June 2007 - Kitchener Waterloo Aquarium Society

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June 2007 fins & tales (Continued from page 7) serve their unique and characteristic behaviour, tail slapping and spouting from the blow-hole. These events are unpredictable and infrequent and eluded our camera lenses. We joked that we may have heard one of them laughing at our efforts. TMA’s trusty companion proved both a better spotter and a sharper shooter, to Char goes credit for the close-up photos. While tourism often makes a circus out of efforts to see animals in their natural environment, these were clearly wild animals which displayed only a measured tolerance for us, the humans who have been their long time foes. We learned that measures and laws have been enacted to protect both the Irrawaddy and their environment. Despite these efforts we routinely observed locals dumping their plastics and other trash into the river and local fishermen still cast nets into the waters at sundown to put something onto their family’s dinner table. Habits and physical realities will persist despite the obvious boost that tourism has recently given the local economy. The nets we observed were of the hand-thrown smaller variety and while relatively harmless to the dolph ins, o bviously worked toward depleting the food stocks upon which the Irrawaddy rely. TMA observed a well-oiled tourist licensing system yet found no evidence of monitoring of the locals or their catch by any conservation officials. The Irrawaddy are caricatured in posters, books and carvings as bearing a wide docile grin and we hope they find something to smile about in their future. I encourage you to check www.wdcs.org for more information on river dolphins. We finished our time in Kratie by dipping into the warm Mekong waters and perching ourselves upon those very rapids in the river where that poster shot may have been taken. Predictably not a single dolphin joined our sundown swim and photoop. Pursuits are seldom easy but this one ended having searched for and found this interesting treasure of the lower Mekong, the Irrawaddy. TMA 8 Kitchener-Waterloo Aquarium Society
fins & tales June 2007 Bits & Pieces HOW TO INCREASE BABY BRINE SHRIMP HATCHES Add baking soda to the water one teaspoon of Baking Soda to 6 teaspoon of salt in the hatching mix should increase the hatch percentage. This is because all brine shrimp eggs are collected from mineral rich inland lakes. Our tap water which we consider hard is still very soft for brine shrimps. SOME QUIRKY FACTS 100 people a year choke to death on ball -point pens 35% of people who use personal ads for dating are already married Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older Women blink nearly twice as much as men No word in the English language rhymes with "month" Average life span of a major league baseball is 7 pitches The electric chair was invented by a dentist "Typewriter" is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard "Go" is the shortest complete sentence in the English language The cigarette lighter was invented before matches On average, people fear spiders more than they fear death. Americans on average, eat 18 acres of pizza in one day. We don't have a clue how many hectares Canadians consume daily. Kitchener-Waterloo Aquarium Society DID YOU KNOW??? You can measure the temp in your fish tanks using one of those digital meat thermometers - very accurate and easy to use! Miecia 9
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June 2007 - Kitchener Waterloo Aquarium Society

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