Mollusks I’ve met: East Coast Aquariums, Part II

Baltimore’s aquarium was great, but what’s a vacation without two aquarium trips? The New England Aquarium has long been one of my favorites, because of the huge central tank with all the cool stuff in it, including three different species of sea turtles. Also, there are harbor seals you can see from outside that spend a lot of time in this blorpy iceburg pose:

(photo: atrphoto)

And, of course, there are PENGUINS. This was the big draw when I was a kid, as penguins were my absolute favorite animal back then. They have three different penguin enclosures with three different species, and one of the enclosures has a fish-shaped flashlight that allows you to play with the penguins in a manner not unlike cat and laser pointer. My husband and I were thrilled to see the little blue penguins, the world’s smallest penguin species. We were happy to see them in particular because before this our only encounter with this species of penguin had been in New Zealand, where a dead one floated by our sea kayak. Let the healing begin.

I couldn’t find a video of penguins chasing the light at the aquarium, but it’s like this, but in the water. So cute.

I have to say, the New England Aquarium certainly does give some invertebrate love. They had another Pacific Giant Octopus, the biggest nautilus I’ve ever seen, amazing corals, crustaceans, anemones, urchins, sea stars, sea cucumbers and the like, and a first for me– cuttlefish!
These are common cuttlefish and were just adorably hovering in their dark little tank.

All of these recent cephalopod encounters made me realize I don’t think I’ve ever seen a live squid before. How to rectify?

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