Sealife

 

 

I just came back from Sealife at Mooloolaba .Being a newcomer on the Sunshine Coast. I am really enjoying doing the touristy things and Sealife was a really wonderful venue with which to have a closer encounter some of the amazing variety of fishy fauna with which we share our planet

I got there just in time for one of the seal shows and managed to take a great photo shot for a lady who was celebrating her 40th birthday at her star moment in feeding a seal in front of the entire arena

The gouramis with their big puffy lips from South East Asia made me smile  and I had an amazing experience imagining myself as a fish whisper as I drew circles on the glass tank  with my finger and this weird looking fish eyeballed me and followed my finger  precisely as it moved in different  directions…..

I loved the sleek grey precision streamlining of the sharks ,and the fluid silent winged grace of the rays especially the bat wings and the stunning coat of the leopard skin ray being in the tunnel where these creatures swim right over the top of you and you can see their underbellies and mouths and their teeth

I had a moment of closely  eyeballing a giant  ray while a grouper swimming by came crashing by for a closer look

I adored the absolute beauty of the little  pot belly seahorses and weedy sea dragons They were probably my favorite

I learnt a bit about sharks too its very sobering to read that in 2010 sharks killed only 9 people around the world while man took over 100,000,000 sharks and that now more and more species of shark are becoming endangered because of peoples ignorance and fear of them

Also if you cut off a sharks fin and return it to the water it will sink to the bottom and  drown ,

I read about a special enclosure for manatees or  dugongs sponsored by sealife on the other side of the world where the dugongs actually are free creatures and come and go  from the wild into this enclosure of their  own volition

I learned that all barramundi are born as males and then when they reach a certain age and maturity turn into female fish and marvelled at he size of the barramundis…HUGE !!

also saw this creature called an alligator garr which is a cross between an alligator and a fish and has the snout of an alligator and the flappy little fins of a fish weird and apparently not welcome in our waters

 

I saw jellyfish who live their lives upside down on the bottom of the water with their tentacles floating upwards

These exquisite little green tree frogs you used to see heaps of around now sadly rarely all sat with their backs turned to us

 

I was awed by the beautiful graceful seals.Loved watching how the kids  squeeled with glee every time a seal would swim past showing off and almost seem to be engaging  with them  .Always when young kids were present the seals seemed to  gather  in posses or linger longer  at the glass and seemed  respond to their energy of glee and delight the kids emanated .

 

Just felt really grateful and happy to see so many of God/Goddesses gorgeous fishy  critters you wouldn’t generally get to see up close  all in one place

The young kids who work there were also clearly enamoured of their jobs and buoyant with enthusiasm and the desire to help and respond to every request for directions or assistance and all in all it made for a fantastic day

Weedy Sea Dragon