After our Milford Sound cruise we were able to take a tour of the underwater observatory they have in the Sound. Milford Sound offers a unique marine environment with many, (usually deep water) rare species, living quite close to the surface, due to a tannin-darkened fresh water layer that lies on top of the fiord. It rains so much in Milford Sound that the sea water has a fresh water layer on top from the rain. The Underwater Observatory is nestled in Harrison's Cove, beneath Pembroke Glacier, next to the mountains of Fiordland National Park. You go down a curving staircase about 10 meters to an underwater room made up of about 10 large windows.
We could see rare species such as black coral (usually at depths of more than forty meters) and sea anemones, sponges, sea stars, horse mussels and of course the fish. That white tree-like thing in the picture above is the black coral -- it's called black coral because when it is dried up it turns black and that's how the sailors first saw it. It is also totally protected here; otherwise everyone would be using it for necklaces.
Find the fish.
Some of these guys would just sit there watching you.
I thought this looked so beautiful with all the colors of the coral and crustaceans and whatnot.
No shark sightings while we were there. They sometimes come around since all these other fish are there. Also we didn't see any dolphins....hey, I want my money back! No, it was really a lot of fun and totally worth it.
1 comment:
wow, that looks amazing! I bet it was cold and amazing though. I hope you guys are staying warm!
Erika
Post a Comment