Vancouver Aquarium Outing

The weather was great on Tuesday but for some silly reason I didn’t manage to make it out to the Vancouver Aquarium as I originally wanted to. I ended up heading over there yesterday, though the weather was a bit grey looking. The majority of the exhibits in the aquarium are indoors, so I guess that doesn’t really matter, does it?

My first memories of the Vancouver Aquarium were way back in the days of being little. They had a sort of zoo section outside the aquarium itself that was home to various reptiles, monkeys as well as polar bears. In fact the polar bear enclosures are still there, just overgrown with vegetation now. In those days, the Vancouver Aquarium was home to some Orca (or Killer Whales) but they were eventually phased out and the water habitat was reconstructed for belugas, dolphins, harbour seals and other marine animals. Though I am not entirely sure what happened to the stellar sea lions as they were not there.

The inside though is made up of a few larger sections; Tropical, Coastal and Arctic exhibits. So let’s get to the photos I took this trip!

The Tropical section is probably my favourite section of the aquarium. It’s home to many species of fish, mammals and reptiles.

Sea Turtle, similar to that the one Jack Sparrow lashed together with hairs from his back!

Pygmy Marmoset. The photo doesn’t really show the size of this little guy but he couldn’t be much larger than my hand.

Various birds live within the tropical section of the aquarium. Just be careful walking around, as you could get pooped on.

The two-toed female sloth is a pretty cool sight, if you find her. This time around she was slowly making her way around the area. Normally when I have ever gone to the aquarium, she’s hiding up on a ledge among the jungle foliage. It was a great treat to see her out and about.

There is a ton more things to see in this area. Though sometimes it is hard to photograph the critters behind the glass, especially the fish.

The Coastal waters  is a pretty cool section of the aquarium, it is dedicated to the coastal waters off of our province. Various water habitats set up depending on where they are located on the coast. It is pretty cool to see the diversity of ecosystems our coast line offers.

Though, all I seem to have walked away from are photos of the various jelly fish. I was happy to see the octopus out and about. I don’t think I have ever actually seen him as he is hidden in the rocky area of his tank.

The Arctic section seems to have been renovated lately and update. As I write this post, I feel as if I missed out on taking photos to better explain the exhibits renovations but it’s pretty cool too. Though I could swear they made the underwater viewing section of the beluga tank smaller. With the amount of families and children there I didn’t feel comfortable taking photos of random people around the area.

The aquarium also has a section dedicate to frogs and other amphibians.

Outside is where the Dolphins, Harbour Seals, Stellar Sea Lions (not currently present), Belugas, as well as those cute Sea Otters are located. On rainy days this portion of the aquarium makes for some wet people, but on the none rainy days, it is pretty fun to wander around.

My photos of the Dolphin show did not turn out as I would have liked them too, and I didn’t want to hang around for the Beluga show. Though the Sea Otters kept me pretty entertained for a while.

The more I write this post, the more I think about what other photos I should have taken. This just means I will have to go back and do all my photos over again and spend more time being camera geeky. Perhaps I’ll go again soon, though the $22 entrance fee is a bit high, I should have bought the annual membership for $58 that way I can go back anytime I wanted to.

I should also look at picking up at circular polarizer for both my 50mm f1.8 lens and my 17-40mm f4L lens as it would have helped reduce the glare from the glass. Or as least I would hope it would help reduce it a bit.