Check out the Shark Lagoon at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, it's free every Friday evening from 6-9 PM until May 22nd.
Take advantage and check it out!!!
balam
Mmm, came back from there.
I have been doing some Googling but have come up without any definitive answer to an observation made while we went to the event.
They have the rays and sharks along with Horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus if I'm correct), and there were tons of kids there.
Everyone was really excited about touching the rays, (there was a whole fever of them), the rays High-fived the kids, this was done by flapping* their pectoral fins along the edge of the lagoon.
We started noticing one of the larger rays coiled its tail forward. Then another one, then another one, and within some 15 minutes at least 8 of them had tails that twisted and coiled looking almost artificial and edgy.
I don;t know if this was from stress, (there were tons of kids running and splashing their hands in the water while touching by means of holding and pushing the rays' fins as it passed by.
I wasn't too keen to the idea of returning, though Evan liked the spectacle, I'm quite sure he loved the walk that followed the boardwalk much more.
Rakie
Probably not stressed. Rays are used for these tanks often for a reason, they become VERY docile, in in the Caribbeans there are area's where you wade in the waters and feed wild rays, they know you're they're to feed them so they have nothing to fear.
Doesn't seem like a defensive posture either, to my knowledge rays don't flaunt their tail. Could have been somebody threw in food, a worker you didn't see, or hell.. It may have been some jackass kid in the corner pouring in a bottle of bleach. It's all happened before.
