I am in California for several reasons but the most significant is to escape winter’s blast across the midwest. Last week Kansas City’s football game was played in sub-zero cold, minus 20-something wind chill. I saw some of it on TV but where I was we walked the dog and I had to take my jacket off and carry it over my shoulder. The natives here don’t think this is comfortable but they do see the news. We drove down south last week for a day at their world famous Monterey Bay Aquarium. It’s interesting what gets your attention and what you remember. The animal techs were feeding the sea otters. Adult females, otters, not the techs, weigh about 70 lbs and eat 25% of their body weight every day which comes to about 18 lbs, give or take. Males weigh closer to 100 lbs but we’re not trying to pump up numbers, only illustrate a principle. At that rate one adult eats well over 3 tons of shrimp, clams and scallops per year. Just to keep it easy, figure conservatively that those shrimps etc. cost $10 pound or $6,700 per otter and there are 5 resident females ($33,500 yr.) just to feed otters. Besides the five residents there are injured and orphaned otters that are being rehabilitated for release and they eat too but nobody said how much they eat; but they eat and it adds to the $$$. The point is; running a world class aquarium is expensive.
Then I go to the gift shop and look at all the pretty stuff. The souvignier item I always check price on is T-shirts. However they are priced it’s an indicator for everything else in the store. They can be soft, dense fabric with uniform seams or cheap & thin. The graphics can be a simple logo on the front or back but not both or multi color detail everyplace possible. Those T’s in the aquarium gift shop were average material with a one color logo on the front only; $34. O.M.G. So much for the gift shop. Then I thought about how much they spend on otter food and all the pipes and pumps to keep all that fresh ocean water coming into the building, through all the tanks and discharged back into the bay. Maybe the T-shirts should be considered token gifts in appreciation for a generous donation in the gift shop. Then I step out on the outside deck, looked out at nearby rock outcroppings in Monterey Bay and notice several sea otters, wild ones, floating around on their backs, feeding on shell fish off the bottom. I love seeing them in the wild and somehow the otters inside seem cheated in spite of their admirers and civilized surroundings.
On our walk from the garage to the aquarium we passed ‘Bubba Gump’ sea food restaurant and stopped there for dinner on the way back. I had fried shrimp and a bowl of gumbo. It crossed my mind that I could mimic a wild, free, feeding otter; lie down on my back on the floor, spread shrimp on my chest and beat on them before eating but certainly also be asked to leave the restaurant. I really do like shrimp, not so much the clams and scallops but 25% of my body weight was never an expectation. It was a clever make believe but I will just admire otters from a distance and eat off my plate at the dinner table.
Then I go to the gift shop and look at all the pretty stuff. The souvignier item I always check price on is T-shirts. However they are priced it’s an indicator for everything else in the store. They can be soft, dense fabric with uniform seams or cheap & thin. The graphics can be a simple logo on the front or back but not both or multi color detail everyplace possible. Those T’s in the aquarium gift shop were average material with a one color logo on the front only; $34. O.M.G. So much for the gift shop. Then I thought about how much they spend on otter food and all the pipes and pumps to keep all that fresh ocean water coming into the building, through all the tanks and discharged back into the bay. Maybe the T-shirts should be considered token gifts in appreciation for a generous donation in the gift shop. Then I step out on the outside deck, looked out at nearby rock outcroppings in Monterey Bay and notice several sea otters, wild ones, floating around on their backs, feeding on shell fish off the bottom. I love seeing them in the wild and somehow the otters inside seem cheated in spite of their admirers and civilized surroundings.
On our walk from the garage to the aquarium we passed ‘Bubba Gump’ sea food restaurant and stopped there for dinner on the way back. I had fried shrimp and a bowl of gumbo. It crossed my mind that I could mimic a wild, free, feeding otter; lie down on my back on the floor, spread shrimp on my chest and beat on them before eating but certainly also be asked to leave the restaurant. I really do like shrimp, not so much the clams and scallops but 25% of my body weight was never an expectation. It was a clever make believe but I will just admire otters from a distance and eat off my plate at the dinner table.
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