For the last couple of weeks I have been travelling around Australia and Tasmania.... Last time I was in Australia I was 5, and by my mother’s account I dragged her into all of the possible aquariums. Obviously I was attracted by the underwater world and my career path was already clear back then. Imagine a kid in those big tunnels, with sharks and dolphins and all sort of colourful coral reefs. I must have been very happy... I actually remember some of those even though memories in these years are not very well formed.
The years that followed had plenty of aquariums in them, we travelled from Rome to Genova , and I still remember the playful seals and the dolphins (they have a rescue program there, so eventually they are freed). Dragged a London babysitter to see the London aquarium too , she only spoke spanish and I was 11, so while the aquarium wasn’t that worth it , it was still a nice experience. Fast forward many years and I was in the Monterey bay aquarium for what I remember to be the best conference dinner ever, eating with the fishes , and walking at night through dark tunnels full of luminescent jellyfish. What a party! The last aquarium I walked into was in San Sebastián , and while I appreciated their effort to cover the issue with marine plastic (there was a whole tank with this new habitat !) I felt very bad for the animals in there. Fishes waiting for their daily feed , swimming in circle, the shark going back and forth on top of the tunnel. Seahorses crowded on a bit of seaweeed , some eels. I walked in there because I was curios and because I was one to always go to aquariums . I walked out of it thinking ‘never again’. Maybe I outgrew aquariums. I felt a little bit sad. I still hadn’t seen the best aquariums in the world (Valencia , Montecarlo..) yet I felt I likely will not want to go there anymore . On this trip I found myself wandering around Beauty Point, in Tasmania . Walking around , a bit aimlessly , taking it all in. I sawa sign for ‘seahorse world’, I had seen some flyers about it, so I walked in the entrance to read about it. A seahorse farm. Where they breed them. I thought: maybe for conservation ? We have destroyed a lot of their natural habitats so maybe .. but no. They bred them to be shipped all over the world . To aquariums I presume. While it may be scientifically interesting to breed a seahorse (they are also one of the few species where is the male to provide primary parental care !) - I feel that doing to ship them all over the world didn’t make much sense . Maybe aquariums have a potential ‘educational’ purpose, but also they could send a message that we can take whatever we want as ‘humans’ and ‘superior species’ and put it into a small tank . Actually we could breed it so it would be artificially made for our purpose. Maybe a trip to the beach with mask and snorkel would be a much better educational tool. What you see you see , what you don’t see it was maybe because you weren’t patient enough , or still enough , or maybe because it wasn’t the right time or the right place . I didn’t see any se dragoon of seahorse , but discovered some huge ascidians and colourful sponges and the blennies sticking their head out of little holes , just swimming under a pier and looking at some of the pilings. So didn’t take that much effort.. Wouldn’t that be much more educational ?
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