Jeanette Lind
Daughters are like flowers, they fill the world with beauty, and sometimes attract pests. ~Author Unknown
Jeanette Always Helped The Kids With School
Connor had a science project... Eels! So we are off to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach to see the eel displays. They were quite active and easy to see. Connor wrote his repot and got a good grade for the work he had done.... But who did the work???
Aquarium
The Aquarium of the Pacific is located in the city of Long Beach,
California at the mouth of the Los Angeles River. The aquarium features
a collection of over 12,500 animals representing almost 1,000 different
species. The facility focuses on the Pacific Ocean in three major
permanent galleries, Southern California and Baja, Northern Pacific and
Tropical Pacific.
The aquarium was designed as a joint venture of Hellmuth, Obata and
Kassanbaum and Esherick, Homsey, Dodge and Davis. Construction began in
1995 and the 156,735 square foot (14,560 m³) aquarium opened in 1998.
Since the aquarium is built on a site created through land reclamation
in an area prone to earthquakes the facility is built on top of 1,800
cement pilings which each extend 85 feet into the ground and are
surrounded by gravel. The facility filters about 900,000 gallons (3.4
million liters) of salt water per hour, the capacity of all the exhibits
totals about 1,100,000 gallons (4.2 million liters).
The aquarium is a non-profit institution whose mission is, “To instill a
sense of wonder, respect and stewardship for the Pacific Ocean, its
inhabitants and ecosystems.” The facility and the debt incurred to build
it are actually owned by the City of Long Beach with operations provided
by SMG, a nationwide property management company. The non-profit
institution has an agreement with the City to operate the facility
through 2060. The aquarium is an Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA)
accredited facility.
About 1.3 million people visit the aquarium each year; over 190,000 of
those are school age children. The aquarium has a volunteer staff of
about 725 people who work in all departments, including education,
administration, husbandry and scuba diving staff.
The aquarium also pays for and helps staff the science department for
downtown Long Beach’s Cesar Chavez Elementary School. In the spring of
2006 the aquarium staff provided 24 science lessons to the classes at
the school.
The aquarium is one of only two facilities in the world to successfully
breed Weedy Sea Dragons in captivity.
Eel's?? - Ewwww!
There is an urban legend that wallets made out of electric eels
(which, despite their name, are not eels) can demagnetize credit cards.
This was proven to be untrue in an episode of the Myth Busters TV show.
Actually, as pointed out in the Straight Dope, eel-skin wallets are made
from hagfish which are unrelated to electric eels.[2] Furthermore, it
seems that magnetic clasps, not eel leather, are to blame for
demagnetization.
Eel blood is toxic. The toxic protein it contains is destroyed by
cooking. The toxin derived from eel blood serum was used by Charles
Robert Richet in his Nobel winning research which discovered anaphylaxis
(by injecting it into dogs and observing the effect).
On January 31, 1930, the Danish research ship; "The Dana", captured,
(South Africa's Cape of Good Hope), what they thought at the time was a
six-feet long eel larva. This could have meant there were very long eels
in the sea, since the typical eel larva is three inches long, while the
adults can grow from about 4 feet to 16 feet long. In 1970, Dr. David G.
Smith from the University of Miami, identified the larva found as that
of the spiny eel, an eel-like fish whose larvae length is equal to its
adult length, while the larvae length of the true eel is much shorter
than its adult length. [3]
One of the famous attractions of the Pacific island of Huahine (part of
the Society Islands in French Polynesia), is the bridge that crosses
over a stream with 3- to 6-foot long eels. These eels are deemed sacred
by the locals, by local mythology. Aside from just viewing these
slithering creatures, any tourist can buy a can of mackerel and feed the
eels.