Monterey Bay Aquarium Tentacles

The Monterey Bay Aquarium just opened a new exhibit called tentacles.  They did a very good job and I got some pictures from it.  The problem that I am having is that I am exceeding the low light capacity of my camera.  (You really do not want to use flash around these light sensitive and marvelous creatures.)  (I also need a new camera.)

Many of the creatures in these exhibits are small but interesting.  Some even just attached themselves to the glass.  The banded one was a little bigger than my hand, while the other two where about the size of my thumb.


This guy was just hanging out on the window.  He was one of the large one at the show.

The really strange one was this 'pancake' octopus.  I was so mesmerized by it that I forgot to read about it.  I also got a video of it.  One of the few times it do that.

Here just happens to be another video of a smaller octopus who was hanging out on the wall.  You can hear that I was thinking that my dropping onto my knee to get the picture may have startled him because he changed color.  But I am not sure, I was talking to my daughter while filming.

And the star of the show, as if octopus are not enough was the Nautilus.  This thing was just weird.  He was just hanging right there and then started to move.  They have about 6 to 8 in the exhibit and well, you just want to take one home.

Monterey Bay April 2014

Well we got back from another short trip to Monterey, yes it is nice being this close to that area.  Also I would love to move there.

Anyway, while the kids played on the beach and before we went to the aquarium to see the new exhibit, I caught these two feeding very close in.  This was a mom and a young one.



I especially like the look of the teeth in the cropped image.

Also the youngster kept popping up and looking around for mom.  They where always coming up first and waiting at the surface.

Here was a nice shot where I caught them both diving.  Reminiscence of whale watching.

Even the seagulls where getting into the action when the otters threw out their leftovers.

LA 2013 Santa Monica

Ok this is the last in the series.  This is also the one in which my daughter liked the most.  The Santa Monica pier at low tide.  She had so much fun running around under the pier finding tide pool life, it was hard for one of the other parents to keep up.

I guess the stars of the show, pun intended, where the star fish.  They where everywhere and this was also the problem.  I saw too many starfish being carried away as trophies.  This first guy was fun to watch and after about 20 minutes and the number of people increasing, I had my daughter moving him closer to the tide line to give him a fighting chance to escape from being a trophy.



Here are a couple of macro shots.  (Having to try my macro lens.)



And the sunset.



And finally the pier.  I really need a light tripod to travel with.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Alway love taking people to the aquarium.  My daughter also loves it, thus we can spend a lot of time in the jellies and ocean aquarium.

They have 2 exhibits of jellies at this time.  The almost permanent one, plus a psychedelic one which is new.  They also have a sea horse exhibit right now but it will be leaving September 1st at that time they will be swapping it out for a new exhibit which will feature octopus, I believe that will open in 2014.  (Yeah)

So lets just start off by showing some jellies.

This little guy is one of the phosphoresces ones.

This where in the new jelly exhibit.

This is a dragon sea horse.  Pretty cool.  The other picture here is a little starfish.  My daughter's finger tip is in frame to show size.  This guy was probably brought in when they cycle the water nightly.  (They allow the bay water to flow through most if not all the exhibits nightly and only filter it in the morning so visitors can see the wonders.  This is also a way that they think a small octopus got into one of the exhibits last year.  He was able to survive and grow for a year before being discovered.)


This leatherback turtle was rescued from the bay.  He was chocking on a plastic bag which he thought was a jelly.  Like with the Great White that they had for a time, the aquarium will rehabilitate the animals and release when they get their strength back.  This turtle will probably be release in the near future.


Last is the ocean aquarium.  This is a large open aquarium with a top viewing area that is two stories tall.  I believe last year they added a lower view area at the bottom of the aquarium.  Here my daughter and I was playing, looking up into the display.  (She was a bit timid at first, thinking I was goofy getting down on the ground to look up into the display.  I was able to finally convince her and she loved it.  (It was also fun watching several other people start to do the same thing.)