With the winter thaw approaching (not including that monster of a Monday snowstorm I drove through to work) there have been good times approaching. And even more in the forecast... (like my 25th birthday!)
First off, for my anniversary gift from Maureen (4 years, wow) she got me a backstage ticket to Adventure Aquarium Adventure (redundant, but fun) to feed the sharks in the shark realm exhibit. Score! So, I went behind the scenes. Saw where the hippos lived, and then got a quick briefing on the sharks, the tanks, the pole-feeding apparatus and just the mechanics of doing it. I didn't really need the science lecture, since I've been there and done that, but skipping that gave me more time to ask questions about the habitat personnel. Breeding of Sand Tiger sharks? Maybe in the future.. Cool! So, with the briefing done I moved onto prepping the food for the Brown Sharks (Sandbar?), Sand Tigers, Green Sawfish and Nurse sharks; which entail taking some nice mackerel and placing some multi-vitamins behind their operculums (gill flaps) for the sharks. One a week they get a vitamin and they are feed on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Once that was taken care of and my hands were thoroughly covered in fish blood and oil, we moved onto the catwalk to feed the SHARKS!
I then was given a harness and latched in (no need for me to feed the sharks more and my idea of riding them like a bucking bronco did not go over well) and then shown the two-pronged PVC pole to feed with. Basically you put the two fish, eyes first into the prongs and jam them till they can't go any further. Then lean it over the water, tail side up (don't want to drop the food too prematurely for fear of fighting and all) dip the pole in the water, wait for a hungry shark to swim up, line up the food with the front, wait for a strike and WHAM! Feeding sharks! Also, to make sure that you let pole have some give and don't fight the shark, reload and back again. (There was a particularly grumpy Sand Tiger who decided to take food and pole for a ride, at which point I handed that issue off to the staff) Once I fed most of the sharks, the staff fed the sawfish and nurse sharks. Once I was unlatched, I checked out some the behind the scenes things, washed up and took stock in the large wet spot on my pants from saltwater, fish juices and felt good.
I met up with Maureen, we picked up my photo here:
And also some other photos as well:
An awesome day at the aquarium, if I do say so.
2 comments:
John this is your sister and you spelled something wrong. When you said they are feed, it's suppose to be fed. BYE!
HAHA Good catch, little grammarian!
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