Any aquarium visit is going to be full of color, water and motion, but I always find myself focusing on a few favorites, and it’s often the comedians among the crowd.
On a recent visit to Boston’s big New England Aquarium, that role fell first to the penguins and then to the sea turtles.
Penguins can’t help it: To human eyes they are cute, even cuddly on land, and their waddling walk just adds to it. Of course, that awkwardness disappears when they are swimming, but on my visit they didn’t bother much with that; they were too busy getting up close and personal with the treats being handed out by a staff member.
The Aquarium’s concern with penguins is, of course, not just amusement; it is one of their programs to preserve and study endangered marine life.
Unlike the penguins, the also-endangered large sea turtles don’t have a show of their own at the Aquarium.
Instead, they swim with the fishes in the huge multi-story tank which is the heart of the aquarium, as visitors travel up (or down) a series of ramps that connect the open top with the ground level.
Viewed through the walls of the tank and the water, they take on a shadowy and blue-cast appearance. They seem almost to glide or float through the water, with little apparent effort of their legs, but they are not slow!
Viewed from the top of the tank, their true colors, greenish with hints of light and dark become apparent, as well as their ability to blend in with the background.
