Vancouver Aquarium

Dolphins showing off! Uploaded by M+MD

Today we took the bikes and cycled to Stanley Park again. This time we went to the aquarium. It is a great place. There are lots of different exhibits of different underwater animals. The Beluga Whales; the Sea Otters and the Dolphns are the stars of the show. But the exibits from the Amazon and from the British Columbia coastlines are also spectacular. The dolphins were not of the Flipper / Fungie bred (I think they're called bottle-nosed dolphins) but looked bigger and are more starkly coloured black and white. They put on a great show - big jumps and even landing up on the deck of the dock. The theme of the show was educational rather than the circus that you see in Sea World.

Beluga Whale underwater Uploaded by M+MD

Beluga Whales and trainer Uploaded by M+MD

The Belugas look like very overweight white dolphins. The Belugas has a 3 to 4 inch layer of blubber alll around their body. On the oldest Beluga this was pretty jelly like. They don't move as fast or jump as high, but they look like they are smiling all the time. They like in the Artic and can hold their breath for 20 minutes under the ice!

Sea Otter Uploaded by M+MD

Sea Otter Uploaded by M+MD

But the real stars of the show were the sea otters. These are the same guys who made in big on YouTube a few weeks ago - apparently they made the greatest number of views in a day or ever on YouTube. See Kevin's comment for confirmation. We didn't get them holding hands - but they were cute enough! YouTube Stars Uploaded by M+MD Watch YouTube Video Here

Jelly Fish from British Columbia Uploaded by M+MD

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