James Tucker in Cov

So, living about as far from the sea as is possible in England, it's always amused me that there's a Sea Life Centre in Birmingham, and a big one at that. It's almost as if the powers that be decided that no-one in the country should live more than 100 miles from live haddock or something. Anyhow, there were rays and small sharks, as well as various odd things like glowing fish and rare seahorses. The real attractions, though, were the otters and the sea turtles. Otters need little in the way of presentation- just set them up and they'll amuse you for hours. And so it was. One of them took about an hour to eat a single shoot, because of his seeming insistence on drowning it first, while another lay on his back and threw a nut into the air and then caught it again for a good twenty minutes, often dropping it despite having webbed 'hands' (nature's catcher's mitts). More time was spent designing the turtle tank, which was also full of hundreds of other fish and a shark or two. There were numerous windows into the tank and a glass tunnel which ran through the middle of it (a smaller version of New Zealand's Kelly Tarleton exhibit, which I visited many years ago). The turtle seemed to recognise its dramatic setting, and swooped onto the tunnel from various angles, usually causing a stir-- it was about five or six feet long, and apparently weighs upwards of 400 pounds. In keeping with the maritime theme of the day, we got a bit soggy on leaving the place, because it's been raining here for about 8 of the last 10 days.