Fish move

The whole time I've been at the aquarium (starting in November), Glover's Reef, the large exhibit at the entrance to the aquarium, has been under construction. Its fishie residents have been living behind the scenes while the reef exhibit got a cleaning and some rearranging of its (yes, fake) coral. Today it was time for the fish to move back in, and I volunteered to help. It was originally supposed to happen last week but there was a problem with the water, but today it had to happen to be ready for the reef's scheduled opening next month.

Several members of the dive team were there, though most of us didn't dive. The job was to move the fish in wheeled garbage cans from the holding tank to Glover's. I was stationed on the deck above the Glover's tank. It's open on top and there was a beautiful view of the ocean. Definitely not a bad way to spend a morning. Most of what I did was take the wheels off the garbage cans so they could be put in the water and the fish could swim out. The fish were drugged so as not to be too disturbed by the move, and when we put them in the water they were lethargic and kind of out of it. The lookdowns were the wonkiest -- at first they lay flat in the water, beating their fins and hopelessly swimming around in circles. It was tempting to pick them up and put them right, but it's important not to handle the fish as it can disturb their protective coating. As the buckets came in, Dick, who was in the water, asked "What have we got?" Cownose rays, yellowtail snapper, goatfish, grunts, damselfish, hogfish, sergeant majors. "We got fish." We joked that it was like a sushi menu. Before the summer is over I will have no excuse but to know every species in Glover's Reef by heart. I hear the sergeant majors are vicious little devils who will bite divers who come too close to their turf. I still can't wait to dive Glover's -- I might get to this Sunday actually. :)

At 10 all the keepers take break -- mandatory! I ran into my friend Melinda in the cafeteria, she volunteers a full day every Wednesday, preparing food for and feeding the animals, among other things. After break, I followed some other divers to the shark tank for a special behind-the scenes view of the feeding. But our real purpose for being there was shark teeth! Sand tiger sharks naturally lose teeth all the time, and they fall to the sand in the bottom. The keeper fished some out with a net for us. Check it out!