Immediately, I swam towards the other end of the tank as fast as I could to put some distance between myself and everyone else. After all, I wanted to enjoy the sealife in peaceful silence. To drown out the noise of the waterfall and filtration machines, I dunked my head into the water until my ears were filled. At that moment, a small fleet of cownose rays swam just beneath me. My mouth filled with a little saltwater as I smiled.
Cownose rays do not have barbs on their tails. In fact, none of the rays I was swimming with had barbs on their tails. Instead, Cownose rays have a pair of fins towards the front of their bodies that they use to feel their way around. These fins make the rays look like they have square-shaped noses, hence the name, Cownose.
In the wild, Cownose rays can be found in large numbers in both the Chesapeake Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, depending on the time of year. While I wasn’t surrounded by hundreds of Cownose rays in the aquarium, the rays that were in the aquarium swam together just like they would in the wild, often getting very close to me out of curiosity.
Towards the back of the tank, away from the prying eyes of visitors and snorkelers alike, a Green Moray eel hung out between two narrow rocks. Like the Cownose Rays, Green Moray eels can also be found in the Atlantic ocean as far north as Nova Scotia, or as far south and warm as the Gulf of Mexico. I heard it hiss as I floated just above it, but there wasn’t anything to be afraid of, so long as I didn’t try to pet it.
Much like in the wild, petting animals at the aquarium isn’t ethical. Petting the Green Moray Eel was especially a big no-no, because what makes Green Moray Eels green is a layer of protective mucus.
The animals, however, could pet me as much as they wanted.
About five minutes after entering the water, a huge, pink Red Snapper brushed up against my shoulder, giving me one hell of a side-eye as it did so. Once again, I tasted saltwater as I smiled. But then, the Cownose rays came racing back, and the Red Snapper dove down to avoid being “run over” by them.
During my time in the water, I was frequently swarmed by schools of Horse-Eye Jacks, which are medium-sized fish with silver bodies and yellow tails. There were also Blue Runners that swam in a different school, looking a lot like the Horse-Eye Jacks but were just a bit smaller and slimmer.
Near the main “Coral Reef” of the exhibit, I saw a handful of beautiful Parrotfish, Barred Flagtails, Graybar Grunts, Creolefish, and Passer Angelfish. They were among the smallest fish species in the tank, and either swam in schools or stayed close to corals in the rocks to stay safe from predators. Fortunately for them, there were no predators in the tank. Not even the eels wanted to eat them.
Speaking of eels, while the Green Moray Eels were shyly hiding in the rocks, hissing every time I paused to watch them, there was a very active Undulated Moray Eel swimming around. At first, the yellow spotted eel was curled up in a clamshell at the bottom of the tank. But, at some point, it must’ve decided that none of us were a threat, and began to swim laps around the tank.
I didn’t realize the Undulated Moray Eel had left the safety of the clamshell until I came face-to-face with it. Literally! Near the largest viewing area of the tank, in front of a dozen or so people watching us from the outside, the Undulated Moray Eel ran right into my mask, its mouth open to show off rows of sharp, curved-back teeth, then banked towards my right where it ran its long, slimy body along mine.
I. Was. Elated.
