Two young Pacific Halibut join the Ucluelet Aquarium's 2013 collection!

The 2013 season started off with a bang!  Hundreds of visitors passed through the coast for the annual Pacific Rim Whale Fest.  The Ucluelet Aquarium hosted a number of talks during the festival with great turnouts to each one.  

Whale fest talk by VIU researcher Dr.  Jane Watson on Sea Otters in the Ucluelet Aquarium

We have new species this year which are 1st time collections for the Ucluelet Aquarium.  Two young Pacific Halibut are roving the Ucluelet Aquarium's Great Tide Pool.  The 18" and 20" specimens were donated two weeks ago by Rodney Hsu and Big Bear Salmon Charters who caught the species near Long beach.

  Like all flatfishes, halibut species are laterally compressed.  This means their body is flattened from the side (imagine lying on your side and having a steam roller turn you into a pancake).  There are two main classifications of flatfishes, the Pacific halibut falls into the Pleuronectidae family, which typically has right-eyed flatfishes.

  When a Pacific halibut hatches from its egg, it has a similar body structure to many other fishes.  As it develops, the bones in its face develop at different rates, causing the eye on the left side to become pushed out and migrate across the head to the right side.  This allows the halibut to lie on its side, blending perfectly with the substrate, while still watching with both eyes for predators and prey.

Also new to the Ucluelet Aquarium are our summer staff!!  We have Marlie, returning for another season; Jessica, who volunteered with us last year; and Andrew and Carly, who're joining us from Bamfield.  

Marlie and Carly... cleaning and helping in the ukee aqua.

These 4 new and returning faces have been helping us care for our new species, which were collected during the beginning weeks of March, and will stay with us till next fall.  Check back around September to find out when our Release Days will be!

Felix - our little "pentapus" out of his cave and looking relaxed

  We of course have a large Giant Pacific octopus, but we're lucky to have a second GPO which was caught accidentally in a lingcod trap.  When he originally arrived here he had lost three of his arms.  Over the last month he's been healing up well, eating regularly and has lately begun coming out during the day and showing off to visitors.

Everything's growing!

             We've been happily busy since our grand opening and our animals (not to mention our workers) are comfortably settling into their temporary homes. Our juvenile Wolf eel (Anarrhichthys ocellatus) curiously ventures out of her barnacle den during the late afternoon in search of food, the Decorator crabs (Naxia tumida) happily place sea lettuce and fucus onto their backs in attempts to camouflage themselves against possible predators and our lovely giant Pacific octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini) Barbara puts on quite a show chasing red rock crabs around the tank in preparation for a delicious meal. 

Juvenile wolf eel explores her barnacle surroundings

Barbara, the giant Pacific octopus







            

A few of our crazy workers in their temporary home
(sometimes we think they never leave the aquarium). We're happy to have our high school students, Flynn and Aquila on board with us. From l-r: Dave, Marlie, Laura, Flynn, Acquila

            Things are becoming so comfortable, in fact, that we are already noticing several new non-human additions to our aquarium; not only can you often find crabs clutching onto one another in a pre-mating holdfast (leading several visitors to ask the question, ‘what exactly are they doing?!), but looking through the glass in our tidepool tank reveals several Perch (kelp, shiner, and striped) that are looking a little larger in the middle than normal. Are these gals pigging out on krill? Doubtful. They're pregnant!
              

A school of shiner perch swimming by

             Perch have a complex mating ritual where the males perform a courtship dance for attractive females. If their moves are seductive enough the female will let the males mate with them. Sound familiar? Five to six months later anywhere from 3 to 40 babies are born.
Within a few weeks the expecting females will look about ready to explode with their little babies. In preparation for the mass birthing, we're planning to relocate our mothers from any potential baby eaters, such as black rockfish, predators capable of turning the miracle of life into a smorgasbord!  Of course, such is the way of life in the ocean and we can't protect all our newborns from the wonders of natural selection. The babies, 1 ¼” miniature version of their parents, are born so well developed that they practically swim out of their mothers. The males are also born reproductively mature with females maturing only a few weeks later. Cool, hey!  


         Just recently we’ve also found some Opalescent squid (Loligo opalescens) eggs which look about ready to hatch. The mating ritual of these fast swimming cephalods is not quite as romantic as that of the perch; instead, the male will aggressively grab the female and deposit his sperm packet (using his hectocotylized third right arm) inside the mantle of the female. The female then lays dozens of large egg capsules shaped like gelatinous cigars, each containing 180-300 eggs! The eggs develop directly and, after about three to five weeks, hatch, but the adults die shortly after spawning. These little squidlets aren’t left entirely unprotected though; the egg capsules have no taste or odor, so they are not perceived by food as predators! We’re looking forward to having a tank full of swimming squids soon.

A cluster of squid eggs

Squid embryo

  Spawning is almost a weekly event in the aquarium with various species releasing mass amounts of sperm and eggs into the surrounding water. Come visit the aquarium for answers about where babies come from and to check out the progress on our animals!

Ucluelet Aquarium Grand Opening: June 1st, 2:00 pm.

The Ucluelet Aquarium Society is proud to announce the grand opening of the new Ucluelet Aquarium.







Please join us for this special celebration to thank the community, volunteers and donors. 


Doors open after speeches and 'kelp' cutting. 


Explore the new Giant Tide Pool, interactive children's play area, touch tanks and video microscope stations.


Staff led tours, live demonstrations and dissections are all part of the fun!


Enjoy refreshments, music and crafts for kids. 


Please help us spread the word.

Photo Update from the JCP Crew

There have been many exciting developments with the JCP crew, as the aquarium fir tank stands come together in all their glory with assembly and finishing. As we have been documenting this progress carefully, we thought a photo collection of the details (along with some colour commentary) would be appropriate.

As previously mentioned, we decided to incorporate lap joints and 12" lag bolts into the design for some of the tank stands. These "skookum" stands will be supporting some of the largest aquarium tanks in the finished facility.

Seamus and Jeff carefully router out lap joints for the 6x6 stands. These heavy-duty stands will be supporting the larger acrylic tanks.

A close-up shot of the high-speed router in action!

Once the lap joints were completed, the 6x6 tank stands were ready for assembling and finishing. We used several coats of a thin penetrating epoxy, to ensure that these stands remain strong and beautiful in the damp aquarium environment for many years to come!

An array of beautiful assembled, epoxied, and completed stands built with 6x6 fir

Diana's favourite stand! A prime example of some of the beautiful wood we had the opportunity to work with

(thanks, Maggie Brown!)

With the 6x6 stands completed, our crew was free to tackle the smaller touch tank stands. A different, more kid-friendly

design was crafted for these interactive tanks.

Two lovely flowers arise in the bright dawn, from tall stacks of beautifully crafted touch tank skirts

Getting a close-up look at the critters in the touch tank, as well as our first completed touch tank stand!

Diana & Mia demonstrating the excitement of visiting a touch tank at the new Ucluelet Aquarium

And finally, after all the hard work, a much-needed rest...

The aquarium's founder Phillip does not approve of Seamus taking a time-out on one of the larger 6-legged stands. He does, however, believe that safety comes first!

What you can't see from the outside...

The interior of the aquarium, still hidden from the general public, is rolling along towards completion. Beautiful beams, donated by Iisaak, surround the Great Tide Pool. This centre tank will hold schooling fishes and tidepool species.

The Great Tidepool, Casey at work,

and the glowing windows out to the harbour

To the right, allow the imagination to fill the broad space by the front windows with rows of touch tanks. With any luck, future visitors may glance up from these tanks to view the rare sight some of the crew were privy to last week. A pod of killer whales swimming through the bay. No photographic proof is available for this claim, but trust us, it happened. (really). The aquarium currently feels as if we were building a whale from the inside out. Beams and rafters enclose the space like a giant ribcage. Electricians lace the neurons of electrical wire through and around the framework; the plumbing spreads into the future sites of displays, and into the belly of the building, where rows of filters and pumps will pulse cold life into glass cases.

The basement: a lone chair and two rows of sand-filters

From the back of the building, the Great Tide Pool to the left, the view will one day be an art piece displaying the names of our sponsors. The upstairs will be the aquarium's very first on-site office. Ask staff members what this means to them. Be prepared for wide grins and unlimited excitement.

The view towards the upstairs mezzanine (future office) and front desk.

Aquarium Construction Update (January 5th)

The roof is on, sides are almost complete, and the structure is beginning to take shape

Precision, Salvation, and Mucking Around

The JCP crew has been hard at work lately, continuing construction on the wooden tank stands for the new aquarium. This has required a great deal of precision, with sub-millimeter measurements and careful clamping being the name of the game. We had the opportunity to rent a 16-inch beam saw for some of the most recent cuts, which made for pretty fun work! The finished product will be tank stands with lap-joints, a very strong and stable structural choice.

An action shot of Seamus with the 16-inch beam saw

The elaborate clamping setup








Another objective for the crew has been to collect substrate for use in the new aquarium, such as sand, rocks, and shells. This involved trips down to Big Beach, where there is an abundance of ideal substrate. We even lucked out with some gorgeous sunny days, which made hauling around heavy bins infinitely more pleasant!

Jeff, Seamus, and Diana collecting substrate on Big Beach

The mini-aquarium has entered into hibernation mode, now that the big release day has come and gone. We have been hard at work emptying and scrubbing the old tanks. When siphoning out the used water, it is always a fun challenge trying to avoid a mouthful of murky waste water – a distasteful experience as I’m sure you can imagine! Probably the most joy came from discovering little crabs, clams, fishes, and other creatures that were still hiding at the bottoms of the tanks (all of whom were released, of course). The old aquarium materials and merchandise are being packed up, ready for re-use at their deluxe accommodations in the new aquarium building!

However, a few tenants still remain in the mini-aquarium. Our little red octopus female continues to care for her many eggs, which are scheduled to hatch any day now. Also, three fascinating and unidentified fishing anemones are being kept in their tanks in the hopes that with expert consultation, we may be able to identify these mystery specimens. We will keep you updated as much as possible on the births and potential discoveries of these remaining animals!

Diana is the newest member on the JCP team. She has been living in the area for 3 years, working as a naturalist on whale watching boats. Diana is excited to help contribute to the creation of what is sure to be a world-class aquarium facility.

High School Wood Working

Jeff and Seamus using the planer.

Back to High School, well kind of... John Millar the shop teacher from Ucluelet Secondary School very kindly donated his after school hours to help out the Aquarium Society.

Here is Mr. Miller jointing a piece for us.

We worked together to joint and plane our lumber for the future tank supports. We think they turned out beautifully!

Thanks John! We couldn't have done it without you. Hahahaha. Here is a real picture of the results!

The forest comes to us....

Our construction crew has spent the last couple weeks installing beams on the developing structure of our new building. Walking past the site these past few days conjures images of old forest.

The Garbage derby wrapped up last weekend with Jamie's Whaling station taking home the trophy for most garbage collected by a business. Jesse Vedova, one of Jamie's' drivers, towed in a freezer and filled it with collected garbage, fishing floats and other oceanic debris. Matt Harbidge and Kane Edwards collected together to bring home the individual prize. These two drove out to a remote beach in the sound where dogwalkers, runners and beach combers can't add their efforts to keeping it clean. Thank you so much for your efforts!

Thanks also to Zoe Jewell, and Jordan Odney for your help, and to Garth Grimes, Seamus Little, Jason Hasz and Keanna Hasz for your efforts!!!

JCP crew goes to Vancouver Aquarium

We had three days of fun and useful information, half of the time for travel and the other half for inspiration at the Vancouver Aquarium. We started off our morning at Vanaqua with an orientation and behind the scenes look of the facility led by Danny Kent, Curator of B.C. Waters. We were all amazed by the complexities of the plumbing systems. None of us are plumbers by trade so looking at the plumbing of a large aquarium was a lot to take in.

We asked to meet with the carpentry department to see if they had any suggestions that may be useful in building and finishing our supports properly. Danny directed us down to the depths of the basement where the wood shop is located. . We were greeted by Ken Sulivan (Ken on the right) head of the carpentry department. He gave us some great suggestions on what type of leveling feet they have found work well on the bases of the tanks.

Ken showing us some hardware that they have used for leveling feet

The afternoon was spent walking around the galleries of the aquarium. The Vancouver Aquarium is a very amazing place. Here are some of the rad specimens we got to check out!

Bonus points to who can tell us the name of this tropical sea creature!

Daisy the Porpoise

Day two at Van Aqua was spent with Bryan Kent. He showed us on the computer the steps taken to go through to make fake rock that looks real. Basically Bryan started with a scaled down box and made the rock formation he was looking for out of plasticine. He then takes that plan to a company that specializes in artificial rock work to build it for him. Here are the before and after shots.

Before with Plastisine model

After in finished concrete display immediately after rock work was complete

Bryan also took us around for some more behind the scenes look at displays.

Bryan, Jeff and Jonnie checking out the display tank

We had the opportunity to meet with the painter of the Vancouver Aquarium to pick his brain on finishing products that work well in wet environments.

After spending time at the Vancouver Aquarium we are better equipped to create durable wooden structures, and really excited to contribute to the construction of another great aquarium!

2011 JCP Tinkerers

* * * NEWS FLASH * * *

The brainy research squad have been working hard designing the tank stands for the new Aquarium. This handsome crew have been performing diligent calculations to figure out the complex design criteria for the containment systems. The new tank stands will be a timber- frame structure, materials chosen for the tank supports is fir. Fir is a strong and beautiful species and should last for years to come.
The construction will be a lap joint with hardwood doweling to add strength and rigidity. The choice of hardwood doweling is there to keep the stands free of materials that will deteriorate or rust.


As you can see the crew is still working hard to solve the engineering details of our finalized designs.

Having calculated the precise dimensions, volumes and densities of the tanks, substrate and fish the crew was able to accurately estimate the design weights for each display tank.

* * * Stay tuned for more NEWS to come! * * *

Hello out there!

So the JCP crew were out collecting some substrate the other day and spotted a peculiar object on the horizon. We decided to go check it out. As we came closer we were struck by a bizarre species that none of us recognized. Luckily Jeff brought his pocket guide book of the Marine Life of the Pacific Northwest. Under the 'newly discovered species' section we were able to identify it as 'The Great Pacific Stolked-On-The-Construction-Of-The-New-Aquarium Fish'. We considered using the specimen as crab bait but soon discovered it was still alive! We rushed it to our shop on 1980 Harbor Crescent, hosed it off, threw it a hammer and the creature starting working! It was then that we knew we had our fourth member.

We are happy to have Roger Harvey complete our crew for the JCP!

Now that we have a full crew we thought it would be fun to do a little Bio on each of us.

Jeff Geddes' Bio

Before I say a little about myself I would like to thank Ucluelet and the Far West Coast for providing me with everything I need; Great people, good surf, a solid employer and I'm sure much more to come! I am happy to be out here exploring, surfing and contributing to the very awesome new Ucluelet Aquarium

project. I look forward to learning a lot about the ecosystem and local marine life from the other people involved with the aquarium and the knowledgeable locals! I am quite new and quite friendly, so say 'hi' if you see me.

Roger Hervey's Bio

From west Ucluelet born and raised, on the shoreline is where i spent most of my days. Chillin out, maxin, relaxin all cool, playin road hockey outside of the school, until a couple of guys who were up to some good started building an aquarium in my neighborhood. I made a couple of calls and said that i cared, they said I'll be working with the dry team to build it up square. I whistled for a boat and when it came near the registration said fresh and it had dice in the mirror. If anything I'd say that this project is rare, but I know i won't regret it, no question I'm there. I pulled up to the dock about 7 or 8 and I yelled to the skipper "Ahoy smell ya later!" Looked at the work site I was finally there to aid in the construction of a new marine lair.

Johnny Harkins' Bio

I am thrilled to be a part of the dry team for the Ucluelet Aquarium.
The Ukee Aquarium is a great project and the town will benefit for years to come.
Having worked for almost twenty years in the film industry, and being a carpenter too..
I hope my skills will help the best team I have ever worked with accomplish something great.

Seamus Littles' Bio

As some of you may know I worked on the 'Harbor Clean Up Crew' from last winters Job Creation Program (JCP). It was an extremely successful project and happened to be one of the funnest projects I have ever worked on.
Because of my involvement in the last JCP I was recruited to run the up and coming JCP which is where we are at now. This project predominantly entails building stands out of wood for all of the acrylic tanks that will be in the new aquarium. I am so stolked to have such a positive crew to work with!