Instead of the usual labs and lectures, our professor figured he would change it up by bringing our class to the New York Aquarium! Not only did we get to visit the aquarium, but we were given tours of a coral cultivation room as well as the new water maintenence system!
When you visit an aquarium, you take it for granted that the jellyfish in the tank are alive and well. As it turns out, there's a lot more to sustaining these sea creatures than first appears. Everything from tempreture, lighting, pH, water current, and trace nutrients and minerals needs to be constantly monitored and regulated. The aquarium draws its sea water from well, the ocean so they need to be wary of any fluctuations caused from rain washing nutrients into the water etc etc. It just brings home the fact that if you look around yourself, everything was designed. The computer you're reading this on, your lights, your soda, your tap water, just about everything was created very intentionally. Very rarely do these things just happen to work. Even when they do someone had to come in, notice that it was working, and then figure out how to replicate it. This kind of intricate, functioning design comes from an educated mind. One cannot create a suitable habitat for moon jellies without greater understanding of how marine ecosystems work.
Changing the subject, our tour guide worked for Marine World in California when it was still open! I loved that place as a kid! If my dad could somehow email me a picture we have from there, I'd be happy to add it to this post!
Speaking of pictures, (and again, changing the subject) I finally got a camera! On the way back from the camera store, a sidewalk chalk artist was completing a drawing, so I snapped a picture of it. It felt like the sort of thing that you'd find on Telegraph, but I guess you get everything in the city.
The fact that this blog post is jumping all over the place is indicative that the past few days of waking up early hasn't been agreeing with me. Time to get some sleep.
Jamie,
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the new camera. Now, try to hang onto this one at least until you get home.
You're absolutely correct about how it's the unsung heroes that make things like the aquarium work. It's not just a matter of filling the tanks from the tap and dumping in the fish. As with just about everything, some ONE had to make it happen. The bigger the project the larger the number of support personnel.
Loved the sidewalk chalk painting. Just curious, where on Telegraph have you seen nice art like this? I've been up and down Telegraph for more than 40 years and I don't recall seeing stuff like this. Squiggles out of a spray can don't count as art in my book.