The Sea Life Center at Seward Alaska

 

 One of the problems of getting old, aside from everything hurting and having to get up multiple times in the night to pee, is the fact that my memory is going. I'm not full blown dementia or anything- yet, but I have a time remembering when things happen. I think I went to Seward with my daughter Autumn and my wife Jan last Saturday or maybe it was the Saturday before. I can't remember. I know I went there though, and I have the pictures to prove it.

We started our time at the Sea Life Center outside in the parking lot. Someone had a Basset hound. Who can resist petting such a delightful creature?  The guy told us his name, the dog's, not his. I really didn't care about the man's name, but again I can't remember what it was. I just asked Jan and fortunately she remembered it. His name was Rutherford. As his owner said-"long dog, long name." It was a good way to start our trip.

Once inside we walked around to all the various sites. Of course they had to have my nemesis of the wild, a Stellar Sea Lion. Damn things. This one was huge too. Lord knows how much food they had to feed it every day for it to maintain it's mammoth size. The good part was that at least he wasn't out in the ocean competing for salmon with me. Actually, now that I think of it, I'm glad that he's there. I think they should put all the sea lions in aquariums and then pay commercial fishermen a premium price for the salmon and cod that they would need to feed them. Another great idea from a great mind.

I'm not sure what kind of duck that was that I took a picture of, but it looked cool, and I'm sure if it had a camera it would be taking a picture of me. There was a couple of Puffins in the display as well. I took pictures of them, but I didn't put them in this post, sorry. If you want to see some, do what we did and go to the Sea Life Center in Seward. They could probably use the business.

Several of the displays had quite a number of Black Rockfish swimming around. They looked fat and happy, which of course makes sense, because the sea lion couldn't get to them and there were no other predators in the tank with them.  There was also a tank with some Pollack or as we call them, Tom Cod. I think that they make Surimi or fish sticks out of them. Personally when I catch them out long lining for halibut, I cut them up and use them for bait. They aren't the best bait, but they cover the hook and once in awhile they catch a halibut.

In the second picture down from the top, there is a Giant Pacific Octopus. You can see his head and barely can make out one of the legs with all the suckers. They are also a tremendous halibut bait. We once caught a halibut with a four foot octopus inside and we cut it up for bait and caught more halibut. The halibut didn't seem to mind pre-digested food. I spoke to some locals back in Hoonah who used to catch octopus under the rocks at low tide by using a funnel and pouring a little bleach in the hole. The octopus rushes out of it's den and they nab them. Personally, I don't care for them. I tried one once, and one bite was all it took to let me know I didn't want more. Better off for bait.

The white blurry blobs in the top picture are some kind of jelly fish. The white ones don't burn if you get them on you flesh, but be forewarned, the red ones burn like hell. Every year I managed to get red jelly on my face and usually at least once in my eyes. I don't care what they say, I've never found anything to stop the sting. I've heard wet tea bags, urine, pickle juice, vinegar- I can't attest to the pee, I'm certainly not going to rub my eye with it, but just about everything else is just an old wives tale I believe. Oh well. By the way, just a bit of trivia- a bunch of jelly fish is called a smack. I'd like to smack them when they get caught up in my gear. What a mess. 

Of course this isn't all we saw at the center. There was a king crab and the shell that it had molted out of. The folks there had it in a crab pot for it's own safety. Apparently they are cannibalistic and when one of them molts, his buddies invite themselves over for dinner, forgetting that they too will one day be on the menu. I can't remember what all else we saw, but I do remember having a good time. It was over three hundred miles round trip though, so I doubt that I'll be going there again any time soon, but I wouldn't mind making it a yearly excursion. If you get the chance, you should take a trip and check it out.