CLARENCE MANICAD DIVES INTO THE OCEANARIUM AT MANILA OCEAN PARK AND DEVELOPS AN APPRECIATION FOR ALL THINGS DEEP. PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIK LACSON
who needs a cartoon when the real thing is just as colorful, vibrant,and comical, if not even more so? Here at the Manila Ocean Park, there’s a fish with pouty, orange lips called lipstick tang, but I call her Angelina Jolie. Switch off the flash on your camera when snapping her picture – she hates the paparazzi. And then, there is the alien-looking cowfish with its two horn-like protrusions and box-like, green body. Watch out – it squirts.
“Why do they do that?” I ask Roy, my aquarist mentor.
There is a scientific explanation for everything at the Manila Ocean Park, and a month, let alone a day, is just not enough to cover everything. Each and every expanding and contracting school of fish is an epic in the making. And though you needn’t hold your breath to enjoy the scenery, you do. Because a close encounter with the marvelous sea creatures at the Manila Ocean Park is nothing short of breathtaking.
Of course, much of this real parallel universe is simulated or man-made. What nature does as a matter of natural course requires human efforts of heroic proportions.
To get a better understanding of how the staff at Manila Ocean Park enables Mother Nature, I head to the “back of the house” of the aquariums.
GETTING INTO THE (REEF) ZONE
First, Roy gives me an in-depth tour of his domain, the Bahura or Reef Zone. He shows me his creatures and talks about them as if they were his children. He swoons over the moray eels as though they are his prized goldfish. Then he leads me to the back of the house, which is a space of intertwining pipes, water pumps, panels with red and green lights, and foam-producing protein skimming filters that makes me think of cappuccinos.
Roy quickly puts me to task. “You saw the dirty parts of the tank glass? We have to clean them before the park opens. We have a little more than an hour to do this.” He hands me – not a test tube or a scientist’s smock as I anticipated – but a mop, and then drags me onto a stand about two meters off the ground. With finesse, Roy demonstrates how to clean the inside of the tank glass.
“Don’t they have janitors to do this?” I think silently to myself, and like a psychic, Roy answers. “We can’t allow anybody who is not scientifically trained to clean the tank.” This at once makes perfect sense: they are not merely putting up a pretty display, after all. They are replicating marine life down to its most minute detail. When Roy climbs up the tank and stands along its edges, he looks like a child balancing on the rim of a giant goldfish bowl.
“Are you sure that’ll hold?”
Roy assures me it will, while explaining that sometimes cleaning the tank can momentarily cloud the water, but it makes for a healthier environment.
The next stop: scoop out the crab poop. “I’m not sure I know what that looks like,” I say, trying to evade the task. “Oh, you’ll see,” Roy says, so we climb into the refrigerated tank of the Japanese giant crab, which may as well be called Crabzilla due to its very large pincers.
Next, we had to siphon out the tanks. I get stressed at the thought of sucking on a hose to start the vacuum. But Roy explains a more scientific way to do it: just fill the hose with water and then direct its end towards the drainage. And gravity does the rest.
“But we’re in a hurry,” Roy says, and so he places the hose in his mouth and draws a deep breath. Next thing I know, water is gushing out. But it gets more complicated. “You have to squeeze the hose with one hand if the sand gets sucked out; release it to continue vacuuming,” Roy instructs. Afterwards, he assigns me to clean the petting tank by myself. I mop the inside of the glass of the shallow outdoor tank, then agitate the sand so that the dirt rises up and the filtration system does the rest.
FEEDING TIME
Before I can ask, “Where are the pellets?”, I find myself in the food storage area which reminds me of a supermarket’s fish section. Roy shows me cans stored in the refrigerator, which contain tiny eggs. “You feed them eggs?” I ask. “No, we hatch the eggs so we can feed the fish newly hatched brine shrimp.” Roy shows me the hatchery: a small, funnel-bottomed tank with bubbling brown and orange liquid. Under a microscope would be the only way to see these infinitesimal individual shrimp, which Roy collects in a measuring cup.
To feed the fish with the brine shrimps, I draw a syringe full of the orange liquid and squirt it into the tank. Roy asks me to run outside to see if the fish are feeding and the sight is spectacular. The fish feeding on this virtual snowfall make a riot of color. I squirt another syringe-full into the grass eel tank and run outside again, passing a crowd
of guests. Together, we see the tiny eels, well-entrenched in the sand, bobbing up and down, gulping up the tiny specks of food. But feeding the moray eels is another matter. Roy instructs me to get a morsel of squid, attach it to a long stick and lower it to individual eels, all of which hungrily devour their fishy treats. “Make sure each of the 17 eels get their share,” he says. How can he tell them apart? “I just can.” Soon, I’m back with Crabzilla.
“Just direct the morsel into his mouth with the stick.”
“Where’s his mouth?”
“Just under his eyes.”
I direct the morsel near the crab’s eyes and it grabs the treat from the stick, drawing it greedily into its mouth.Then we fed the giant, two meter-long arapaima. This meant climbing the artificial cliff in view of guests. One wrong move and I would have fallen into the tank. When an arapaima lunges at its food with a terrifying splashing-gulping sound, I check my limbs to see if they’re still attached.
WHO’S WATCHING WHOM?
The attractions at this park are as plentiful as the 3,000 fishes that live here and behind each one is a story and a network of processes to ensure a happy, healthy existence. The best indicator that the fish here are well is if they breed. To date, a shark has given birth to twins here. The baby white-tipped reef sharks still rest at the bottom, peering through corals, too shy to venture out in the open.
The rest of the day, the aquarists monitor the tanks. They check PH and nitrogen levels, temperatures, etc. The indicators on the control panels must remain green. The flow of water – drawn from Manila Bay and filtered through state-of-the-art technology – must be continuous. A red light is an alert to a problem that needs action. And the fish? The fish must display peak colors at all times, and show no disease or unusual or irregular behavior. “All this demands 24 hours’ work,” Roy adds. Technology can do many things, but it can’t replicate the natural marine life environment. Only life can produce life. And nothing can take the place of the people who work here.
The park depends on human technology. That’s why Roy, Carlos and the other aquarists live here. As the planet’s resources are also under threat, it is not any different from the way we live. We’re at a point when the outcome of the planet is largely determined by our choices and actions. And we are all aquarists in this world made up of 70 percent water. Just like Roy and Carlo, we need to act when the red light is on.
Visit Manila Ocean Park at Quirino
Grandstand Luneta, Manila; tel: +632 400
0604; www.manilaoceanpark.com
OCEAN’S 11
Cool water adventures to try!
1 Surf Siargao Drive from Butuan, to its most popular break – Cloud Nine. It’s one of the world’s top 10 best wave
2 Dive in Puerto Galera boasts 40 dive sites for both the amateur and the rabid enthusiast
3 Go river wild White water raft in the Cagayan River, one of Mindanao’s longest rivers
4 See more fi sh Singapore’s Underwater World boasts its own oceanarium with an 83-meter long tunnel that is home to rays, sharks, and more. You can even feed the stingrays in their pool!
5 Sea cows in Palawan An ecotourism trip lets you catch the Dugong, which can measure up to three meters long and weigh 400kg, in their natural habitat
6 Fish refl exology Next door to Underwater World in Singapore is a spa where Turkish spa fi sh help exfoliate your feet. Try it!
7 Dolphin watch in Dumaguete Swim with dolphins in Bais Bay early in the morning
8 View the fi sh Ocean Park Hong Kong displays over 2,000 fi sh species in a four-storey aquarium!
9 Try river tubing An infl ated tire tube brings you over Cagayan de Oro’s rapids - it’s one of the town’s top tourist draws!
10 Slide ‘n’ glide Camsur
Watersports Complex in
Camarines Sur is a six-point
cable ski system offering
wakeboarding, wakeskating
and watersking
11 How deep is your
love In Trang,
Thailand, a short fl ight
from Bangkok,
underwater
weddings
are held
over three
days around
Valentine’s day
-Diana Ho
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