A first look at realism - A Fascination for Fish: Adventures of an Underwater Pioneer - page 29

fins that grasp the rough bottom. Some, like the clingfish ( Gobiesox
meandricus ), have pelvic fins that have developed into a fully formed
suction cup to hold them firmly in place amid the crashing waves.
Other fascinating creatures could be seen here if you looked hard
enough. In the gravelly sand beneath certain rocks you might find the
burrow of a pair of ghost shrimp ( Callianassa a‹nis ) together with a pair
of their commensal burrow mates, the blind gobies ( Typhlogobius cali-
forniensis ). Blind gobies reap the benefit of a ready-made home built by
the industrious shrimp, but what benefit, if any, the shrimp gain from
the arrangement is not clear. Perhaps the little fish protect the shrimp
from possible predators like the intertidal octopus ( Octopus bimaculatus )
by nipping at the tip of an exploratory tentacle entering their burrow.
My experience with the real intertidal world made me dissatisfied
with the unrealistic representation of tide pool life we had in the
Marineland exhibit. So I began thinking of ways I could make it more
realistic, more like the tidal channels of Portuguese Bend with the suc-
cession of waves washing over them. Obviously I couldn't create a long,
narrow tank in a space only four feet long, but that image lingered in
my mind. Then, for some reason, the fun house on the Pacific Ocean
Park amusement pier, and the illusions created there with mirrors,
popped into my mind.
Why not create my tide pool channel with mirrors? I decided to give
it a try and began sketching the positions and angles of the rocks and
mirrors necessary for this idea to work. It was important that visitors
not be able to see their own reflections looking back at them from ei-
ther of the two mirrors. That would definitely ruin the illusion.
Fellow aquarist Jerry Goldsmith and I got to work. First we chiseled
out the old rocks from the tide pool tank, and then, with the help of
Jerry's creative eye and muscle, we collected new rocks of appropriate
sizes and shapes. Eventually the backbreaking work of positioning the
two mirrors and cementing the rocks in place was done, and the tank
was filled. The concept worked, and what we formerly saw as the rear
of the tank now looked like a long, narrow, rocky channel going back
eight or ten feet. After the cement was cured, the fishes, invertebrates,
and algae were added. The fish were a little confused by the mirrors
but quickly figured out that what they saw reflected in them was not