Group 6

10/7/2016

After having breakfast, we went to Monterey for the Aquarium Bay.  The journey was long.  It took us around 2 hours.  All of us used the time to sleep so that we would have enough energy to walk around the aquarium.

After we arrived, we had our lunch and then we went inside.  First, we went through the Tentacles.  We could see octopi there.  There were mimic octopuses, chambered nautilus, common cuttlefish, etc.  The mimic octopus can change its color, shape and movement to look like other sea animals.  Chambered nautilus has a nice shell. Common cuttlefish provide camouflage near the ocean floor, which it uses for scuttling crabs and slippery fishes.  Then we went to the Vanishing Wildlife where we could see sharks, tunas and other kinds of fish, such as scalloped hammerhead shark, bluefin tuna, dolphinfish, pelagic stingray.  We couldn't take pictures of them as they swam so fast.  The museum also asked us not to hunt for them as they are going to extinct due to human activities.  Then, we went to the Iviva Baja.  We could see different kinds of fishes, lizards and tortoises, such as panamic blue crab, garden eel, bluespotted jawfish, clarion angelfish, baja's coral reefs, lookdown, etc.  We will just introduce two of them.  Bluespotted jawfish uses its big mouth to dig a sandy den.  It lines the entrance with rocky rubble so it won't cave in, and constantly shovels out mouthfuls of sand.  When danger looms, the fish ducks for cover.  It would be often hide tail first.  Lookdown will be drawn back to coastal reefs in search of barberfish to pluck their parasites.  After that we went to the Open Sea.  The open sea is full of drama.  There were full of jellyfishes.  There were moon jelly, egg-yolk jellyfish, etc.  We think that the lobed comb jelly and cross jelly is very special.  Lobed comb jelly drifts on the currents.  Cross jelly is transparent and it protects itself by blending in.  Later on we saw penguins.  Each penguin has its name.  The names are very funny.  At last, we went to a special event.  It was watching the Laysan Albatross.  We could watch it from 2m afar.  It has white and black feathers and it always listen to its master.  When its master pointed at it to tell it to stand in the middle, it listened and followed.  After visiting the aquarium, we went shopping.  We didn't buy anything.  But all of us bought yogurt.  It is very yummy and better than the ones in Hong Kong.

After dinner, we went back to our room and rest.