A Most Remarkable Experience, Part I
By Casey Wilson, East Sierra Branch
Geoffrey and Phillip, my two sons, and I are certified, card-carrying SCUBA divers. Between the three of us, we’ve dived in Alaska, California, Mexico, Belize, Honduras, three islands in the Caribbean, and Thailand. This time we were gearing up for a most remarkable experience.
The Aquarium of the Pacific at Long Beach, California offered us an opportunity to take a dip into its Tropical Reef Exhibit modeled after the famous Blue Corner off the coast of Pulao in the South Pacific.
Our adventure started out with an extensive behind-the-scenes tour. Our guides, David and Paul, did show-and-tell of the complicated systems used to maintain the aquarium’s thousands of fish and other sea animals in not just the public displays, but in the extensive research facilities. We saw huge pumps pushing thousands of gallons of water through massive filters before it went into the habitats. We visited quarantine tanks where fish are sequestered before being introduced into displays. The guides showed us tanks where shark eggs were incubating and nursery tanks with newborns finning away. We got a peek from above at the Tropical Reef tank we would dive in later.
That tank holds 350,000 gallons of manufactured sea water — enough to fill 19 tanker trailers. Manufactured? I was surprised to find out that even though this aquarium is walking distance from the Pacific Ocean, none of its water comes from the sea. It’s too dirty.
By the way, this tank is a relatively small one: the biggest I could find in the US, is 18 times larger. That’s the whale shark exhibit in the Georgia Aquarium (Atlanta, GA) and contains 6.3 million gallons! Oh, and it offers a SCUBA opportunity also. I can’t justify going there just for that but you have to know it’s on my list if ever….
After our dry tour, it was time to gear up and get wet. Except for cameras, masks, boots, and fins the Aquarium of the Pacific provided all the rest of the equipment. For good reason — all their equipment is kept disinfected to protect the habitat. That’s why they took all our personal stuff and subjected it to sterile washdowns. To protect the animals from us, we wore booties, gloves, and hoods — every square centimeter of our skin was covered.
And then they ventured forth.
Read more in the next Showcase.