Baby Beluga

Thursday, July 17th

For my first day off in Vancouver without my wife, I returned to the Vancouver Aquarium. Angela and I spent several hours with the sea life last Monday.

Outside the Aquarium

The stars of the aquarium's collection at the moment are Qila (a 13 year-old beluga whale) and her new calf. The baby girl was born June 10th, making her less than a month old when we visited. She's the first baby beluga born to a mother who was also born in an aquarium. (The baby does not yet have a name, the aquarium probably won't name her for several more months.) The baby is being studied intensely - there are researchers watching and recording her every move and sound. We were allowed to visit in small, controlled groups and our time was limited but it was neat to see a brand new whale!

Qila getting a feeding and check-out with her calf at her side.

Baby Beluga swimming laps.

She's about the size and color of a dolphin. She'll get whiter as she ages - in fact, she was shedding her skin while we were there. She spent a lot of time rubbing off the itchy dead skin on the walls of her enclosure.

There were lots of other things to see at the aquarium. They had a large area devoted to the tropics and the Amazon in particular. In addition to the tanks full of fish, they also had a walk through display that was home to butterflies, birds and even a sloth! They also had a pygmy marmoset on display, safely behind glass where he wouldn't be tempted to jump into my pocket.

The most interesting part of the aquarium was devoted to the coastal waters of British Columbia. I imagined that the waters this far north would be quite cold and not very pretty. Given what was on display, I couldn't have been more wrong! Much of the coastline is sheltered by Vancouver Island and is quite temperate. It is full of beautiful anemones, starfish, sea cucumbers and a wide array of shellfish in addition to some interesting fish. I was struck by all the beautiful colors found close to shore.

All this color and variety can be found just off the shore in BC

Sometimes it's hard not to look into the tanks and just see lunch.

Angela and I spent the majority of our time watching the marine mammals in their outdoor enclosures. There were stellar sea lions, harbor seals, pacific white sided dolphins and sea otters on view next door to the belugas. All of them are fun to watch, but the otters are show stealers. We were lucky enough to be around for one of their feeding times. Their keepers tossed the otters big bunches of shucked sea clams and the otters would catch them on their bellies and cruise around on their backs while they ate. Afterwards, they circled their tank looking for any goodies they might have dropped and generally clowned around.

Hello, otter!

The otters at the Vancouver Aquarium were featured in this youtube sensation

Angela up close and personal with a pacific white sided dolphin

Angela dropped me back off at my apartment just in time to start thinking about dinner. Karl came over to share a late supper with me. He brought some lovely BC wine to go with our gazpacho (all those tasty looking fresh summer vegetables) and scallops over linguine with champagne and creme fraiche sauce (did the aquarium inspire me?). So nice to wrap up the day off in the kitchen with a good friend.

JV