Life goes on for Waikiki Aquarium's residents as visitors stay away - Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Life goes on for Waikiki Aquarium's residents as visitors stay away - Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Life goes on for Waikiki Aquarium's residents as visitors stay away - Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Posted: 17 May 2020 03:10 AM PDT

In the darkness of Waikiki Aquarium, shafts of morning sun fell through large, illuminated glass tanks where unicorn fish, manini, yellow tangs, butterflyfish, Moorish idols and a tiny cleaner wrasse in fluorescent rainbow shave-ice colors darted and flitted, while in smaller tanks sea horses and weedy-looking sea dragons slowly bobbed as if dancing courtly underwater quadrilles.

They were all beautiful and fascinating to watch, but there were no spectators: The aquarium has been closed to the public due to COVID-19 since mid-March, with small shifts of staff coming in to care for the animals and keep the facilities operating, said Andrew Rossiter, aquarium director.

"I shouldn't say this, but it's actually been really nice with no visitors," Rossiter said Tuesday as he contemplated a glowing, floor-to-ceiling cylinder, filled with pulsing moon jellyfish, which he likened to "a living lava lamp."

>> PHOTOS: Reef life gets a breather from visitors at Waikiki Aquarium

Quiet and peaceful with the air-conditioning and bright signage lights switched off, "it's very relaxing to bring a chair and sit in here," Rossiter added, noting that the aquarium normally receives about 280,000 visitors, including 30,000 schoolchildren on field trips, over the course of a year.

Asked if the absence of humans might also be restful for the aquarium's animals, he said, "It's only anecdotal, but they do look a lot more relaxed (without) little kids who bang on the glass."

"It's possible the fish are feeling less distractions, and perhaps some are a little more curious now, but there's been no overt aggression or mating behavior," he added as a leopard­-spotted, zebra shark swam by in the tank behind him.

Erin Kelly, a biologist and aquarium research associate, said the lack of people was a big change and the different environment took adjusting for the intelligent octopus. "I'm sure when people start coming back, he'll probably spend a few days hiding in his den before coming out and interacting."

Biologist Helene Meehl, who tends to the seahorses and weedy sea dragons, said the male sea horses were also coping with a change: They had been separated from the females to prevent their reproducing.

"We've got the big boys in a basket within the tank because we don't have enough staff on duty right now to produce enough feed for a growing population of sea horses, which require up to 3,000 pieces of live (algae) a day," Meehl said, explaining that sea horses lack stomachs and so must eat constantly.

The feed, including a special variety for baby sea horses, is cultivated on site, Kelly said, and the staff rigorously tests and regulates the temperature and purity of tank water, which is drawn from the reef and the aquarium's well, for all the exhibits, but sea horses and sea dragons are especially sensitive and susceptible to disease.

"IT WOULD be a great study to look at whether the behavior of fishes changes in our exhibits when there are no visitors here," Rossiter said, "but research is on hold at the moment because we're short-staffed due to COVID."

On the other hand, he said, as he strolled outdoors into the bright sun by the sea, the reef ecosystem in this area of the Waikiki Marine Life Conservation District was benefiting without tourists walking on coral and scattering fish food despite the "do not feed the fish " sign on the aquarium fence.

Rossiter was glad this practice, which drew large schools of fish fighting for the "junk food" that interrupted their natural diet, had stopped, he said as he watched a few long, greenbacked bonefish swimming calmly in the clear shallows.

But just that morning, he added, for the first time in more than six weeks, he looked out his office window and saw a man dumping a bucket of fish food into the sea.

As he walked back through the aquarium yard, a series of honks and bellows came from the monk seal, who had hauled himself out onto the concrete deck of his pool.

"He knows it's feeding time," Rossiter said.

Indoors, the sea dragons, added to the aquarium in fall 2018, were also being fed; some of the dreamlike creatures, who resembled long-limbed Balinese dancers in branching headdresses, made a beeline for the column of food flecks, but others turned away.

"I keep track of them to see who's feeding and who's not — when they go off their feed, it could mean they're producing eggs," Meehl said, adding that each individual looks different to her and has a name based on its markings.

—

AQUARIUM SCHOOLING

Although the Waikiki Aquarium is closed, public education programs are still conducted online:

>> When: Wednesday, from 3:30 to 4:30 pm,

>> What: Webinar on king tides, sea level rise and how to volunteer as a community scientist.

>> On the net: For more information, and to make donations to the nonprofit organization, which has no revenue coming in during the coronavirus shutdown, go to waikikiaquarium.org.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

This fish is worth $300,000 - New York Post

This fish is worth $300,000 - New York Post This fish is worth $300,000 - New York Post Posted: 05 Jun 2016 12:00 AM PDT With exacting precision, the surgeon inserted the scalpel above the eyeball and cut out a snotty deposit of fatty tissue. The routine eye-lift was nearly complete when suddenly the patient awoke, suffocating, and began to flop about on the table. The audience gasped. Knowing time was of the essence, the surgeon scooped up the patient in his arms, raced across the stage, and dropped her into a tank of water. She revived. Because she was a fish. Yes, fish eye-lifts exist. As do fin jobs and tail tucks. The operating theater was a mall in Jakarta, Indonesia, where a pet expo was under way. As for the patient, she survived, her formerly droopy eyes now bright and perky. A good thing, too, as this was no ordinary goldfish but rather an Asian arowana, the world's most expensive aquarium denizen, rumored to sell for as mu...
Read more

Catching Dory: selling aquarium fish supports coastal livelihoods in Indonesia | npj Ocean Sustainability - Nature.com

Image
Abstract The global marine aquarium trade has created new local markets across the planet, including in Indonesia, now the second-largest exporting country of marine aquarium fish in the world. Participating in the global aquarium trade has been touted as a potentially sustainable addition to fisher livelihoods, but scant data exist showing the numbers of fish coming off the reef and how those fish contribute to income. To determine how participants in the trade incorporate aquarium species in their livelihoods, we examine source-level aquarium fish collecting and trading data in the Banggai Archipelago, a region in Central Sulawesi that has become a significant source for popular aquarium, also known as ornamental, fish species. Using a sustainable livelihoods lens, we examine this data to understand how participants in the aquarium trade both contribute to as well as benefit from the trade and consider how their participation relates to emerging Blue Justice principles. From one year...
Read more

NilocG Launches New Website for the Only All-in-One Thrive Fertilization Solution for Planted Aquariums - PRNewswire

Image
NilocG Launches New Website for the Only All-in-One Thrive Fertilization Solution for Planted Aquariums - PRNewswire NilocG Launches New Website for the Only All-in-One Thrive Fertilization Solution for Planted Aquariums - PRNewswire Posted: 11 Mar 2021 02:00 AM PST ALBANY, Ore. , March 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NilocG launches a new website for planted tank enthusiasts to gather and make THRIVE, a plant fertilizer that assures planted tank aquascapes flourish while eliminating the need for multiple products more readily available online. The company also takes it a step further in the industry, making its flagship product easy to dose, super-concentrated, and an all-in-one solution based on an effective EL dosing method with all essential micro and macronutrients. Continue Reading Thrive fertilizer: North America's most trusted aquarium plant fertilizer Colin Grice , CEO, a self-described planted tank lover, re...
Read more