Sydney Aquarium

Monday, June 22

The Sydney Aquarium in Darling Harbour has a fantastic array of aquatic wildlife.  Here is a platypus, swimming about the tank.

Chondrichthyes (cartilaginous fish) predate the bony fish, amphibians and dinosaurs.  These living fossils include rays and sharks.  The aquarium has a wonderful shark-ray tank, where these fish circle around and above visitors, behind thick glass. 

Here is some footage we took of those beautiful rays

and of the shark, a fearsome apex predator.

New to us Americans was the dugong, a Sirenian mammal that swims the South Sea waters. 

We also saw an octopus scuttling across the glass

and a light show of illuminated moon jellyfish. 

After a delectable pizza at La Rosa on the Strand …

Eitan and I ascended the Sydney Tower (by elevator, not stairs), where the view from the top was panoramic.  The Sydney Harbour Bridge is seen behind Eitan.