–by Zhenzhou Hu and Jim Wang
During this year’s Thanksgiving break, Palm Valley international students Hugh Hu, Allen Zhao, Ben Ju, and Jim Wang visited Long Beach’s Aquarium of Pacific. All of them strongly suggest their peers put this aquarium on their field trip lists. The following depicts the adventure from the perspective of Hugh.
–Edited by Amber Zheng
Ben amazingly looked at this scary Moray Eel and said, “This fish is beautiful!” The rest of us failed to see the beauty.
Ben really loves fish. He wants to major in Sea Creatures (or Ocean Biology) in college. So, on our time off, we took an Uber from Arcadia to the Aquarium of the Pacific, and we had a great time. Ben was excited over every tank. He must have said “Wow” more than 25 times when looking at the various jelly fish and sea horses and star fish. We visited the aquarium on Thursday, which is Thanksgiving Day, and it was not as crowded as we expected. The ticket price was also not as high as we expected—only $29.
There were awesome educational exhibitions and facilities. At the beginning, we went to see a short movie about the Pacific Ocean. The movie showed us how human beings affect the biosphere of ocean and told us how to protect the biosphere by reusing and recycling. The aquarium also had a little 3D theatre that sells tickets for $4 each, but we didn’t walk in because we were not interested in 3D theatre.
The Aquarium Officer gently teaches Jim and Ben NOT to touch the shellfish with five fingers and definitely NOT to flip them over.
The aquarium was kind of small, but there were plenty of things to see for everyone, and there were several touch tanks and good viewing angles for people to really appreciate the aquatic wildlife. The aquarium officer allowed us to touch the aquatic wildlife with two fingers, but Jim was so amazed and excited that he flipped the the shell. The officer told him not to do so because it’s okay to do it several times, but if everyone out of the couple thousand visitors does the same thing the shells will be affected. The officer forgave Jim, but the rest of us blamed him.
My favourite part of the aquarium was the penguin exhibit! I thought that there was no way I could see penguins in a place like California. We didn’t expect to see cold-loving penguins in a climate as warm as California’s. The penguins were sliding and waddling and posing for photos (with us).
The most shocking thing to me was seeing the exhibits cleaned. Divers use a vacuum to suck up leaves and dirt. We saw a diver step on a starfish while cleaning the tank. We worried about the starfish, and other people around us did as well: “What is this man doing? Does he realize what he is doing?” said the aquarium visitors.
–Photo credit: Jim Wang
Overall, the Aquarium of the Pacific is a fun place to be if you don’t have any idea about what plans to make and you’re in the area! We easily spent two hours there! I highly recommend students in biology class going to the Aquarium Of the Pacific for an annual trip.
We don’t know what fish this is, but IT IS a BIG fish.
“The crabs must taste delicious.”–Amber Zheng
If you look closely at the bottom right of the picture, you can see the diver in the tank nearly kneeling on a starfish!!!! –Photo in Action by Zhenzhou Hu