I arrived at the New England Aquarium bright and early to meet Dan Dolan, friend of the Sea Rovers and long time aquarium volunteer and diver in the GOT (Giant Ocean Tank). Once I met Dan he brought me up to the dive locker and kitchen where I dropped off my stuff and got to work preparing fish food. I pulled apart squids, debeaking and depending them. I then got some lettuce ready for Myrtle the green sea turtle. Myrtle weighs in at 540 lbs, and is the oldest and one of the most iconic animals at the aquarium. The rest of the morning I fed the needle fish pieces of shrimp and fish, and Myrtle the lettuce I had prepared.
Then I headed back into the dive locker and got geared up to do a dive in the tank. A few of my friends got to come and see me as I went into the tank and took pictures with me. I got to pat a green moray, and rub Myrtle’s back. I swam around looking at the many fish species from schools of grunts to the hog fish and french angels. My personal favorite was the black drum fish. A kind of ugly looking brown fish about three or four feet long that has short barbles under its chin. At one point a grouper came near it and I found out why it’s called a black drum. It started making this deep booming drumming noise scaring the grouper away. It was amazing to see inside the tank that I had walked around so many times before.
