Following a School of Fish: A Respose to Mr. Keefner and Mr. Kelley

Based off of Mr. Keefner's initial commentary of: Captivity and Boredom, and Mr. Kelley's commentary: Response to Kurtiss, I would like to add my own input on the idea of captivity and boredom. When visiting the NE Aquarium (New England), I saw many fish just floating by, not actively looking for anything, not being dead, just kinda floating there. I was disappointed at the lack seeming lack of excitement in their life, but more disappointed in the onlooking children who would gape for a second, tap the glass (even though there are signs that say "don't tap the glass, it will infuriate the Paranas!") and when they saw no immediate movement, they would move on to the next tank. Exactly as we discussed in class about short attention spans to things that are not actively attracting attention or "cute". I found everything fascinating, even looking at a scared fish run from an electric eel as the eel cornered the poor thing in the corner of the tank before killing it, sending the "electricity meter" into the red (killing prey) from the yellow (hunting prey) which suddenly made every kid in the area rush over to the tank after there was a flash of red from the "voltage hitting the red zone." Shortly after the eel had its meal, the kids dispersed as the meter went to green (relaxing/calm) and then to blue (idle/ sleeping) and stayed there for quite a while.

Isn't he just so adorable?

I felt sorry for the eel, being the subject of so many electromagnetic fields then having nothing, and suddenly EVERYTHING is full of electricity (not just the water) all the brain firings of the onlookers trying to intemperate what they missed and play it out int heir heads before they grew bored and completely abandoned the eel. It must have sucked for the eel to suddenly feel so alone. (If you can consider the presence or absence of electromagnetic fields, in addition to an eel being able to feel) There was also an exhibit that made me a little sad... A HUGE goosefish, probably a good 2-3 feet long seemed to take up 1/2 of the width of the tank it was in. Unfortunately for such a large fish, that means it takes a huge effort and swimming sideways for a bit just to turn around. The fish was facing backwards, its eyes away from the crowd, yet open, staring off into space gaping its mouth in an attempt to attract the top-feeding fish in the tall tank to come down and nibble at its upper lip....

Keep a stiff upper lip, buddy. Everything will be okay... I hope!

I felt that most of the fish, with the exclusion of about 3 tanks, were set up in okay, if a little overpopulated environments. But I still felt pretty bad for the fish.

Aquatic Point of View

I visited the New England Aquarium this weekend and beheld a flock of fish. In particular, the poor fish that were in a circular tank. These fish were constantly swimming with no goal, exploration or anything in a dark tank that was circular with a light shining on them as they passed in front of the kids going "wow! That's a lot of fish!" and three seconds later, they proceeded to say "that's boring, lets see the other fish." Looking at these fish, there was a plaque explaining how they have senses that help them see other nearby fish and keep tight formations that can distract and harass predators, I found it interesting and was enraptured by their display, even though the fish must have been bored out of their minds! The seals which were for the most part excited to see people looking at them were happy enough, except for two of them who were brutally mauling, chasing and biting each other to the point of scraping fur and drawing blood. It was upsetting to see them so unhappy that they would fight.

There were other times where little kids disregarded the educational benefits of exhibits. We went to the museum of science and there was an exhibit about archaeology which me and this father were really interested in. The father's kid was not happy. He constantly complained about it being boring and how he wanted to see the baby chicks. The father replied, "Can you sit down and calm down, some people are trying to learn from this." It made me a little upset how unintended most of the kids were about these sciencey things. I remember when I was their age, my favorite thing to do was to look at all the exhibits that were on display! However, not all kids are like me at that age so.... yea.

Overall, I was disappointed at the general disinterest that it seemed kids had in science. The exhibits for the live animals (mainly fish, arthropods, amphibians, and reptiles) seemed rather well put together, not too constrained, the animals had more then enough room to maneuver and, despite the fact that they were still in captivity, I believe the fish and turtles were content with their surroundings.