Sunday I went to the Ft. Fisher Aquarium for the first time in years. While there I overheard a woman say, “Come on. Come on kids, we gotta get our 8$ worth” as she pushed her kids along from one exhibit to the next. Hmm, I spent 8$ for 3 hours of seeing local marine life that would be impossible for the average person to ever see without the aquarium.
With a 2 hour movie costing 7$-9$ in this town, I would say the aquarium is pretty cheap. I probably could have stayed there 3 hours longer if I was not on a mission to take photos. It’s strange that people take the aquarium and its inhabitants for granted. It’s oh so delicious inhabitants.
It was pretty fun shooting photos there, but the glass sure throws some challenging reflections. Maybe I can convince them to let me dive in the big tank some day to shoot some closeups.
The striped bass seemed as interested to look through the glass at me as I was to look at them.
I thought it was strange that the aquarium had ducks but he sure was handsome. There are a few other birds there as well just wandering around.
Alligators have kinda creepy feet.
A delicious school of massive spadefish made endless circles in the big tank while an old black drum scoured the bottom with friendly sharks, rays, morays, and others.
The rays loved to fly up the glass. This grouper was a camera lover for sure, always right against the glass staring and holding still for me. Also here is a bonnet head shark and a big old puffer fish.
In the reef tank lots of little guys darted around constantly.
This moray came right up to the glass and just sat there for the most part. Sure has a lot of wrinkles.
Jellies were my favorite of the day. They just have the best light.
These lobsters are huge. One day I hope I can get good enough at free diving to grab one but for now this is the only place I'll probably see them this big.
