Monday, September 26, 2011

Oregon Coast Aquarium

I decided the Oregon Coast Aquarium is a misnomer. When the aquarium was mentioned as something to see, I was not enthusiastic. Watching fish swim around in a tank is not at the top of my list of favorite things. But this aquarium is so much more and I'm so glad I went.

First we watched the sea otters being fed. Gosh, do they gulp down the food. And who doesn't love otters.


Then we moved on to the seals and sea lions. These are harbor seals.


And the sea lions seem to know that food is coming.
We learned the most obvious difference between the two is that the sea lions can 'walk' on land while the seals have to just bounce along on their bellies.

Next was the seabird exhibit. These are common murres which, as their name suggests, are very common along the Oregon coast.


But let me skip to my personal favorite, the tufted puffin. Ron and I have a major disagreement on these birds. I think they're the cutest things ever and he thinks they're ugly. What do you think?


I love to watch them 'fly' through the water, but this guy looks like he's standing on top.


I took a short movie of his odd behavior.


There were aquariums, but they had some unique occupants. These are moon jellyfish. Cool, huh?


And I knew I should have written down what this was. I just know it wasn't a jellyfish.


And we were told these are not starfish since they are not fish. They have been renamed sea stars. I swear they weren't this colorful at the Jersey shore.

They also had some big aquariums with lots of fish, but the only ones I recognized were the sharks. The sturgeons were interesting since they're endangered and can grow so big. It was way too dark for my camera, so no pictures. You'll have to go yourself.

The Oregon Coast Aquarium is in Newport, Oregon.

8 comments:

  1. We have puffins but without the tuft, They are comical birds and a great favourite here.

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  2. That's a brown sea nettle ... apparently they sting quite a bit -- no first hand experience of that :-)

    We saw plenty of common murres in the Arctic this summer, but very few puffins, so I am especially glad that we saw lots of them in Alaska -- both in the wild and at the Sealife Aquarium. So colorful and cute.

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  3. When I took my granddaughter to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, they call them Peaunt Butter and Jelly Fish.

    Loved the Shark tunnel, it was well done.

    PS: I'm with you, the bird is really cute!

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  4. Love the sea stars and the tufted puffins. Ron is just crazy - they're adorable.

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  5. Sorry Ron, but I've got to be with Barb on this one - Puffins are cute and funny.

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  6. I think the Puffins are great. I'm with you.

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  7. One of my favorite places and at last I saw a puffin! They weren't as pretty as I expected but still I like them!

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