As a birthday present, Jenn gave me two tickets to the Georgia Aquarium, which Allison and I visited this past weekend.  The main exhibit is divided into six distinct habitat types, from Georgian ocean shore and freshwater river/lentic species (including an exceptional tank containing the endangered Robust Redhorse (Moxostoma robustum), to cold salt water and oceanic species. The oceanic exhibit is the largest, containing FOUR whale sharks!  There is also a hallway display on the capture and shipping of the whale sharks… hence “What Can Brown Do for You?”.

To illustrate invasive species and their ecological consequences, there was a display on Lionfish (Pterios volitans) invasion of the Caribbean and movement up the Eastern US coast as far as New England.  I recall seeing some in Cahuita, CR too, although the display’s interactive Google Earth invasion history didn’t depict the lionfish’s migration into Central American coasts.  The lionfish display had the most lionfish I’ve ever seen… super dense.

By the way… I’ve moved to Atlanta, Georgia for anyone reading this that didn’t know, although I’ll be headed back to Kent tomorrow afternoon to process some samples and hopefully finish much of my other dissertation work.