FIELD TRIP _ SEATTLE AQUARIUM

BIOL&212 Majors Animal Biology
Field Trip - Seattle Aquarium
Na Nguyen - 03/04/18

MARINE LIFE AT THE SEATTLE AQUARIUM

On March 2^nd, I went to Seattle Aquarium with my friend from 10:50am to 1:30pm. It was a cold and cloudy Friday. I went there and there were many group of young kids went to the field trip to the aquarium, too. It was crowded.  It was very fun and I learned so much about marine animals. I got to touch the corals and sea urchin at the Life On the Edge area. I saw many huge fishes and the eel at the big tank. I chose to go to the aquarium because I just went to the zoo very recently so I wanted to experiment and observe the animal at the aquarium.

Figure 1 & 2: This is the receipt, I went there with my friend not with the class

Figure 3, 4, 5: The "Life On the Edge" area with star fish, corals, ...

            At the “Life On the Edge” area, I got to touch and learn about the creatures that were in there like mussel, sea star, scallop, tubeworm, also sea urchin and many more. There was a small book that tells us about the marine animals that live in there.  The first one is Calcareous tubeworm, from phylum Annelida. They have featherlike structures at the top of their tubes shelters to grab plankton. They pull the feeding tentacles into the protective tubes when being touch and also strength of the tubes. Then, sea star and sea urchin are from the phylum Echinoderm. The sea star is marine invertebrates. They have shape like a star with 5 arms with suckers underneath; the upper surfaces are very unique and different with many colors. They have tube feet for moving; also for taking foods, filter the water for Oxygen gas and also expel the waste. The suckers help them to attach to the rocks and protecting them from waves. Next is the sea urchin, they are spikey little creatures. They have sharp spines pointing out, and it reacts immediate to the sharp touch or predators. They can lodge into the holes and crevasses to protect themselves from the wave actions. Sea urchins eat kelp, seaweeds and many marine plants. Lastly, the scallop, they are from phylum Molluscs, they have hard shell that can open and close. With the advantage of opening and closing the hard shell they can easily protecting themselves from others or wave action. They are filter feeder; they eat plankton, or other organic debris. All of the marine animals look very cool and interesting in real life.

Figure 6: Tufted puffin bird in their living environment

            Next, the “Birds and Shores” exhibit area. When we walked in we can see all the bird that live in the edge of water. They make it their homes. They are Black-bellied plover, Black oystercatcher, Killdeer, and Long-billed curlew. Their beaks are different in size and color so that they can eat different foods and search for insect and other marine animals for foods. Their appearances are also vary in sizes, shapes and colors.  Then, the rocky shoreline environment like along the Washington’s intertidal coast.  Many bird’s species live in this environment like Black oystercatcher. They have a long orange beak so that they can search for food in the rocks or tiny holes. They are in danger due to the water pollution caused by human. All of the plastics, trashes, chemical spills, or oil are affecting the water and directly to the marine animal in the area. The next section is sea cliff environment are preferred by Pigeon guillemot, Tufted puffin, Rhinoceros auklet, Common murre. They live in an open ocean, and only go back to the shore and cliff to breed and raise their young.

           

Figure 7 & 8: Salmon's information and the view of small little salmons

            Lastly, if we keep on walking further we can see the area of Salmon ladder and “Salmon in our Watershed”. There was much information about Salmon all over the wall of this area. They even show us the tiny Salmon in a small tank. They face the threat of pollution, over fishing and also for eggs. Due to the pollution of water, they are in danger just like other birds that I mentioned above. Over fishing and eating salmon affect the population of salmon, they can’t breed enough to feed all of us human. Many people over fishing and even take the “illegal” fish, too. Then, the hatchery fish, they take the fish to get the eggs and put them back into the river. It’s not done at that point, all of the fish that been release they will be catch by fishermen. Just like somewhere in exit 67 I believe, last week the hatchery fish place they released only 16 salmons into the river and there were people waiting to catch them all. Threat after threat for salmon due to the needs of human, and also cause by human.

Figure 9: Jelly fish board

            This field trip was fun and very informative. I could see the real organisms and especially marine animals, many different species and kingdom. I have learned so much and also get to know more and observed how animals adapt to their environment and also wave action. Each of them is very unique and even they are the same species but they have different size and shape. They have different structures and parts in order to adapt to their living environment and protect themselves. It’s a good chance for us to go out and explore more about real life and also see how they live not just from the books or lectures. Depend on how they get food, survive and protect they will have unique things to help them fulfill the “duty of living” and not dying of staving or eat/attach by others so easily. It was a bit crowded but it was fun to learned and explored with the kids around the aquarium. I saw many jelly fish in the curve tank where they swimming around with lights. They are beautiful. I tried to find the dolphin but it was bad luck so I couldn’t find any, but I saw seals instead.