This past Saturday we decided to make our way to the Fluvarium - an environmental education centre, with a panoramic underwater view of the neighbouring stream.
At the Fluvarium
The Fluvarium is an interesting place because it focuses mainly on wetlands and ecosystems, as well as water distribution/treatment. Since we weren't familiar with these subjects, we came across many facts that we didn't know and ended up learning a lot from the experience. Let's just say that there was a matching game where you had to match the type of wetland to the description, and we only got 3/5 right. Not to mention that we're pretty sure the game is intended for kids.
Here are a few more interesting facts that we came across while walking through the exhibit areas:
- A female brown trout lays 1000 eggs, but only 1 in 100 survive to become adult fish
- Most fish can barely see a couple of metres in front of themselves, and can see much less when the water is muddy
- The incisors of a beaver never stop growing
- A snowflake is actually formed when water changes directly from a gas to a solid. Frozen raindrops are called sleet.
- Canada has the third highest amount of renewable fresh water in the world, placing behind Brazil and Russia.
- St. John's is the wettest capital city in Canada, recording an annual average 1,482 mm of rainfall per year. Plus, there is some form of precipitation 217 days of the year.
- A female brown trout lays 1000 eggs, but only 1 in 100 survive to become adult fish
- Most fish can barely see a couple of metres in front of themselves, and can see much less when the water is muddy
- The incisors of a beaver never stop growing
- A snowflake is actually formed when water changes directly from a gas to a solid. Frozen raindrops are called sleet.
- Canada has the third highest amount of renewable fresh water in the world, placing behind Brazil and Russia.
- St. John's is the wettest capital city in Canada, recording an annual average 1,482 mm of rainfall per year. Plus, there is some form of precipitation 217 days of the year.
After walking through the exhibits, we went to the bottom floor of the building which is the actual 'fluvarium' component. Through the glass, you can see into the neighbouring stream and check out the wildlife. However, due to heavy rain the night before, the water was cloudy so there wasn't much visibility, but we did see a bunch of brown trout swimming around up close.
Here's a quick video of some brown trout:
Continuing around the facility, there is an area dedicated to local freshwater life. In the aquariums, we saw toads, frogs, tadpoles, rainbow trout, and an eel.
Luke looking at tadpoles
According to the forecast for last Saturday, it was supposed to be warm but rainy, so that's why we decided to do something indoors. However, it didn't rain in the afternoon, so we ended off our visit to the Fluvarium with a walk around Long Pond.
Here are some more pictures of our day!
Here are some more pictures of our day!
