The White Whale

On my birthday I wanted to go to the Vancouver Aquarium. It is known to be the largest in Canada. Okay... I've been to quite a few aquariums so we'll just see how 'large' it is.

Well.. it wasn't that large.... Monterey Bay is still the best on this side of the coast. (Although I was pretty impressed with the Shanghai Aquarium though. But that's on a past post.)

The amazing thing about this aquarium was that they had beluga whales. I've never seen belugas in person so this was a very rare experience.

They are very interesting mammals. They don't really look like whales nor dolphins. First off, they are all white or whitish-gray in color (although when they are calves they are gray in color). It's head is unlike any other form of cetacean (marine mammal family which includes whales, dolphins and porpoises).  The beluga can change it's shape of the head by blowing air around its sinuses. Plus since it's vertebrae in the neck are not fused together (like dolphins and whales) belugas can turn its head laterally.

Belugas also have a dorsal ridge instead of a dorsal fin.  Its body is round and tapers less smoothly to the head than to the tail thus giving it an appearance of having shoulders. The flippers are broad and short giving it a square shaped look.

The underwater view

Belugas are mainly found in the Arctic regions (coasts of Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Russia). The Vancouver Aquarium has two beluga whales (Aurora and her daughter Qila) that they showcase with the third who just passed away before we came. He was the oldest in captivity at 46 years of age. The aquarium also has three more beluga whales who are on loan to the SeaWorlds in Florida, San Diego and San Antonio.

The Vancouver Aquarium is also home to two porpoises. Jack, the playful porpoise, is one year old and was so engaging with the audience behind the glass that we didn't want to leave him.

He just kept swimming back and forth to the glass and followed our movements from the other side.

Hannah brought her harbor seal animal, See-O,  and he played with Jack for a few minutes.


Other interesting species was the crocodile... no alligator... no.....

It's an 'alligatorid crocodylian'; this is a piranha caiman which feeds on ... yes.. piranhas!

This was neither a crocodile nor alligator  (and I thought I had it down in figuring out the difference between the two). This is a caiman which is a cousin of the alligator and crocodile.Who knew?

A beautiful hyacinth macaw which are endangered and largest in the world

Lastly, we enjoyed a very entertaining 4D movie on orcas.

 Yes, it was a very memorable birthday and thoroughly enjoyable vacation!