Alaska SeaLife Center
July 31, 2011
Our itinerary included a visit to the Alaska SeaLife Center. I figured that, worst case scenario, if it rained on us the whole trip, at least we would see some cool wildlife at the aquarium. I am very thankful that it did not in fact rain on us the whole trip and that we got to see all sorts of amazing animals in the wild. But the SeaLife Center was still fun, not in the least because we took an "encounter tour" that was recommended by National Geographic Traveler's Alaska. These are intimate encounters with one animal and only four guests of the aquarium. They have choices of a puffin, a Harbor Seal, and a Pacific Giant Octopus. The cost of doing two was too high, and we had a terrible time trying to decide between the seal and the octopus. We finally decided on the octopus, because we see seals a lot more often in the wild, and they are not particularly shy, while it's a very rare thing indeed to interact with an octopus. Before our encounter, though, we spent a while looking at the aquarium exhibits.
We got a good look at this Red King Crab.
He exposed his legs, which admittedly look kind of yummy.
I liked the bubbles at the top of the tank.
A close look at a shrimp.
I've lost track of the exact species of this animal, but I know it's a fish.
Eric took a picture of the kelp forest tank.
I zoomed in on some anemones.
This guy camouflages himself in the eelgrass. Photo by Eric.
A beautiful basket star.
A lovely anemone.
A Wolf Eel.
I always love jelly exhibits. They make for such great photography.
The bird exhibit had a hilarious Rhinoceros Auklet named Swinger. Photo by Eric.
Swinger just loved attention and would practically pose for pictures.
Eric took a picture of Swinger coming right up to the glass. When I said to one of the naturalists that Swinger had a lot of personality, she told me that, "All the birds have very distinct personalities."
Swinger got splashed by the hose as the aquarium staff washed the rocks.
The exhibit had a Pigeon Guillemot, a fairly common bird we saw often in the wild.
Eric took a great picture of a Tufted Puffin displaying his tufts.
And here are the Horned Puffins with their horned eyelids.
The Harbor Seal exhibit had one lonely seal, who seemed to hide from cameras a lot.
Another Harbor Seal in a different exhibit.
Eric got a close-in view of the Steller's Sea Lion's face.
The sea lion catching a fish.
The sea lion swimming underwater.
Eric took a picture of me touching an anemone in the touch pool. The water was so cold, I could barely keep my fingers in long enough for a picture.
We listened to a park naturalist talk about the Alutiiq people, who invented the kayak. I asked how they kept themselves warm and dry in the kayaks, and it turns out that they also invented a prototypical spray skirt made of animal intestines. They wore it as a jacket over their upper bodies and draped it over the opening in the kayak. It did not seal with elastic around the kayak opening like a modern spray skirt, but it worked to some extent.
At last it was time for our octopus encounter!
First, we saw some smaller, younger octopuses in tanks. These are Pacific Giant Octopuses; they are just youthful.
Another view.
Eric's view.
Earlier, we had seen a very large Pacific Giant Octopus in a display case downstairs. It turned out his name was Felix. Our naturalist and guide, Deanna, showed us some squid. We all touched the squid so that the octopus we would meet, Lulu, would like the smell of our fingers. We did this on the edge of Felix's tank, and when Deanna rinsed her fingers in the water, it really got Felix's attention.
At last, we got to meet Lulu! Photo by Eric.
I took a closer-in shot.
Another picture of Lulu by Eric.
I zoomed in on an arm so that you could see the suckers well.
Eric took a picture of me sticking my fingers into the frigid water to touch Lulu.
We and the other two people on the tour each fed Lulu some shrimp. Lulu did not immediately eat the shrimp, but just held them for later consumption.
Deanna took a picture of us with Lulu.
And a picture of Eric deep in fascination.
Feeling Lulu's suckers was an amazing experience. It was wonderful to be so intimate with such an incredible animal. Deanna taught us to gently twist our hands to loosen the grip of the suckers on our hands, without pulling Lulu's arms out of the water. If you try to pull away strongly, an octopus will only grip harder. We could really feel Lulu responding to our touch. I shivered with delight.
After our encounter, Deanna told us a few more things about the Pacific Giant Octopus. Pacific Giant Octopuses mature sexually relatively late in life, so finding a sexually mature Pacific Giant Octopus is difficult. At one point, the Center had a pair of them, one male and one female, so the staff tried to breed them. The octopuses got together just as they were supposed to do, held on to each other for a couple of hours, and then the male passed his seed packet to the female. One of the others on our tour remarked that this sounded sort of like a drug deal. The female, as is typical for this species, held onto the seed packet for a while, but eventually lay and fertilized her eggs.
Deanna showed us a jar full of Pacific Giant Octopus eggs. Photo by Eric.
The eggs matured into tiny Pacific Giant Octopuses like this. Photo by Eric.
Unfortunately, however, the tiny octopuses did not survive. No aquarium has ever been able to raise a Pacific Giant Octopus in captivity. Somewhere during the time that the octopuses grow from this tiny octopus stage to the stage we saw in the small tanks above, they go through a vulnerable stage and don't make it. Attempts continue.
Well! That was an incredible encounter! We were quite pleased that we had picked the octopus rather than the Harbor Seal, because the other people had had both encounters and assured us that the octopus was much better. They showed us a video of the Harbor Seal encounter, and while they saw it up close and watched it do tricks, they didn't get to touch it. They also showed us pictures of their trip to Katmai and the bears catching salmon. I wished we could have gone to Katmai, but, at $1,000 per person for a 24-hour trip, I couldn't justify spending the money.
Although the weather did not disappoint us and we saw many marine creatures in the wild, the trip to the SeaLife Center was still worthwhile. It gave us a much closer look at the animals than we would ever get in the wild, and it was quite enjoyable.
On to the Exit Glacier.
