Flat Mrs. Abbott visits the AQWA (The Aquarium of Western Australia)

Flat Mrs. Abbott can't wait to see what's in the Aquarium of Western Australia.











Wow, this looks like brain coral. I saw some brain coral like this when I was snorkelling near Gili Trawangan Island.












These coral are beautiful.

Blaise getting up close and personal with a saltwater crocodile.

Derek was getting a little too close for comfort!

Moray eels.

Sea snakes are very scary! Packed in their syringe-like fangs is a venom that is 2-10 times more powerful than a cobra's. I wouldn't want to meet up with one of these.

A blue-ringed octopus is another deadly creature. It injects venom from saliva glands on top of its brain. A blue-ringed octupus holds enough venom to kill ten people.

Clownfish or Anenomefish

Stonefish. Its needle-sharp spines lay flat on its back until it is disturbed. When you stand on a stonefish, the force of your foot injects venom
through the hollow spines into your foot. The venom causes extreme pain and swelling around the wound. There is an antidote available. Good to know! I have no plans to go up to the north coast where these animals live!

Grey Nurse Shark

Amazing, to see a shark so close.

Close up of a shark.

Underside of a Loggerhead Turtle.

Smooth Stingray

Moon Jelly

Heaps of Moon Jellies. Heaps is the word Australians use for lots.

Cuttlefish. While I was watching this cuttlefish a woman kept putting her hand near the glass and the cuttlefish kept spitting out a white spray. I think it was defending itself. Cuttlefish live for about a year. I have seen lots of dried bones of cuttlefish on the beaches of Perth.

Can you see the eye of this cuttlefish? They are very unusual looking creatures.

Rock Lobster.

Lionfish.
This is a deadly creature.

In the middle of the picture is a Leafy Seadragon. He blends in very well with his surroundings.

Blue Devil

Pineapple fish. Its scales do look a lot like a pineapple, don't they.

Derek touching a ray.

Blaise touching a ray.

A stingray. These are not for touching!

Two stingrays.

Yesterday Flat Mrs. Abbott, Blaise, Derek (Blaise's friend visiting from Duncan) and Mrs. Abbott went to the Aquarium of Western Australia at Hillary's Boat Harbour. It is a short drive from where we live in Carine. The aquarium is set up so that we could learn about the entire 12,000 km coastline of Western Australia all in one place. We began by seeing all kinds of fish, coral and jellyfish that live in the ocean along the far north coast of Western Australia.

The far north is one of the most remote regions of the world and home to dangerous marine mammals and colourful coral lagoons. Some of the incredible marine life that can be found here are blue, spotted stingrays, clownfish, crocodiles and the deadly stonefish. The clownfish is the type of fish you see in the movie Finding Nemo. Another name for a clownfish is an anenomefish. These little fish can live among sea anenomes and they are the only fish that can swim among the anenomes and not get stung by the tentacles. The stonefish really looks like a rock. It only stings in self defense.

Next we went to Shipwreck Coast and walked through an aquarium where we could see sharks as large as 4 metres, turtles and stingrays. It was amazing to see sharks so close up.

Perth's coastline has ancient reefs and sandy bays. We saw moonjellies, cuttlefish, rock lobster, seahorses and lionfish. A Lionfish is a deadly fish.

The animals we saw next live in the cold Southern Ocean. We saw a seadragon which is a seahorse that looks part dragon, part seahorse, and it also looks like seaweed and it blends in with its surroundings. The blue devil fish and the pineapple fish are also found in the Southern Ocean.

Derek and Blaise put their hands in the touch pool and touched a ray. They said it felt slimy and smooth.

In Stingray bay we saw black stingrays. Stingrays are not aggressive animals. Most people are stung by them by standing on them. Stingrays are able to swim backwards.

Terry is starting to feel a bit better so we hope to go to Caversham Wildlife Park soon to see the kangaroos.