Sea-cows (and bulls)
Sep. 21st, 2010 04:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dormouse1953Spent a couple of hours on the Monday going round Sydney Aquarium. Sharks seem to be their main theme, but they have plenty of other fish found in Australian waters, such as the common yabby. I remember having yabby salad at a restaurant in Melbourne back in 1999. It's a freshwater shellfish, a type of crayfish.
There are a couple of large tanks - swimming pool size - that have perspex tubes running through them through which you can walk and watch the fish swim by. One of these contains a number of sharks. A notice points out that people think the curvature of the glass makes the sharks look bigger. Actually, it makes them look smaller than they really are.
The other tank contains dugongs (and some very spectacular rays). Dugongs, or sea-cows, are said to be the origin of the mermaid legends but the one that sat on the tube right over where I was standing was most definitely not a mermaid. I was surprised none of the kids standing about decided to embarrass their parents with questions like, "What's that long tube on its front, Mummy?" So, is a male dugong still called a sea-cow?.
The gift shop had a number of stuffed toy dugongs on sale (without penises) and one full size one which wasn't for sale. Would never have got it in my suitcase, anyway.
Passing the aquarium is the Sydney monorail, which my guidebook tells me is known by the locals as the "monster rail". As a means of getting from A to B it's a bit of a non-starter, as the track forms a loop about a kilometer square, and it's probably quicker to walk between any two stations rather than waiting for a train. But it does give tourists an interesting view of the centre of the city.
There are a couple of large tanks - swimming pool size - that have perspex tubes running through them through which you can walk and watch the fish swim by. One of these contains a number of sharks. A notice points out that people think the curvature of the glass makes the sharks look bigger. Actually, it makes them look smaller than they really are.
The other tank contains dugongs (and some very spectacular rays). Dugongs, or sea-cows, are said to be the origin of the mermaid legends but the one that sat on the tube right over where I was standing was most definitely not a mermaid. I was surprised none of the kids standing about decided to embarrass their parents with questions like, "What's that long tube on its front, Mummy?" So, is a male dugong still called a sea-cow?.
The gift shop had a number of stuffed toy dugongs on sale (without penises) and one full size one which wasn't for sale. Would never have got it in my suitcase, anyway.
Passing the aquarium is the Sydney monorail, which my guidebook tells me is known by the locals as the "monster rail". As a means of getting from A to B it's a bit of a non-starter, as the track forms a loop about a kilometer square, and it's probably quicker to walk between any two stations rather than waiting for a train. But it does give tourists an interesting view of the centre of the city.
