a visit to aqwa

The Aquarium of Western Australia, or AQWA, is located in Hilarys Boat Harbour, 20 minutes drive north of Perth City. Just like the Underwater World in Sentosa Singapore, it allows divers to 'dive' in the walkthrough aquarium. Unfortunately (or fortunately for my wallet), the afternoon's "Dive with Sharks" session had only 3 slots available, and my friends had already made plans to try this aquarium dive earlier. It was as well in the end, as I could visit the aquarium and other exhibits while i wait for my friends to finish their dive. Plus i saved $105 (yup that's how much the dive costs, abit pricey isnt it?) and i only had to pay discounted $14 instead of the usual $25 admission price, all thanks to my diving friends.

The AQWA, as the name suggests, is mainly a showcase of the marine life found in the entire western australia coast, which stretches to about 12000 km. The coastline is divided into 5 main distinct regions, namely: The far north coast, the coral coast where Ningaloo Reef is found n definitly the best dive region in WA, the shipwreck coast mainly near Geraldton and Kalbarri, the Perth Coast, and the great southern coast where Busselton, Albany and Esperence are located.

the five distinct coastal regions

The trip to AQWA also meant that i could see some of the marine life that i didnt see when i dived here, or had heard so much about. The blue ring octupus for example, is only about a palm size or less, but it packs one of the most lethal poisions found in the marine world.

if u ever see one while diving, run swim for ur lives!!

Of course, the blue ring octupus is just one of the few exceptions n marvels to b avoided. What you would have difficulty finding out in the open water though, would be the leafy sea dragon, n i was glad that for the first time in my life, i managed to see 3 of them in a water tank before me. The leafy sea dragon, as the name suggests, really resemble a leaf, and only upon closer inspection would u be able to spot its head, mouth and fins.

haa... mythical is just the word to describe it

Relative of the leafy sea dragon, but nowhere as spectacular is the common seahorse. Even the name doesnt sound cool enough compared to a 'dragon', still i will post this picture here, for the subject(this seahorse below) was very obedient enough for me to capture this shot. Oh i must mention that for seahorses, the males give birth to the young, with the females depositing her eggs into the males' pouch. It goes to show that it's not always the males that go depositing their stuff into females....

seahorses are fish with bodies covered in bony armour and are not horses, but you know that rite?

The next exhibit would leave you craving for more, and its the gigantic western rock lobsters. These lobsters are one of the most sought after marine animals in WA, n about A$350 million worth of them are harvested each year in Australia. Judging from the size of them, i wouldn't be surprised it's so sought after.

i would very much like to have you n you n you n you ... for dinner

Other marine creatures, such as the moon jelly fish pictured below, are quite a marvellous sight to behold. They sting though but if you had watched one of the episode from F.R.I.E.N.D.S, you would know peeing would relieve the pain, so next time (if) you get stung by a jellyfish, ask your friend to pee on you! It would be a good test of friendship. hahaa

Porcupine fish can inflate themselves into a ball of spines like creature, something like a sea urchin, as a defence mechanism. There's no limit to the number of times they can inflate (n deflate) themselves, however if they are to inflate in the surface, they are likely to ingest air. As such, it would be hard for the fish to deflate, leaving them floating on the surface, ultimately leading to death of the fish. Although cruel to think this, but it does seem comical if a porcupine fish inflates itself on the surface, n find itself unable to deflate, floating around like a ball of spines. I can imagine the poor guy trying to deflate itself in vain. Well, that's a sight only for the comics though.

so cute!

the blackspotted pufferfish and the freckled porcupine fish - cute little fishes

The red firefish, or also known as the butterfly cod and Volitans Lionfish belongs to the family of scorpionfish. They possess stinging spines but still, their beauty and their grace is truely an unique sight.

Lastly, i'll talk about aqwa signature exhibit, the 98-metre long moving walkway aquarium, housing grey nurse sharks, black tip reef sharks, loggerhead turtles, black smooth rays, southern eagle rays, silver trevallies, pink snappers, fiddler ray, giant cods and more.

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Well, there's really isnt much to talk about, so i'll just post some more pictures here.

'smiling' for the camera

This black smooth ray is the largest stingray in the aquarium. In fact smooth stingrays are one of the largest rays in the world, and can grow up to 4m and weigh up to 300 plus kg.

huge loggerhead turtle

grey nurse shark - said to be potentially dangerous

one minute before meal

one minute after meal (actually they are not the same shark, think this one's a black tipped reef)

Mr K.K tryin to piss a shark off by blowing bubbles into its asshole

For the aquarium dive, my friends told me it wasnt really worth it for a short 30-40 minutes dive. K.K couldnt manage to take any underwater shots with his camera as the lighting wasnt sufficient n flash light wasnt allowed. They were also not allowed to touch any of the marine animals, well its sort of like in those strip joints, where you can only see, but cannot touch. For me however, i felt it was one of the best tourist attraction one can find here, with the abundance n variety of marine creatures. There's also a marine park where you can see seals entertain you and an outdoor ray pond where a few eagle rays and smooth rays rest. This trip was definitly worth it n i really meant it when i say this.

entertain me please