, like these 15-18', 7000lb manatees. still incredible and humbling, but in a slow and majestic, algae-growing-in-the-armpits kind of way.
and let's not forget the reptiles and their close avian relatives. one of these may not be as exotic as the others, but at least i finally got a decent shot of a curly-tail!
and finally, ok, some more mammals. these guys were showing off on purpose, so i guess they get to make an appearance here.
