Today was Homeschool Day in the Visitor Center.  This event gives our education staff an opportunity to work with children and families from a wide variety of learning backgrounds.  It’s also a lot of fun.  This time around, visitors were greeted by a life-size, inflatable basking shark.  As busy as it was, this Homeschool Day went smoother than the last, which was interrupted by a tsunami evacuation.

The new and improved Octocam is almost here!  We’ve been struggling with our underwater octopus webcam for some time, mostly due to the effects of seawater exposure.  We’re going ahead with our plan to install a camera outside the tank, and we’ve already ordered the camera.  That should mean just a couple of weeks until the Octocam is better than ever.

When the previous Octocam was in place, Ursula liked to sleep nestled between the tank wall and the back of the camera.  She held the flexible hose containing the camera’s network and power cables against her forehead like a teddy bear—sometimes pulling the camera slightly out of position in the process.  This was great for visitors, but not so great for our viewers at home.  The new camera will have a pan-tilt-zoom function, so we should be able to see Ursula in some out-of-the-way places.  Stay tuned!