Whales, Sharks, and Whale Sharks, Oh My!

Last week my dad came Atlanta to pick up my little brother from his mission here (I know, weird, my bro and I in the same place, but couldn't see each other). Anyways, as part of our travels around the area, we went to the Georgia Aquarium. It was really cool. Lots of amazing animals, and well worth the trip - just a tad bit expensive.

Here are some of my thoughts on the beasties:

Beluga whales - very funny. They had divers in their tank cleaning the walls and stuff. The Belugas came and were swimming around showing off for us and harassing the divers. Even so, the divers ignored them. I guess one of the whales was a little put out by that, so he/she (really, who can tell on a whale?) swam over and pooped on the diver. It was mostly a big green cloud in the water which enveloped the diver. I laughed and thought, "I will never clean a whale tank."

Hammerhead Sharks - not attractive, but very cool. In fact, if I were a shark, I don't think I could look any cooler than a hammerhead. I was also wondering if the sharks, which swim around in the big tank with every other fish, ever just get a little hungry and snack on the other fishes. This could be very interesting, but also traumatizing. Lots of little kids are always staring through the almost 2-foot epoxy, and how would it be if they were watching a nice fish and all the sudden the shark attacked? I've watched Shark Week on the TV, and shark attacks are not pretty. Lots of blood. Anyways, I think that the kids wouldn't enjoy it as much as I would.

Whale Sharks - Big and slow, but interesting to look at from the tunnel under the tank. The lady at the aquarium (Pam, I think her name was???) was explaining that the tank is large enough for 6 fully-grown whale sharks (they get about 45 feet long). Then she said that there are four now. This got me to wondering - why not 6? I did a little investigative work, and this is what I found out: the other two died already. I wonder if when they died they floated belly up in the tank like my goldfish? Was it hard to fish a dead whale shark out of the pool? Or did the hammerheads just take care of it? Lots of unanswered questions.