Today Dr. Adams was still out of town having an awesome time camping.  So it was just me and Samantha running the joint.  We worked on the penguin, and did some of our usual clean up jobs.  But then she took me through a punch of the parts of the aquarium that aren’t in my usual job description.  And don’t you forget – the links are educational!

We started by checking out the life support systems on each tank.  She went over the protein skimmers, the sand filters, bio towers, and all the intricacies of the plumbing and equipment.  I want it - all of it.  Amazing.

We also rescued a Shiner Surfperch who was having difficulty giving birth.  We anesthetized her and pulled out a couple of her babies (she was trying to have three at the same time and it didn’t look so nice).  They are one of the few viviparous salt water fish, meaning that they give birth to live young.

But my favorite part of the day was helping with the shark feeding at Shark Lagoon.  Several times a day the Aquarium of the Pacific husbandry staff put on a feeding show.  And today I got to be part of it.  The sharks are trained to come to one of three feeding stations around their exhibit.  Sam & I were at one station where I was in charge of the Nurse Shark and the Zebra Shark and Samantha was in charge of the Reticulate Whipray.

 The Nurse Shark Keith was kind of a jerk and kept trying to steal the food from the ray and from Fern – the only of our Zebra Sharks living in Shark Lagoon.  But I still like him.  Nurse sharks can get pretty big and they suck their food up like rays do.  Every time Keith ate though, it sounded like a small implosion had taken place!

The Zebra Shark also sucks its food up.  They have long beautiful tails that take up half their body length.  And even though they are spotted they still are called Zebra Sharks because they are striped as juveniles but eventually spots replace their stripes.

The Reticulate Whipray is one of the largest fish we have.  They can weigh over 250 lbs.  Ours didn’t seem to enjoy the squid she was being fed, but still ate everything else that was offered.

Now while I didn’t get to feed all the sharks since I couldn’t be in three places at once, I still feel that they all deserve an honorable mention.  Especially because Shark Lagoon is just freaking awesome.  So here it goes!

If you spend some time around the touch pool you can pet a few small sharks and rays.  It’s a pretty fun experience!

The Epaulette Shark is one of several sharks classified as Bamboo Sharks.  That big spot on their side looks like an eye and makes predators think they are bigger than they are so they get left alone.

My favorite of the rays in the touch pool are the Bat Rays.  They just look cool! 

Outside of Shark Lagoon, you can check out the Swell Sharks in the Southern California Gallery or the Bonnethead Sharks in the hugemongous tank in the Tropical Pacific Gallery.  I think they’re both beautiful and wanted to show them to you even though I didn’t get to work with them today.

There's a cool egg tank with lots of Baby Swell Sharks and Baby Swell Sharks to be and come on, who doesn't like Hammerheads?!

So now back to the big tank in Shark Lagoon.   We have a couple Whitetip Reef Sharks.  They tend to aggregate in large schools and can get pretty excited when there’s a lot of food to be had (if you’re like me you’ve seen them on Animal Planet).

I think the most beautiful sharks in the tank are the Blacktip Reef Sharks though.  They swim so gracefully and are easily the most active of the fish in that tank.  These guys are healthy – so much so one of the females is on a diet - and they have been mating recently.

My second favorite shark in that tank is the Sandbar Shark.  It’s beautiful too.  They are a highly migratory species and can live more than 30 years.

Clearly the scariest looking and definitely the meanest fish in the tank is the Sand Tiger Shark.  They swim slow with their scary teeth out, but they mean business.  The one we have now has been known to nip at fins (the poor Sawfish got bit yesterday) and one we had a while ago actually almost severed the Sawfish’s Rostrum (again, poor guy) but Dr. Adams saved it because he is a genius.

The Freshwater Sawfish is my favorite of the rays.  It’s crazy looking and obviously very tough.  Their long rostrum is covered in sharpened dentacles that form the “teeth” of its “saw”.  The Sawfish uses it to spear and stun its prey or to stir up prey in the substrate.  And don't you worry - the "Freshwater Sawfish" is able to live in salt, brackish, and fresh water.

So sharks are pretty cool.  And the Aquarium of the Pacific has some sweet ones.  Dr. Adams loves sharks and has done a lot of research into their reproduction and has had success with the smaller Bamboo Sharks and is looking forward to perfecting his techniques on the larger species.

I worked with and seen a whole lot of animals, so I’m going to go through some of the ones I've helped with the most.  You can click on the links below the pictures to learn more!  I know - educational, right?

I mentioned that I got to help with a necropsy.  Well it was for one of the aquarium’s beloved California Sea Lions.  His name was Odin and he was a stranded animal that had been rescued and rehabilitated to live here at AoP.  He was not able to be released back into the wild due to his blindness.  But he found a home here with the other sea lions and seals.

Yes.  I know they’re cute.  The Aquarium of the Pacific will be opening an exhibit next May featuring several Magellanic Penguins.  These five were found off the coast of Rio de Janeiro emaciated and diseased.  After some quantine and rehabilitation, they made their way to AoP.  They still had bacterial infections in their feet and were quickly examined and placed on anti-bacterial medications.  As sometimes happens, a fungus took advantage of the vacancies left by the dying bacteria and before long, one of the beloved penguins came down with aspergillosis – a fungal pneumonia. But Dr. Adams put him on nebulizing treatment (making an aerosol out of medication for inhalation).  Within a few days he made dramatic improvement.  The little guy has got his spunk back now, and we’re still treating him daily.

We’ve also been treating some Rainbow Lorikeets.  These bright and beautiful birds are the stars of AoP’s Lorikeet Forest.  There are over 100 of these birds at the facility, and every so often one of them gets sick.  One of the birds is being rehabilitated after having a stroke, and a few others are being treated for the protozoan Sarcocystis.

The Sea Otters have also been being treated for nasal mites with the same medication you use to treat dogs and cats for fleas and ticks.  They’re pretty darn adorable too.

This last Monday we examined the aquarium’s banded sea kraits.  They are one of the most toxic snake species known.  One of them is super old (11 years) and may be the oldest krait in captivity.  He’s a little on the thin side and his blood work was a little funky so we’ve started him on fluids and antibiotics. 

Today I got to help out with the physical examination of Milo – another of the aquarium’s California Sea Lions.  We placed him in a squeeze cage and I got to hold his fins while Dr. Adams drew blood.  Pinnipeds have the remarkable ability to vasoconstrict the blood vessels in their extremities like nobody’s business so we had to get his little flippers all warmed up so there would be blood for Lance to draw.  It was quite the cool experience.  They are amazing creatures and I loved it. 

Sea Lions have claws on their flippers in case you didn’t know and I got a little cut on my hand and made sure I washed it real good afterwards but Samantha (the Vet Assistant) was adamant that I put a band-aid on.  After looking around for a while, she finally went to Lance who got up and gave me the title for this post.  Gotta love that guy.

And here is the great place where it all happens! 

I love The King’s Speech.  LOVE IT.  The trailer got me emotional so I knew it had to be good.   It turned out it was so good I saw it twice that first day.  What makes this film so great you might ask?  Well I’ll tell you:

This is a human story.  It is a story about inadequacies, insecurities, and doubts.  It’s about fear and the conquest of it.  It is about bravery and the honor of doing what is right in the face of those fears and inadequacies.

King George VI was a stammerer.  Since a great man in my home ward also suffers from this condition, I can relate to his pain.  I’ve seen it and felt it - though obviously my feeling is at best a strong empathy.  He was called upon in the hour of the world’s greatest need to not only defeat his own fears, but to serve as a symbol of hope in the darkest times of a global war. 

I do not envy any leader of that era.

There is a scene where he walks toward the broadcast room to make his first wartime speech.  Moments before, he had been unable to successfully deliver his address.  As he made ‘the long walk’ I couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed by the fear he must have felt.  Here he was to make a speech that would inspire his vast empire to stand up for what is right, to give them hope as they stood on the brink of war, and he was to do it all with a debilitating speech impediment.   

I couldn’t help but think of the great evil he was facing, of the millions of lives that were about to be lost, and the longest, darkest of nights the world was about to enter.  I can only imagine the burden he felt. 

But there with his trusted friend and mentor, he did it.  He looked square into the microphone and delivered the first of many speeches that were to become a symbol of national resistance.

I was reminded of the Atonement of the Savior.  He too must have felt an astonishing darkness as the evils of the world buried Him in despair.  But He also was comforted in His time of need and He too accomplished the task that was given Him.  And because of that, there is nothing in this world that cannot be made right.  Light will always triumph over darkness.

There is nothing you can’t do.  You are equal to your tasks.  I promise.  Please see this film.  I guarantee it will do you good.