Aquarium Photos

On the way back from a recent trip to my homeland, I spent some time in New Orleans with my wife and my parents. We didn’t have a lot of time there, but we did squeeze in a visit to the Aquarium of Americas and we watched The Matrix Reloaded on the big screen and big speakers at the IMAX next door. I heartily recommend both activities.

Now who doesn’t love seeing the penguins get fed? Certainly not the even hungrier killer whales, but that next step up in the real world food chain is not part of the feeding exhibition at the Aquarium. There are three species of penguins in this exhibit. Can you spot them all? Important hint: many of the penguins are not visible.

I don’t think I had ever seen a seadragon before, at least not outside of the influence of a couple hurricanes from a New Orleans bar. The weedy seadragon is sporting some amazing colors (and so is the starfish behind it), but the leafy seadragon would make any drag queen at Mardi Gras cry in envy.

Like any fine establishment with huge quantities of water behind polycarbonate, the Aquarium of the Americas is full of freaky acting fish. The razorfish are no exception. Because of the low light and my desire to not use a flash, most of the razorfish came out blurry. I think you get the basic idea, though.

While frog legs are a popular dish in the South, these little guys aren’t going to end up in anybody’s deep fryer. Not only are they way too cute to eat, but they would make the toothpicks seem meaty.

Mmmm, comb jellyfish doughnuts… Next up I will post a video of some of the other jellyfishes at the aquarium. For the camera freaks, these photos were taken with my incredibly awesome Canon S400. The originals were way, way bigger, but I scaled them down for obvious reasons.

And before you walk away thinking that my zoo and aquarium motto is “See the animals, eat the animals”, I assure you that I always (well, almost always) go vegetarian when eating on site at the snack bars and restaurants. Of course, the general standard of rubbery chicken strips and dessicated hamburger patties makes it pretty easy to act like I have a conscience.