Oregon Coast Aquarium — don’t trust the shark divers
by Steve, August 2nd, 2009
We spent a couple days at the Oregon coast (highs of 60-65) after several days of 100+ in Portland with lows around 75. It’s still hot in Portland. We paid a visit (and a whole lot of simoleons) to the Oregon Coast Aquarium.
Maybe they’ll use some of that dough to send their shark divers to shark school.
In the window where you used to be able to watch not-Free Willy swim by, divers float amongst sharks and talk about them. They even take questions from the audience.
A kid asked, “What’s the biggest shark,” and the diver hemmed and hawed for a while before saying “Great White.”
The MC in the auditorium asked the diver, “What about the Whale Shark?” The diver said “I don’t know if that’s a whale or a shark.”
At this point, 7-year-old Jr., who knows pretty much everything there is to know about sharks, walked out. (Jr.: The Whale shark is, in fact, the largest living shark.)
The diver went on to say he was pretty sure whale sharks are vegetarians (Jr.: they’re not, though they feed mainly on tiny phyto- and zooplankton).
If you go to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, my kid is available for consultations.
