Friday June 16 – Key West Aquarium
We visited the Key West Aquarium during the 3pm feeding and tour. The Aquarium is a great place to visit while in Key West. Tell the ticket office you are a Sea Base crew and get a big discount off the admission price. http://www.keywestaquarium.com/
The tour and feeding begins at the Hands on Pool. The guide describes the sea life in the pool and the proper way to handle each of the creatures. The guide demonstrates how gravity can eventually get conchs out of their shells, how sea cucumbers defend themselves with water jets, how horse shoe crabs can flip over off their backs and why it is not a good idea to step on a sea urchin in bare feet.
The tour moves from the Hands on Pool to the Ray Tank. The rays are amazing to watch glide through the water and surface at the edge of the pool and take food from the guide. A sea turtle also lives in the ray tank and likes to eat from the guide’s hand.
Next came the nurse shark tank. They get their name from the “nursing” sound they make when they eat. These sharks try to avoid humans but if they bite you, they often lock their jaw and refuse to let go. The guide hand fed the rays but he dropped the food to the nurse sharks.
We then went out to a holding area that was open to the ocean for small fish but had bars to keep in the sand sharks and the bull shark. The guide fed these sharks with a mackerel tied to the end of a line on a fishing pole. A couple of slaps of the mackerel in the water and a Sand Shark had eaten all but the head in one bite. The Sand Sharks fed on more mackerels but the Bull Shark was not hungry and did not feed.
The tour then moved to an outdoor pool that had various reef fish, small sharks and a sea turtle that had been injured by a boat. The guide fed the barracuda, sharks and other fish in this pool and explained how the Sea Turtles at the aquarium had all been injured and were in the care of the aquarium for the rest of their lives.
Before leaving, the crew returned to the Hands on Pool to handle and examine the sea life. The squirting Sea Cucumbers were a favorite.
After the Aquarium, the crew walked up and down Duval Street, Whitehead Street and Front Street to visit some gift shops and t-shirt shops and purchase some souvenirs. Doug purchased a Conch shell, which he is very proud of. Mr. Neff and Mr. Schlak purchased shells to use as neckerchief slides, Forrest, Kurtice and Kevin all bought souvenirs for other members of their families.
The crew had agreed to meet Zach at 5:30 and have dinner together. Before dinner, Forrest and Kevin wanted to visit the Southernmost Point Marker for the southernmost city in the Continental United States.
