June 15: Sea Life Aquarium

June 15 (the rest of the day) 

Finally, I was allowed to check in to my hostel and get situated in my new room for the next two nights that I would have to share with three complete strangers (somehow not the scariest part of my trip.) Once opening the door to my room, I could already feel the presence of someone else staring at me. The silence lasted a couple minutes until I finally broke the tension by starting the conversation with a simple hello. After a couple minutes I found out that my new roommate, Bryan, was also a student traveling alone from the United States. We instantly became friends! This was so relieving considering I hadn’t had a real face-to-face conservation within the past two days of traveling.  After situating my luggage, I decided to finally hit the streets of Sydney.

             The toughest part of navigating my way through the city was crossing the street when every car is going a different direction than what you’re used to seeing. The next hardest part was getting my GPS to work. Instead of arriving to my destination in thirty minutes it would take triple the time.

 Finally, I reached Darling Harbour where the Sea Life Sydney Aquarium is located. This aquarium hosts more than 700 species with everything from the vulnerable Dugongs to clownfish and seahorses. The core of Sea Life Aquariums is to raise conservation for the oceans and all the marine life. They have founded breeding programs to better understand and to conserve declining species. They also rescue injured animals before healing them and returning them to the wild. One of their main objectives, is to raise awareness and campaign to protect the environment. In 2013, they created a charity known as The SEA LIFE Trust.
           The SEA LIFE Trust works to restore habitats, ban shark finning, help sea turtles, ban whaling, and more. They do this through research, campaigning and educating the public. The goal of this charity is for all sea life to be protected and respected like it should be.

Darling Harbour!

The Sea Life Sydney Aquarium 

Once I entered the aquarium, it was evident that raising awareness for the oceans and the Great Barrier Reef is a main principal for this company. Plastered on every wall read signs about conservation and The SEA LIFE Trust charity. Each species throughout the aquarium had a sign attached to the tank indicating its status whether it was endangered, vulnerable, or etc. They even had one room designed particularly to raise awareness for conservation. The room was filled with petitions for Sydney to stop using plastic bags, games aimed at different ways to help the oceans, and a screen to make a personal pledge for how you will help keep the ocean clean.

Another area of the aquarium was aimed at the Great Barrier Reef and what the ocean would lose if it completely dies off. This area showed the biodiversity found in the reef by showing the different species in the tanks and also covering the numbers on the walls. The Great Barrier Reef includes more than 2,900 separate coral reefs filled with 1,625 species of fish, 1,400 coral reef species, 3,000 species of molluscs, 630 species of echinoderm, six out of the world’s seven sea turtles, and a whole lot more. The biodiversity found here makes it one of the most complex natural systems in the world!

The aquarium growing coral

There was also a section explaining how the population of Great White Sharks are declining and what the company is doing to help their long term survival. Here, I spoke with one of the aquariums' workers about how Sea Life conserves marine life specifically sharks. In Australia, scientists have been enhancing The Integrated Marine Observing System. This system uses the most advanced technology to ensure that the scientists accurately track shark movement around Australia. This technology includes satellites and acoustic receivers.

 

The final part of the aquarium was the Dugong rescue program. Dugongs are an endangered and vital species located in shallow waters where seagrass is abundant. The company works to protect this species and rehab them back to health. This area was directed to educate visitors about the Dugongs and their unfortunate current state.

The rescue program for the Dugongs

One of the Dugongs in the rescue program

            Once I left the aquarium it was about 5 PM and Sydney was already incredibly dark outside. I decided to just head back to my hostel since I still was not too familiar with the city and my jet lag was kicking in. After arriving back to my room, I started to work on my blog, but then my other two roommates came in and invited me to eat with them. We decided to order Dominoes’ (so much for trying new food while I’m here!) and ate in the hostel kitchen. They were a couple from Manchester with hard to understand accents and many traveling stories. They ripped on how the United States copied their version of The Office, explained their views on President Trump (everyone who finds out I am from the United States loves to do this), and talked about their love for New York City. They explained how they were on a one-year work visa in Australia and attempting to find jobs, but having no luck. During their month already in Sydney they did not even get to see the Opera House or visit the Sydney Tower Eye. I explained to them my research project and they encouraged me to visit Manly Beach and view the marine life sanctuary there. In addition, the town is working heavily on different conservation measures, so I planned my trip for the next day.