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As mentioned earlier, the trip upon which we had been
invited, by the Mitterhauser family was to one of their
favourite haunts, The Bermuda Aquarium and Zoological Gardens.
They frequently choose to spend their weekly family day out in
this fascinating place.
We started outside,
looking at big green turtles, swimming in a pool with sunlight
over part of it and shade over the rest and a sandy beach where
they might mate and lay eggs. The turtles allowed us to touch
them and seemed not at all aggressive. We entered the main
aquarium building, after a quick detour to the rest room. As we
walked in we were confronted by a sight so stunning as to defy
description. We have visited a few excellent aquaria but this
was far and away the most impressive display either of us had
seen! An absolutely breathtaking experience.
We started at an enormous pair of tanks, back to back, with
living coral inhabited by all the local species of fish,
colourful and varied in so many ways and living entirely
naturally - the sea is pumped through their tank and out again,
on the one side and shark, barracuda and all manner of larger
fish on the other side of a glass partition. Ceiling to floor,
with natural daylight streaming down through the surface of the
water, a mirrored wall opposite to allow total vision -
classical music playing gently in the background - for anyone
unable or unwilling to snorkel or scuba dive, this is the
perfect way to enjoy the reef experience. The lady in the centre
of the photo is my sister, Gilly, who came out to Bermuda for three days
and gave me an excuse to visit the Aquarium a second time!
A multitude of smaller exhibits show a great number of other
fish and marine species in their correct habitats. In one tank,
two gigantic lobsters ignored comments about 'bisque' and
'Thermidor', quietly demolishing some fish they had been given,
in another tank we watched Sea Puddings filter the ground litter
whilst in another the squid made occasional lunges at
individuals who strayed from a school of small silver fish
darting around as one body - there were too many tanks to
describe and, in addition, excellent displays about shark oil
weather forecasting, amongst other things.
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