On our previous visits we had expeditions to the Woodland Park Zoo but the focus has now changed to the Seattle Aquarium. They have fish which our grandson has always been crazy over, and a lot more in the way of indoor activities when the weather is less than pleasant.
As one of the centerpeices, a return to the petting pond featuring the Sea Cucumber and Starfish is manditory. The Octopus is much more difficult to photograph with the tank in two parts and a crossover tube and the lighting is rather dim around curved glass. I tried for a closeup here but I have the colors off since she is more reddish muddy brown like the one at the Dauphin Island Esturarium, Alabama and the one I got on the last visit.
The youngsters here found their own octopus sculpture which is more touchable than the real thing. The Aquarium has several rooms formed of display tanks. The Lion Fish is an invasive species which is causing a lot of problems especially in the Gulf area. Corals shelter several small fish.
The kids continue to find ways to burn off excess energy. I found a Sea Anemone and a Puffer Fish which are covered in sharp spines and can swell to almost a round ball when threatened.
I'll close here and we will be returning in the future to see more especially the sunken tank looking into Puget Sound and the outdoor displays.
The kids had a membership at the Seattle Aquarium and Sam was very intrigued with Fish
so on a blustery day this was a great place to stay mostly inside warm and dry.
As I mentioned in the Dauphin Island Estuarium page circulating Jellyfish
with color lights make a very nice display. This one has a big tube out in the middle of the floor so I needed to do a little creative editing to remove the pepole watching the other side
Another exhibit that is fun to watch and difficult to photograph is the Octopus
enclosure wrapped around a pillar with an overhead tube lending to another section. Octopi are smart and the exhibit is now sealed since one was caught reaching over the edge at night and turning on the faucet for fun.
I first found these little guys at Skidaway Island in a green variety with a little different shape. I think they are a type of seahorse relative but I have not been able to get an ID yet.
The spiny guy below is a Lionfish
, an invasive native from the Indo-Pacific region with poison spines that out competes many native fish and is becoming an Atlantic problem.
The red spiny guy is a sea Cucumber
and a whole Shrimp
is testing the limits of the aquarium. We rarely buy more than the tails much like lobster tails.
This is definitely not a moray eel but shows a lot of the same type of behavior. Normally it hides between the rocks and only comes out to look around. I did not see anything it could be chasing to come fully out like the last picture.
The Starfish
and Sea Anemone
are stuck here to the side of the aquarium so you can see the underbody parts. They had several starfish in the petting tank battling over a feeding of small mussels with all the action and excitement of watching paint dry. They are slow but fight off the other starfish to pull the shell open and feed.
At first I thought the eel like character was a lamprey but it has the pectoral fins the lamprey do not. Seems somewhat unusual to find him totally exposed like this. In the outside aquarium the Harbor Seal
was peaking out from under a screen that is needed to protect them from the sun.