Checking in on Chester

 I had intended for this to be a follow-up, but we never previously covered Kathryn's work with the false killer whale calf "Chester" who was taken in by the Marine Mammal Rescue last summer (2014). Kathyrn spent many shifts monitoring and tending to him when he was first brought in but in time he outgrew the tanks available and was moved to Vancouver Aquarium.

 

Chester is currently sharing the dolphin tank with Helen, the last of their wounded Pacific White Sided dolphins, and is much larger than he was when Kathryn was looking after him. While we know that cetaceans in captivity is a touchy subject these days, we were saddened to hear interpreters at the aquarium explaining his drooping fin as a natural part of their design when it has a 0% incidence in the wild, and has been proven to be a direct result of tanks that are not large or deep enough to allow the animals room to properly dive and exercise.

 That aside, he is a very curious and inquisitive animal, and came over to visit us at one of the windows for a few minutes. He was very enrapt by the pair of us, and while we both very much want to believe it was because he remembered Kathryn and her efforts, it could just as easily have been light reflecting out of my camera lens that caught his eye as something new.

Darth Vader and an Octopus Swim into a Bar... Stop me if you've heard this one...

Here's a joke. Darth Vader and an Octopus Swim into a Bar... Stop me if you've heard this one...
And that's pretty much the joke because that's what Geordie and I ran into at SEA STAR WARS at the Vancouver Aquarium.  Every once in a while this venue pulls something quite clever from underneath the fat seal. This featured a custom made Scuba Darth Vadar suit complete with  light saber. It was really well done.  Lots of Death sea star puns and goodness.  It was narrated by Princee Leia.   Below Darth Vadar menaces us underwater.

Mr Vadar's spotter was of course a storm trooper. Whose skill in spotting exceeds his marksmenship.  Fantastic costumes all around.  A real crowd pleaser.

And there is Octavius a great big Pacific Gian Octopus (now deceased) using the Force to combat Scuba Darth Vadar.  Seems like a better plot than episode 1.  Octavius got too big for his regular tank so they plopped him into the great big one.  The white on his head is from bumping into the rocks and glass.  Octopussies are really curious and was really keen on Darth Vadar. 

I Guess Wee Otter

Bad title pun aside it is high time I talked about sea otters. Particularly the wee otter Katmai. Geordie and myself have never seen sea otters in the wild despite days of searching and missing them by a matter of hours. So we have to content ourselves with the guys at the aquarium.  A new addition is the mentioned wee otter pup nammed Katmai. 

We saw Katmai the day she was introduced into her new watery enclosure. Below she is exploring the edges and nosing about wondering about her new home.  She doesn't have that whitish head yet.  She won't get that until she is older.  They also have the densest fur of all the animals. It is so dense (nearly one million per sq in) that their actual skin never gets wet.

Katmai is an enclosure with an older female named Tanu.  Tanu has taken Katmai under her paw so to speak.  Both were orphaned and as they cannot be rehabilitated they continue to charm their visitors at the Vancouver Aquarium.  The 'awww' factor is quite high.

Aquarium Notables

Give us the CUTTLEFISH!  You are fantastic if you get the reference. If not here is a cuttlefish. The Vancouver Aquairum heard our wishes and have 6 dwarf cuttlefish which have apparently been breeding so hopefully more are on their wy.  They communicate with those tentacles on their faces and their bodies flash different colours because of awesome.

The difficult to spot Giant Pacific Octopus was not at all hiding being all squashed up against the glass.  Geordie got this lovely photo of his sleeping eye all ringed by tentacles. He is one of our favorites and the last 3 times I have been there has been very visible. In the same place too....

Jack, one of the rescued harbor porpoises is turning into a huge ham. He loves attention and having his picture taken. Here he is looking right at our camera to make sure we get his good side. He has gotten so big. I remember when he could fit in my arms. I love how well he is doing.

Thanksgiving Guest

My cousin Carolyn was in visiting us for the Thanksgiving week-end.  One of the favorite things we like to do with our out of town visitors is take one of the little false creek ferries over to Granville Island for some browsing.  Its a good way to get a different perspective of the area and it has the possibility of spotting a harbour seal.  We were lucky as we had glorious fall weather the entire time.  And pumpkin spice lattes!

We also used the aquarium as an excuse to renew our memberships and visited that as well. We gently prodded various sea binkies, anemones and cucumbers.  We got splashed by a beluga whale too. It was good seeing my old friends Jack and Daisy. We also saw caimans, bats, sharks, otters and the South African Penguins which are a delightful new addition that Geordie and I will talk about more in a later post.

Carolyn and I are mature serious adults so we made a tacit tandem decision to put on the dolphin costumes in the kids area.  Here we are frolicking like the mature and serious adults we are.  We are quite the trend setters as when we were done others decided that we were on to a good thing on copied us.

Walruses

 We enjoy aquariums wherever we go and Quebec City happens to have one that boasts walruses, a creature neither of us had seen and both of us really wanted to. There are two subspecies: the Atlantic and Pacific. Though both breeds were on display there, I would honestly be hard-pressed to tell them apart.

 Not only were they visible in their tank, but there was a pretty fun walrus show to be seen as well. Since walruses are largely blobs with flippers, their trainers communicate encouragement and praise to them through high fives, which I found delightful. Aside from just being neat to see out of the water, the show had them rolling on their backs and sides and blowing kisses which let us see a pretty full range of motion.

 As any Jurassic Park fan knows, the T-Rex in the film was part walrus call and the show featured a selection of walrus vocalizations including that trademark roar.

As keen-eyed readers may have noticed, these walruses lack tusks. Since they are mostly used to forage in the mud and haul out on ice, neither of which are done in aquariums, their tusks had been removed a few years ago to prevent injuries between the animals and reduce damage to their enclosure. They also all had red eyes as the chlorine in the water irritates them and people have yet to find a balance between comfort and cleanliness in their tanks.

Aquarium Exhibits

Normally I wouldn't have two posts on the aquarium back to back, but we went there on Saturday and got some nice new pictures, so it seems like a sensible time to use them. Aside from its set displays of jellyfish and the like, the aquarium always has a rotating selection of animal shows and different displays from day to day. They also opened up a new display on the arctic which we hadn't seen before. But I'll start it off with a dolphin picture that should show why I love our new camera with a fast shutter.
Since 2009 was the Year of the Frog, there has been a huge amphibians display in the lower level all year which I always enjoy poking around when we visit. I've been able to get a surprisingly good number of pictures out of the exhibit... the low light being offset by the typically slow moving animals on display. Below is an axolotl which is a strange Mexican salamander.. apparently they taste like chicken.
And as proof of the ever changing displays, here's Kathryn holding a Vietnamese Stick Insect. We've passed through the tropical section a dozen times or more and never seen insect handlings before. Kathryn was very brave and had fun getting to meet this beastie up close.

Giants of Vancouver Aquarium

Being a couple of prairie folk that saw maybe one fish a year, the Vancouver Aquarium quickly became one of our favorite spots. We've had memberships since moving here and now that we're downtown and 15 minutes away we get there even more often. Since there's so much to photograph I'll likely do a few segments on the park starting with this selection of some of the larger animals.

The belugas have been doing very well lately, having a new baby born both of the summers we have been out here. Kathryn volunteered this summer as an observer to monitor the baby's behavior and help gather data on the early months of their lives.
The arapaima is a massive (8ft long or so) Brazillian fish which ranks among the most primeval creatures I've ever seen. In their natural habitat they live in the rivers of the rainforest and are one of the few fish out there that actually go to the surface to breathe.
The aquarium is so full and busy these days that the sea lions aren't always even out on display, but they are consistently among my favorites, being so agile and playful. The tank here has an underwater viewing window where I never tire of watching these swim around with the seals.