Seattle Aquarium

Next day in Seattle, went back downtown to check out the Aquarium and stuff around there.  First time using the GPS during the trip, worked out pretty well.   I’m too cheap to spring for a bike mount for the GPS so I just superglued two strips of my industrial strength velcro to the back and stuck it to the camera bag mounted behind the windshield.  It worked fine and cost a grand total of maybe 15 cents.

The entire aquarium building is suspended over water, it looks like its on flat ground but its actually hanging out over the ocean on Pier 59.

They had some pretty cool shorebirds exhibits outside with just some netting over the top so they dont fly out.

Puffins!  These guys dont sit still and with the water spots all over the glass near impossible to photograph.  Out of 20 tries this is the best I got.

One thing I thought was cool, they breed salmon in the building and release them.  Heres a tank of little ones.

And a little bit larger seen from below.

During breeding season they come back, so they’ve built fish ladders for them to get from the ocean up into the air back into the aquarium.

Cece loves this stuff,  touch pools to pet the sea stars, anemones, cucumbers and such.

She has a way of talking with other animal keepers and getting to see and do stuff the general public normally wouldnt heh.

Giant pacific octopuses

They had a wing of tanks for the local wildlife from the bay that was pretty interesting. These are all local critters.

Pipefish

Sole

Spotted prawns.  I’m not exactly sure what the difference is between a prawn and a shrimp, or crawdads.  They are delicious though, I had prawns for lunch on the next pier hehehe.

urchins

These are all from the reef tanks, I’ve already posted these for a few of the salt aquarium aficionados.

These are from the bigger tanks with bigger ocean fish

Irish Lord Fish.  I like the iridescent spots on its eyes.

In one of the rooms was a huge dome with water 360 degrees around and overhead, this flounder or sole thought it could hide on the top of the dome hehe.

One of the big salmons in the giant tank

Sturgeon

No idea what this was but bright blue spots against black is neat