i was in batam, indonesia over the weekend, went to a seafood restaurant one night. the entrance to the eatery is full of ponds and tanks, the idea is you pick the exact animals you want cooked and then you're seated.
the sad thing is, the first pond they have houses two ~6' nurse sharks. disturbingly small, about 25 feet long, no more than 8' wide, in a L- configuration pond, it was definitely less than three feet deep. there were also two small [shell diameter ~2'] green sea or hawksbill turtles, i'm not too sure.
i honestly dont know if the nurses [or turtles even] were there as attractions... because they serve coral catsharks and brownbanded bamboos. it broke my heart to see the group of small cats and bamboos cramped in a ~3' by ~3' pond, barely a foot deep. the water didnt look very good either, greenish and slightly cloudy. probably running on a loop from the ocean, as part of the establishment sits on the water.
i wanted so badly to buy the sharks off them and release them off a shore down the road, it probably would have cost ~20000 indonesian rupiah for one, that's around three singaporean dollars. sigh.
they also had a pool full of mantises, about 15", awesome to watch. and others mostly full of prawns and assorted groupers, hinds, basses, some cuttlefish and squid.
i spent so much time just sitting by the ponds i missed more than half of dinner, it was definitely a low point of the trip.
i didnt get many shots of the animals there, just a few of the catsharks and bamboos. and as the camera's in my dad's car, i'll put them up another day. just wanted to share this with you guys.
the sad thing is, the first pond they have houses two ~6' nurse sharks. disturbingly small, about 25 feet long, no more than 8' wide, in a L- configuration pond, it was definitely less than three feet deep. there were also two small [shell diameter ~2'] green sea or hawksbill turtles, i'm not too sure.
i honestly dont know if the nurses [or turtles even] were there as attractions... because they serve coral catsharks and brownbanded bamboos. it broke my heart to see the group of small cats and bamboos cramped in a ~3' by ~3' pond, barely a foot deep. the water didnt look very good either, greenish and slightly cloudy. probably running on a loop from the ocean, as part of the establishment sits on the water.
i wanted so badly to buy the sharks off them and release them off a shore down the road, it probably would have cost ~20000 indonesian rupiah for one, that's around three singaporean dollars. sigh.
they also had a pool full of mantises, about 15", awesome to watch. and others mostly full of prawns and assorted groupers, hinds, basses, some cuttlefish and squid.
i spent so much time just sitting by the ponds i missed more than half of dinner, it was definitely a low point of the trip.
i didnt get many shots of the animals there, just a few of the catsharks and bamboos. and as the camera's in my dad's car, i'll put them up another day. just wanted to share this with you guys.
