Turtles & Sharks & Stingrays, Oh My!

Next stop: Key West Aquarium. Actually we ate first. It was very hot. Just walking a block from the parking ramp to Mallory Square I was dripping, I mean, glistening.

We ate at the Red Fish Blue Fish restaurant.

(This photo was taken from the top of the wrecking tower -- more on that tomorrow.)

We both had fish, by the way!

Back to the aquarium . . .

They have a tour that we missed by about 30 minutes so we while we waited for the next one we walked through the aquarium.

This is the eel tank. Basically, the tails of two eels. I don't have a better photo of these because, frankly, they creeped me out a bit.


This is from the sting ray tank. (Also you can see the rear of one of the sea turtles.) There were about 10 - 15 rays in this tank. This is one of the larger ones.


This one's lookin' at me!


They vertical feed the sting rays at this aquarium -- which means the sting rays swim up to the side of the tank and the handlers hand feed them. The handler/guide said that this was preferable for them because they could make sure that all the rays got to eat (instead of the biggest ones being the food hogs) and they could more easily dispense medicine through the food, when applicable. This method is also a bonus for tourists as the sting rays are trained to expect food when they see someone at the side of the tank -- which provides a lot of sting ray action.

They also splash a lot!

This one is thinking my camera is a tasty morsel! I am trying to take the picture without getting splashed!

Tourists (me, included) were not allowed to feed the sting rays or the sharks. But during the tour the handler/guide did. She said the rays have sharp teeth -- her fingers didn't linger as she fed them tasty morsels.

Fish break! Some more of the fish tanks.

He likes me, he really likes me.


This guy liked me enough to sit in front of my face while I tried to figure out my camera and take about 12 pictures. (Of those I wound up with these two. I have never claimed to be a photographer!)


These are nurse sharks. They are the "nicest" shark , if there is such a thing as a nice shark -- excepting those in Finding Nemo. Despite their gentler reputation, they have one of the highest shark bite records. This is due more to the stupidity of humans who do not understand the "nice" in reference to sharks is not the same as "nice" in reference to say, bunnies.


This is the shark I got to pet. (Well, not just me, everyone who was on the tour.)


The shark feels like if you were to take a very fine grain of sandpaper and soak it in water. And my hand didn't smell like fish -- because sharks do not have scales. And yes, that is how close he is -- I didn't use my zoom lens.

Here is a video of the nurse sharks.

And I end this post with some photos of the sea turtle. The aquarium had four sea turtles.


Sea turtles are protected mostly because a lot of the time their nesting ground (the lovely beaches) are easily disturbed by throngs of tourist-type people. The guide said that one of this species' (below) nesting ground was in Mexico where armed military protect the egg-laden beach.