Ålesund Aquarium

Great place to visit, mainly because most of the fish are the ones which are good on a plate with a portion of chips. Or at least fish which are found in local waters.

The staff are great, but the residents are the ones who are always ready to greet you with a smile.

 Some of them look a bit regimented.....  Get in line there..

 And this guy is just all frills.

 Now for lunch... where's the chips.

 That of course is OK if you like Cod, but here's my favourite with chips.. Haddock.

 And it's very hard to beat a ling, fresh from the sea, gently boiled and served with new potatoes..

Then of course, like most stories there has to be the bad guy. The villain. And there ain't no more evil looking that this guy. The Catfish, or Wolf Fish, or in Shetland dialect he's known as a Steenbiter (Stone Biter). (Norsk: Steinbit).. I sure as hell wouldn't like to argue with him, and there are signs warning folk not to put their fingers in the tank, for obvious reasons.

The largest tank in the aquarium is filled with what I can best describe as "Dinner". All the fish which formed the backbone of my diet when I was younger. I could spend hours in that tank with a fishing rod. :D

 The next pic is what I would call a Scaddiman's Heid. No idea what the English name is.

 And a lovely flat fish.

 Another visitor held this crab up for a picture.

 And this little beastie was one of the 'stars'

 Some of the exhibits tried their best not to be exhibitionists...

 Whilst others were just born to show of...

These guys are Humboldt Penguins. Maybe not the fanciest of the Penguin race, but they exhibit all the trends which make us poor humans gaze at them in wonder. And in fact in extreme cases make humans try to dress like them just to make them feel at home such as they guy feeding them.

I don't know how the guy feeding them came to be wearing a 'Penguin' jacket, but it was a nice touch. And as he fed them he gave an excellent commentary. All the Penguins at Ålesund have been bred in captivity, in various countries in Europe, and last year the aquarium managed to hatch their first Norwegian born chicks. One of which is the scruffy, half fledged guy, getting a feed in the above picture.

Speaking about food...... I have a sudden craving for chips again...

Of course they do have some fish which I wouldn't eat... Too small to bother with.

And then there are the 'asylum seekers'.... These turtles are mostly ones which have been seized from people who have tried to illegally import them.

Yun's aa fir enoo.
Mair sharn anidder day.