Far far south

Hi Sea Fans!

You will never guess where I've been!  Take a look at a sneak preview of my travelogue:

Any guesses?  Facebook me (Abby Aquarist) and let me know where you think this is.
Chat soon
Cheers
Abby
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Aquarium funnies

Hi Sea Fans!

America, Australia, Canada, Mexico and Tasmania have been so much fun and there's still so much more to come so stay tuned!  I've been able to experience some amazing things and see what many average people don't get to see...and I get to see some of the hilarious (and sometimes not so funny at the time) events/accidents/incidents that happen behind the scenes at aquariums.  I want to share a few with you (in no particular order and no names mentioned but some of you out there may recognise yourselves and I don't take responsibility for the story leaking out! :)).

1. The giant bite - This was one of those stories where you would think a fisherman was involved!  Aquarist "Jane" was feeding fish at the top of an exhibit when she was distracted by a good looking diver walking by.  Forgetting that she had a handful of fish in her hand, she turned to chat to him.  BIG MISTAKE!  Rule number one: NEVER look away from a hand that has food in it.  Needless to say, she felt a nip on the tip of her finger.  With a gasp, she turned around expecting a huge parrotfish, but instead...it was a little wrasse!  Even the little ones can give a nasty nip!
   
2. Dolphin play - Trainer "Bev" was new to training and didn't listen to the other trainers who warned her to stay clear of the one dolphin when he was by himself in the big pool because he was bound to get up to mischief.  "Bev" was so happy to be near the dolphins all day that she decided to have her lunch next to the big pool.  Well, this was an invite to play because the dolphin was bored and he felt like company.  "Bev" got a face full of ball and was soaked to the bone when the dolphin tail-flicked the ball at her and splashed her in the process. .....she learnt not to eat lunch next to the pool!
3. Turtle "love" - Aquarist "Bob" was feeding the reef fish one day when, all of a sudden, he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. Yup, he'd forgotten to keep an eye out for the juvenile (young) turtles that share the tank with the reef fish.  The turtle was hungry and tired of waiting his turn so he decided to give the aquarist a nip as a reminder.
4. Buckets of fun - The whole story isn't needed here, just imagine a silver bucket on the floor in the wrong place when someone carrying heavy dive gear comes walking past....oops!

   

   Something like this happens : )

5. Octopus attack - Every now and again, you get that octopus that really doesn't want to stay in his tank and he really doesn't want to be handled.  Enter Aquarist "Joe".  "Joe" had spent hours preparing a tube maze for his octopus (being a good aquarist, Joe was making an enrichment toy for the octopus to prevent boredom and make the octopus' life more interesting) and was just about to put it into the tank when the octopus attached himself to Joe's arm and started making his way up to Joe's head.  According to Joe, it took at least 5 minutes to get the octopus to let go and another 5 minutes to get him back into his tank and then another 30 minutes to try putting the lid on by getting another aquarist to distract the octopus with a cleaning brush and net.  8 arms of an octopus vs 4 human arms was quite the competition!
6. Ladders, doors and many more - There are so many stories of  aquarists falling off ladders, slipping on floors, being knocked over or out by doors and being bashed by large objects that it's difficult to pick one.  Actually, I don't want to scare you, the job is loads of fun and these accidents only happen once in a while...but it's good to laugh and learn from them.
   
   
   
   Like I said, loads of fun, a few accidents, many stories to tell your grandchildren one day....all in a day's work!
   
   
   Have a great week Sea Fans.
   Cheers
   Abby
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Sunny Florida!

Hi Sea Fans!

Have you ever been to Florida?  Where Disney World is?  Well, I have!  How cool is that?!  I got to say hi to the folks at Florida Aquarium and they showed me two of the amazing projects that they're busy with at the moment.

Our coral reefs face many threats, from ocean acidification to rising sea level and overfishing, it is important to do what we can to protect this fragile environment. Along with other Aquariums and research Universities, Florida Aquarium (FA) are working on two projects that will help the Caribbean reef system flourish. The first is SECORE, where they are working with partners to repair, restore, and spawn new corals. The second project helps to decrease the amount of fish that are collected from the wild; with partners like SeaWorld Entertainment Parks and the University of Florida’s Tropical Aquaculture lab in Ruskin, FA are working to raise Caribbean reef fish from eggs to adults. 

Here are the highlights of what I got to see:

The journey begins in the Coral Reef Gallery. 

The Coral Reef is the Aquarium’s largest exhibit holding 500,000 gallons of water! There are approximately 2,000 animals in the exhibit including, a Green sea turtle, three shark species and 55 Caribbean reef fish species.

I was just hanging out enjoying the gallery in these photos. : )

Next, I headed upstairs to the Reef Overlook Deck. This is the open air access to the Coral Reef exhibit where there's a whole lot of activity including animal care taking place. Staff dive in the exhibit to clean it and feeding takes place from the center platform. 

This is a collection basket that was designed to collect fish eggs. It's made from a plastic bin with the sides cut out and a screen glued to the openings. PVC (plastic) piping is attached to a hole in the bottom and floats are attached to the sides. Eggs will enter the basket through the PVC pipe, once inside they can’t escape. In our first attempt the basket floated in the water for only two days and thousands of eggs were collected!

After the eggs are collected they are taken to the University of Florida’s Tropical Aquaculture Lab, where they are cared for until they are old enough to be put on display in an Aquarium. 

The cool aquarium car that we got to drive in to take the eggs to the university.

The lab also has coral fragments. 

The Florida Aquarium has a permit to collect damaged corals and nurse them back to health. The FA Biology and Veterinarian staff developed a health certificate which assesses (evaluate/judge) a coral’s health. If a coral passes the assessment it can be replanted in the wild at the aquarium's site in the Florida Keys.

This new exhibit in the Wetlands Gallery houses some of the fish grown at the Aquaculture lab!  

So you see, aquarists making a difference once again!  Amazing!

Have a great week Sea Fans.

Chat soon.

Cheers

Abby

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Fake flippers for a turtle

Hi Sea Fans!

Seeing as I've been spending quite a bit of time travelling, I've had time to search the internet quite a bit and I've found some cool stories to share with you guys.  So if you don't mind, I'm going to share some of them with you in between my travel stories. : )

The most exciting one was that of a turtle named Yu!  Yu lost her front flippers.

Photo: Toshifumi Kitamura / AFP

Here you can see her test driving her new flippers in her home aquarium in Kobe (western Japan).  The rubber flippers are attached to a vest slipped over her head and the vest is designed in such a way to prevent her from taking it off.

Yu weighs 96kg and is 82cm long (shell length).  In 2008, she was pulled out of a fisherman's net with one third of her right flipper and half of her left flipper missing. Naoki Kamezaki, the aquarium curator (top manager of the animal team) believes it must have been a shark attack.  With such damaged flippers, Yu could only swim at 60% of her normal speed, but 27 tries later, the team managed to make the perfect flippers for her.  Yes, they designed the flippers and redesigned the flippers 27 TIMES!!  That's dedication!

This shows you that aquarium staff are dedicated to helping the animals in their care, no matter what!  Anyone want to be an aquarist and help save marine life? :)

Have a great week Sea Fans and chat soon.
Cheers
Abby
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Bugs

Hi Sea Fans!

While I've been travelling all over the place, Heidi, the author of my books, has also...she went to Yebo Gogga 2 weeks ago at Wits University in Johannesburg and sent me this photo to show me what she was teaching everyone:

On the left you can see me!!!  (Advertising my books of course).  Around the book posters, she had all sorts of photos of marine careers and on the right she had photos of me on my travels as well as a map to show where I've been and where I'm going.  She says there was quite a bit of interest in what I'm doing which makes me happy because that means that you guys out there are watching out for me and checking on my blog to see where I am.  You guys are welcome to e-mail me with questions if you'd like to know more about a specific career...you never know, maybe I'm going to find out more about it when I go to New Zealand or Korea or maybe even Antarctica!

Stay tuned for more stories Sea Fans, there's lots more fun and photos coming up!
Have a great week.

PS.  The stuff on the table is a model of shark gills, real shark jaws, a mermaid's purse and a jar with the deadliest thing in the sea in it (anyone know what that is?).

Cheers!
Abby
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Waddling for a good cause

If you're needing some exercise and want to try and help save the African Penguin, then the "Waddle" may be just the thing for you (next year)!  This last week, 16 animal keepers from zoos and aquariums around South Africa walked a distance of 120km between Gansbaai and Simonstown.  All 3 South African penguin colonies were visited along their route: Dyer Island colony in Gansbaai, Stony Point colony in Betty's Bay and Boulders Beach colony in Simonstown.

What started as a pet project for a few keepers in 2011 has grown into quite an event and the media and public have been very supportive.  Penguin Promises is a campaign which was ‘hatched’ in 2011 when the AKAA (Animal Keepers Association of Africa) decided to choose an endangered species and create an awareness drive in support of it. The African penguin was chosen as their numbers are currently as low as 60,000 birds in the wild compared to a very healthy population about 100 years ago of approximately 1.5 million. Scientists claim that this species could go extinct within the next 15-25 years, should environmental conditions not improve for them. This bird is endemic to southern Africa and considered an iconic animal as well as an indicator species (indicating the state of our oceans).

As the waddlers walk, they are joined by members of the public, school children and other keepers all dressed in black and white to show their support for the penguins.  Bright yellow "Hoot for penguins" signs are carried by any willing volunteers to encourage passing traffic to join in.  Last year, they counted 682 cars hooting for the waddlers just during the 11km stretch through Strand!  

Instead of asking for money, the waddlers respond with: "We don’t want your money honey we want your love”.  Penguin Promises suggest that, to show that you care, instead of giving money, you make a conscious choice to change an aspect of your behavior that will have a positive effect on the environment.  A few examples of penguin promises are - recycling/reusing/reducing, saving water and electricity, planting an organic vegetable garden, using eco-friendly cleaners, refusing drinking straws and the single use plastic shopping bag.

It has been shown that many people making a small lifestyle change can make an enormous difference!  So if you're in the area in 2014, why not waddle on down and join these crazy keepers on a leg of their six day walking tour and make a difference.  In the mean time, why not make a promise?!

More information is available on www.penguinpromises.com

Fred and Ron

Hi Sea Fans!

I have to backtrack a little with my travels because I've gotten behind with my photos so this entry in my journal is all about  my visit with Ron and his friend Fred the Monkey in Washington State, USA.

Ron Hirschi, a fisheries biologist and children's book author, was shocked by the story of how albatross chicks were dying because their parents were feeding them plastic pieces that they had mistaken for squid and other fish.  He decided that Fred needed to teach everyone about the dangers of marine litter and what is happening to the albatross.  Fred has also been travelling around the world, visiting schools and doing beach and river clean-ups.  If you want to read more about his adventures, go to www.http://soaronhirschi.blogspot.com/2011/03/fred-happy-eyed-monkey.html

Fred with 2 Breidablik girls.  He wears a leg band from an albatross that died from eating plastic.

Ron was nice enough to have me visit and he took me to see a bunch of cool kids at a school that is closing down.  It's so sad, because of money issues and the economy the way it is, these kids have to find a new school.  They're the kids from Breidablik School.

These kids worked with Ron for a year.  They collected thousands of bottle caps and used them in an outdoor mural that you can see in the photo above.  Rubbish collected from nearby beaches and recycled plastic bits and pieces were used to make the fish and other sealife in the mural that's attached to their playground fence.

Here you can see some of the kids with their works of art....a big red shark and a jellyfish!

So Sea Fans, why not do a beach clean-up at your local beach (or river if you live inland) with your school or homeschool buddies and make some cool art like these guys and girls?  Send me a pic if you do! (abby@telkomsa.net)

Have a great week Sea Fans!
Chat soon.
Abby
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