Flora And Fauna USA

Minneapolis

27th April 2017

Bald eagle

Monterey Bay Aquarium

14th April 2017

On the way to the north we made a stopover in Monterey Bay, this place is so far interesting for me because they have a nice Aquarium. The weather on the day of our visit was anyway bad, so it was perfect to spend some hours in the aquarium.

The facility is an old converted sardines manufacturing company which was quite big at that time. One of the co-founder of this aquarium came from the house of Hewlett-Packard. The facility has only some warm water tanks with tropical fishes, the rest and that’s the most of the tanks are more cold water tanks. Most of the animals are from the local coast of California. The entrance fee was not cheap at all, but the facility is pretty big and you can see a lot of animals here. Furthermore you can book some additional tours like the “behind the scenes” tour which I booked and it was really interesting to see. This facility gets its freshwater direct from the Pacific Ocean in front of the house, similar like the aquarium at the Okinawa Island in Japan.

You will find here besides fishes also some sea otter as well as penguins from South Africa, some local coastal birds and different kind of jelly fishes. Outside the facility you have a nice view at the Pacific Ocean and can see some wild sea lions, seals, sea otter and birds. The facility and the tanks are all in a very good condition, the quality of the presentation and information level is very good, very professional how they show it to the public. They do a lot of educational work about the threat of the ocean, they also have a digital seafood restaurant where you can digitally learn which kind of seafood you shouldn´t eat to protect the species. There are also some playgrounds for kids where they can playfully learn about the threat of our oceans…of course the learning effect depends on their parents…

We enjoyed our staying here in this aquarium, it was definitely worth to see for us.

Pressure ballance device to bring animals from deep sea into the surface

From Las Vegas to Seattle

14th April 2017

Some animals which we saw during our trip along the Pacific coast to Seattle.

The Canyons trip

10th April 2017

Some animals which we saw during our canyons round trip.

ATM (Acrylic Tank Manufacturing) - Las Vegas

6th April 2017

From time to time when I was zapping at home I saw the TV show “Tanked” and was always curious if they are always so shrill. As we were already in Vegas and the head office is here, I was googling for the address and behold it´s really here and we went there. The building of the company looks like it is shown on the TV, but the entrance is not in front of the building but aside. The entrance wall is covered by plenty of fan mails, mostly from younger fans. Furthermore there is an aquarium which is built inside a half cut old-timer, quite cool and some TV where they show some of their series highlights. When we entered the building, some people were walking to the workshop with professional cameras and all the equipment which I guess you need to record the series. I think they were making some new episodes. Inside the retail area an employee welcomed us and told us in which part of their company we could walk through and have a look. The retail area is equipped with plenty of fan articles like cups, t-shirts, etc. They also sell aquarium accessories but not that much and mostly their own brand. There is also a nice big vaulted show tank which has very colourful fishes inside and of course their home made plastic corals as you see them in the TV shows…I personally don´t like the plastic corals. Well, I could see some deposition of algae and/or Cyanobacteria, it´s not really in an optimal condition. There were also two large tanks with real corals, but not a lot of fishes inside. You can also see some part of the workshop area where the workers are building some new tanks, that was quite interesting to see. I also met the father of this shop, they call him “The General” and I saw “Redneck” from the workshop. It was somehow interesting to have a short insight of this company. Anyway, I prefer to have a glass tank with real corals ;-)