Animal Encounter at the Curacao Sea Aquarium

Less than two feet from my mask was an ancient looking monster. Its black eyes gleamed and its vicious beaklike mouth made snapping noises audible through the water. Suddenly I realized that there was more than just this single creature in the water with me.

The Animal Encounter at the Curacao Sea Aquarium started out in a slow, practical almost boring way. I did not really know what to expect even though I had read the descriptions more than once. With equipment selected and wearing a wetsuit, I waited. The tank strapped on my back seemed to weigh a ton. Our diving guide reviewed the equipment. Much of what she said I already knew because I had taken a SCUBA pool lesson at the Curacao Marriott. She smiled and helped each of us adjust the straps. Our diving guide showed me, the only inexperienced diver, how to adjust my buoyancy control on my vest. This is needtoknow information.

She described what to expect in the enclosed natural lagoon. Each of us was given a container filled with sardines and advice to keep the container close because the fish might to try and get the sardines out themselves. We were pronounced ready to go.

I followed the other divers, electing the ladder route for entry, which proved quite a challenge in flippers and SCUBA gear. I adjusted my mask at the bottom of the stairwell, my legs in the seawater. Then I secured my mouthpiece and began breathing as I submerged. At this point was all about trust. Trust that that I would remember everything and that my equipment would work.

Within seconds I was in the aquariumlike lagoon and hanging free. At first I didn’t notice anything because I was thinking, quite a lot, about breathing. It was like being in a dream. I focused on the sound of my respirator, slowly realizing I was indeed able to breathe and in no immediate danger of suffocation. This immediate, and rather pressing concern out of the way I realized the fish had found me. Lots of silvery bodies filled the water around me, seeming to observe my partially comatose form with curiosity. I looked back at them, amaze by their proximity. I looked down at the bottom of the tank, some twentyfive feet below me and tried to maneuver into a position so I could swim down. I didn’t go anywhere, but did manage to scare the fish away. Then I remembered to let the air out of my vest. With a muted whoosh of bubble I sank.

It was an utterly fascinating experience. Hundreds of multicolored fish of a variety of colors, shapes and sizes surrounded me. Iridescent rainbows of indescribable beauty. Initially I was stunned by how close they came to me, pecking at my mask and surrounding my container of sardines. Stingrays glided gracefully over my feet, like regal underwater birds. Our guide showed me how to make them fly up after a fish, causing them to display their pale underbellies.

I swam around the hull of the observation boat and came to floating stop. Less than two feet from my mask was a monster out of some ancient horror story. Its black eyes gleamed and it’s vicious beaklike mouth made snapping noises audible through the water. Suddenly I realized that there was more than just this single creature. At my appearance five more swam from the murky gloom behind the wall of Plexiglas. I stared in amazement for a while, realizing in one part of my brain that these beasts were turtles not some sort of mythical monster. Yet some part of me was worried that the Plexiglas wasn’t thick enough, and that if they wanted to they could come through it at any time.

Eventually I realized that all they truly wanted from me were the sardines in the pouch tied to my suit. Fumbling I reached inside and withdrew one, guarding it from the other hungry fish and pushing it through a small round hole. Immediately it was snapped up by a huge Loggerhead. The sound of its beak snapping shut around the fish ricocheted like a bullet and caused my eyes to open even wider. I slowly reached for more sardines. I could feel the pounding of my heart in my throat. Was I breathing too fast? Slowly I fed another sardine through one of the multiple holes in the Plexiglas wall, forcing myself to slow my breathing.

About ten feet to my left I saw another diver next to different enclosure wall, the one for the sharks. As I swam closer I watched the water in the enclosure closely. I saw an indistinct gray and white shape coming closer. It was a shark. A source of one of my childhood fears, begun by an accidental viewing of Jaws at a young age, sharks had always invoked a primitive fear in me. Luckily, the Sea Aquarium doesn’t keep Great Whites. The sharks in the enclosure were large, but didn’t resemble Jaws, so I found the courage to feed them. Unlike the turtles, each shark took its turn and while slightly intimidating they were not as frightening as the Loggerheads.

All too soon our guide motioned that it was time to surface. As I reentered the world of air, I paused for a moment amidst the laughing conversations of the other divers. I looked below at the shadowy water whose gleaming surface concealed an amazing perspective of life. I knew that I would have to return. I was hooked.