Sunday, December 13, 2009

The Animals of Monterey, California

OK. I will confess that I did not take this photo using my underwater camera. I took this photo in the Monterey Bay Acquarium. They have an amazing jellyfish section. This jellyfish looks like an answer to the question "What would you get if you crossed a blue pin cushion with a cauliflower?"
The Monterey Bay Aquarium also includes a penguin exhibit, which is popular with children, and adults.
We have moved from the aquarium to Monterey Bay, home to many seals. Lying on the top of these rocks does not look very comfortable to me, but I guess they have a lot of padding, and the air must be warmer than the water.
The sea lions seem to be as curious about us as we are of them.
This sea otter was looking for food among the rocks along the sides of Monterey harbor.
The otter found a crab to eat. They will float on their backs and use their chests as a table. This is cute, except for the crab.
Another of the jelly fish in the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
A whale just off shore from Pebble Beach on the Monterey peninsula. You can see that this whale was close to the houses along this shore. Monterey Bay has an deep water trench that extends into the bay and that causes more diversity of marine life than would occur in areas where the ocean is shallower close to shore.
This is not a space ship. It is a delightful, unusual jelly fish. The lights radiate up and down the strands of the jelly fish, which give it even more of the appearance of a space ship as it glides through the dark ocean.
This is a typical view of the Monterey coastline, with Monterey Bay in the background. Monterey was an early capital of California, and it used to have a cannery industry. Now, it depends on tourism, along with Pebble Beach and nearby Carmel-by-the-Sea.

6 comments:

brattcat said...

These are fabulous, Julie and Dave. I particularly am awed by those jellyfish images. And the others are so enchanting.

Anonymous said...

To be honest, haven't seen before such images of jellyfish.
It must be a nice country where it is taken such care of animals - far from happening over here.
A wonderful start into the new week for you all.

Anonymous said...

I haven't dropped in here since Budapest. Gad you get around.
Cool jellyfish. Anymore coming?

Phivos Nicolaides said...

It looks so interesting and your photos are great. Have a nice day!

Unknown said...

Beautiful animal shots! The first one is absolutely amazing!

Frank said...

The jellyfish ARE amazing. These of great shots of them too. It's interesting how different the aquariums are as they represent specific and individual geographic areas of the US and fish and animal life. (The Florida Aquarium does not have manatees, which I love, but our Lowry Park Zoo does. They have a rescue tank for them. Fascinating and as neat as the ea lions to watch. NOT as noisy.) I like our aquarium but the rocky Pacific coastline is spectacular.

BTW - you photos of Christmas in Vienna are terrific. We need to go back to see all the decorations at this time of year. (I know the food wouldn't be any better...it couldn't be!!)

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