extinct another day (aquarium/undercover conclusion)

64.95 million BC...

okay just when i thought today couldn't get crazier it did... now i don't really feel like going into to much detail here people of the innerweb. don't get me wrong. it's not that i don't want to talk to you or tell you about it... just at the end of my tour as a spy there has been a big twist ending i just didn't see coming...

before i reveal that though heres the quick version of what went down this afternoon...

so the truck with lobey showed up, and we got her loaded into my boat. however before i could set out you'll never guess who showed up...

yeah darth caught back up with me. man i'm sick of this guy's death grasp...

"you couldn't hide forever." he boomed. "now i want that fish. not excuses."

i was hooped simply put. he held me out this time so my tail wouldn't reach him...

he must have noticed the tank in my boat because he hauled me over to it.

seeing lobey in the tank he stopped. i lost the ability to breath... or wait i guess i'd lost that already... all i know is it felt terrible. i'd failed as a superspy, and worse i'd failed lobey... this monster of the dark side had her completely at his mercy, and there was nothing either me or her could do to stop him.

"this will be a day long remembered." he started. suddenly he lifted his other hand. in it was a big metal tube... oh no a light sword!!! he threw me to the side, and raised the cylinder. with a hiss of electricity a great red glow filled the air. he went to swing with that hand, and with his other hand he raised something in front of him...

"it has seen the end of my fish watching list, and will soon see the end of my search." he said bringing the cylinder against a clip board in his other hand.

he then simply made a checkmark on a list... a list of fish... and that was no light sword. rather it was just a light up pen!?!?!

with that he just turned around and walked away... like for good. he just went to the street and hopped into his black car and drove off...

this guy's reputation is way overblown due to the movies... he is just a big evil fish watcher. the aquarium had taken lobey off display the day he was going through to finish off his BC list...

well i guess i'm a better superspy then i thought. one evil villian disposed of, and one fish released... wait i still hadn't released her!!!

getting my boat into the water i took it out into the middle of the habour. this should be good i thought. nice open water. access to the open sea. no evidence of mega predators.

with that i dumped her tank into the water, and she started to swim away into the depths. as per the aquariums instructions i grabbed the underwater telyscope and watched her as she went. she started to look a lot better right away!

after a bit of swimming she reached the bottom where she happily took up residence in a hole.

so with that i succeeded in my mission! i have to put this whole superspy incident on my resume!

getting back to shore though i had another crazy thing happen. i realized i was ON TOP of 65 million BC! as in it's right here in front of me where i type right now people of the innerweb!!!

i'm going to leave you now, and finally get to the goal of my 2 month quest!!!

you only evolve twice (aquarium part 8)

64.2 million BC

i'll take a water thawed not frozen...

the reason for my celebration i've found what i need to release lobey. the answer was so simple. i don't know why i didn't see it before...
it was the last tank i had to look at here in the whole aquarium. i was worried. what were the odds that this would hold the answer that i needed. out of all the tanks you'd think the i'd have run into this one already...

checking it out though i was amazed to see an archelon! it may have been a tiny one, but don't hold that against him. i myself know what it is like to be a small individual of a big species!

seconds later a myledaphus swam by... my hopes were realized! i'd found a tank that was the oceans of the BCs!!!

unfortunately ending my celebrations, swam by the last component of an authentic BC ocean... a shark!

now don't get me wrong... i'm liking the true too prehistory assemblage (though i don't want to stick around for a xiphactinus to come by... those guys are just bad scary news all round!), but lobey just won't stand a chance in this tank... the oceans of the BCs could be a scary eateny place... xiphactinuses, cretoxyrhinas, and mosasaurs oh my!

so you're wondering how is it i'm going to save lobey by throwing her in a tank of death...

simple i'm not.

i'm just going to release her into the ocean outside the aquarium... the reason it is the REAL sea of BC!!! she'll have a better chance in the open BC ocean then closed in a small tank with the killers of the prehistoric maritimes (or is the maritime a time period of it's own?)...

so my next task is to get the gear needed to facilitate this transfer...

though i'm still no closer to finding out whose behind the plot to kill lobey...

prehistory never dies... (aquarium part 7)

64.2 million BC

well after the whole beluga/ghost whale fiasco i was worried i was in over my head... cause superspies don't have things go that badly do they?

as i resumed the search though i realized that i must be at the midpoint of the crisis! the ghostbusters and peter being all mad was just like in a movie... i can't save the day if things don't get worse before they get better! and get better they are looking!

i have just made a key discovery here... though it may be more related to my quest in finding 65 million BC it holds out hope for lobey too!

searching the tropical displays i've found further ties here to me and lobey's part of BC...

just like lobey the aquarium has other living fossils!


in a tank area they have a couple crocodilians, distant cousins of mine. i think on my mom's side, but i'm not sure?


later on they had a bunch of birds. my descendents... making this part of the aquarium a dinosaur relative zone! which can only mean one thing...

this is a recreation of 65 million BC!!! meaning that i am almost home! more to the point where better to release lobey then where we both come from!!!

now i still have a slight problem. this is the perfect environment for a tyrannosaur to live and thrive, but not so much so for a coelacanth... i need to find out what the ocean looks like at 65 million BC

contracts are forever (aquarium part 6)

64.2 million BC

well you might say that my hiding in the staff washroom for over an hour is cowardly. especially since now i'm a superspy... but that's why i'm the superspy and your not! i know the battles i have to fight, and ghosts aren't one of them.


i've never once seen a movie where a superspy agent's job description included fighting a ghost. i do know however that it is in special talent agents' job descriptions... in particular my agent bond, peter bond's.

in our contract there is a stipulation that he HAS to prevent any preventable harm to both me and my career. i'd say a ghost attack is a threat to both!!!

calling peter up i explained my current... problem (more like crisis!!!). he told me to sit tight until he could implement a solution...

so peter has a plan for everything to do with his clients, and hearing of my fear of ghosts during our first meeting he put into place a haunting action plan. which entailed his calling the ghostbusters... the REAL ghostbusters, not one of those cheap knock offs or anything! not only that he geared up to personal oversee the busting to make sure they did it right!

man what an agent i have!

well peter and the ghostbusters showed up, and checked on me in my hiding place. after seeing i was okay they headed down to clear up that tank... getting back 5 minutes later they informed me that i'd made a mistake.

those were beluga whales not ghosts...

uh oh... the ghostbusters were a little more then mad for the emergancy call, and peter wasn't too pleased about having to pay them their rush fee... but better to be on the safe side right. right?

oh man. i'd better get back to helping lobey so that everyone will be impressed by me rather then angry...

the living ghostlights (aquarium part 5)

64.2 million BC

alright so i've arrived at a new tank here, and man is it cold... the closer one gets to the glass the more chilly the air gets... i thought the sign saying arctic leading to this tank was just a product placement or something (you know for gum or a condo development)...

didn't see to much in the tank initially. i started to get cold standing there so i decided to get further away to try and warm up...



while my back was turned the crowd "ewwww ahhhh"ed at something. turning around i saw only an empty tank... so i resumed my thermal retreat only to hear the crowd react again... and again an empty tank when i looked!!!

well then i was going to head up to the glass and see once and for what they were all on about!


peering closer to the glass i still couldn't see anything, but this was a HUGER tank then spinnaker's. i leaned in as close as i could... still nothing... looking back and forth i thought i saw some motion in the left corner of the tank... then suddenly just out of the corner of my eye WHOOSH!!!

something big swam by!!!

then i saw it... it was a pale white apparition in the form of a whale! a GHOST WHALE!!!

now even though i'm now a superspy i have to admit i did scream, and really loud. probably like a little girl even... but in my defense ghosts are REALLY scary!!!

making it even scary, and making my scream last a little longer then is acceptable suddenly two more of them showed up...

well i'm now hiding in the staff washroom hoping they didn't follow me!

at least the haunted tank isn't going to be any help with lobey... it was way too cold and haunted for her!!!

from oceania with love (aquarium part 4)

64.2 million BC

well lobey is getting worse, and despite my recon yesterday of the aquarium i'm no closer to helping her. this is a big place though... i only made it part way through it turns out.

today i'm back to the search in hopes i get an idea from a different area...

as of this point i may not know what to do to make lobey feel better, but i got a morale boost!

checking out one of the huge tanks they have here at the aquarium (i'm serious it's a HUGE tank of water... you could hold like a thousand million and four fish in this thing!!! though i won't risk a thousand million and five...), and there was an icthyosaur looking critter in there. noticing me it started to swim towards me!

i've read books where icthyosaurs try to eat people so i was a little alarmed for a second... especially now that i'm a spy!

it approached the glass real slow like, and i may have let out a little yelp... but only a little one i swear!

if this was like the movies any second it would rush the glass and smash through, and i'd be monster food.......

to my surprise it just stopped and floated there starring at me... i returned the favour.

after a minute or two of this starring competition (i lost like 9 times... this thing just doesn't blink at all!!!) i recognized what it was, remembering john acorn the nature nut's movie on marine reptiles at the tyrrell! it's was a dolphin...

i relaxed. dolphins are really friendly, peaceful, and smart. it was just curious about me is all. not going to eat me... though to be fair i won't put it past it to try and eat lobey... dolphins are fishyvores after all!

reading the sign i learned this dude's name was spinnaker, and he is a pacific white siding dolphin... that's kinda cruel making the dolphins being the decoration for the ocean!

so after three minutes of the two of us just sitting there and looking at each other i got the feeling spinnaker likes hanging out with me... the sign says that he usually swims around the tank fast... and sure enough after about the 4th minute he resumed his swimming. i'll have to remember to come hangout with him again if i can.

however it is back to business! time to help out lobey!

a view to a fishy (aquarium part 3)

64.2 million BC


okay so now i kind of responsible for the life of one sick coelacanth. regradless of whether i've been given the task under fake to not so real pretexts... a fishys life hangs in the balance, and i'm the only one who can save it!

now as i've become an undercover agent of sorts (factiod for you other spywannabes like me: it really helps to dress like the people your inflitrating) i need to handle this like a spy...

first i'm going to need a codename as to not let anyone follow a trail back to lobey. hmmmmmm i got it! hammerjaw! we t-rexs have a VERY strong bite.

alright so now i need to find a place where lobey can survive. alright so for me to achieve this a few things are going to have to go down first...

• figure out how lobey needs to live
• find a good place to release her
• get the gear needed us there
• put it all together and get her back into the wild!

alright so first thing is first... then uh... right, i'm kinda new to lists and stuff. not so used to organization... i sure hope this doesn't ruin my being a spy. NO must stick to the task at hand. no time to worry about this. lobey is counting on me!

okay so figure out how she should live... well i have no idea, but fortunetly i'm in a place that should have the answer... cause this place is full of fish!



okay so when i said they have a lot of fish i had no idea! have to say this is kind of a fun part of being a spy so far! i do love watching fish!

also as a sidenote based on these fish of the tropics i now know where to find nemo should the need arise!

i think i may have found the first of my spy rivals. these so called garden eels are kinda of shifty little things. poking their heads up to watch me, but shot back into their hidey holes when i come to look at them... not trusting these guys... wonder if their from russia?

okay i think the stakes are rising in this game! now i've met a trigger fish! i frisked him, and he may not be armed... but for how long???

who knew the world of marine biology was so dangerous? there are some big burly ones hanging around here too. despite their size i know their not the big fish... who is he or she, and why do they want lobey to die???

alright now i know i've seen this kind of fish somewhere... i think it was in a spy movie too...

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! piranhas!!! i know what they do to spies!!!

okay so my findings so far in my investigation... no wonder lobey is in danger. the aquarium is a dangerous place!

undercover discovery! (aquarium part 2)

64.2 million BC...

i'm not sure what the events of today mean... i'd like to say i'm excited, and that really cool stuff is going to happen... but i'm also keeping my luck of the last 2 months in mind...

so what i do know is that indeed sarah and other employees at the aquarium think i work here. the only reason my uniform is almost exactly the same as theirs. other then my tyrrell logo on my shirt (which i've made sure to cover up with the nice new name tag these guys gave me!)...

i was going to fess up, and tell them that this was all a big mistake... that is till i got to see what the job was...

it may just need a dinosaurs touch!

sarah took me down into a locked down part of the aquarium where there was a tank with a weird looking fish... then i realized i knew what kind of fish this was! it was a coelacanth!!!

coelacanths are a fish from the time of dinosaurs (and way before actually), but unlike us they managed to survive in some areas outside the BCs... however this one was in the BCs... as in this one probably came from where the dinosaurs are still hanging out in the BCs!!!

sarah explained that lobey (the coelacanth) was not doing so good, and was getting sicker and sicker. there was just nothing that the aquarium could do to make her feel at home. as of such they wanted to release her back into the wild, but they had no idea where to do it.

this is where i came in. as an expert on prehistoric critters (i'm not claiming this... that's what they called me) i was to help them try and make sure lobey would find a new home...

well this is an interesting pickle i'm in here people of ciderspace. but that's nothing compared to standing here close to poor lobey. she's actually looking kinda like a pickle...

she's counting on finding a new home, and unlike me she needs someone else to do it for her!... it's nice of the aquarium to try and help... i wonder why the tyrrell didn't do that for me?

also as a fellow prehistoric beast i feel for her. apart from here in the BCs we don't exist in many places out there... well at least we dinos (except in museums) don't, and i know the few non BC coelacanths live FAR away from here...

so i'm going to keep up my aquarium staffer cover for now, and help lobey find a home. then i'll set the record straight... wonder what peter's advice here would be?

too good a fashion sense (aquarium part 1)

64.2 million BC

well today is aquarium/65 million BC day... do i set too lofty of goals?

now as both these things lie in densely forested stanley park this is where i have come today. fortuenetly their in order of less to more important, cause otherwise i might not move on if it were vice versa.

first up is the aquarium...

it's off to a terrific start! outside in front is the coolest fountain yet! and there have been a ton of cool fountains so far, and i KNOW my fountains. this is my favorite so far by a lot! it has a statue of an old skool style orca... i wonder if this is how they used to think orcas looked like how 100 years ago they used make dinosaurs look wrong?

i still think it looks awesome! so i spent a little bit out front just hanging out enjoying the water do it's thing...

getting inside the aquarium, all i have to say is holy moly! there is a HUGE tank full of all different kinds of fishys... way more kinds then i know... though notice they have surgeons just like the tyrrell's (except these ones are like 3 meters long!!!)...

i'm really really liked this place already, and i'd only seen one tank...

before i could check out any further though the weirdest thing happened...

two of the staffers (one a person the other a shark) came up to me and were like

"oh good there you are. we were worried you weren't coming in."

i was a little confused naturally... she must have been talking to someone behind me, but there was no one else around.

"uh excuse me?" i asked

"you're the new guy we hired. well good to see you weren't late just lost. come on we'll get you started..." she said.

so just like that she starts off through the aquarium. i was confused, but figured i should follow cause i didn't want to get in trouble.

"i'm sarah by the way, and this is gums." the girl said as she opened a door marked STAFF ONLY...

"uh i'm traumador the tyrannosaur." i said back trying not to be rude

"oh good, a dinosaur. you'll be an expert on this then." she sounded relieved. then she seemed to think on what i'd said "traumador? why does that seem formiliar? have we met before?"

oh boy. she musta heard my name on the news! no i told her, and hoped she won't connect the dots...

then i realized what was going on! the staff shirts here at the aquarium they look almost identical to my museum shirt!!! she must think i'm a new worker here at the aquarium... i gotta get out here! why'd i waste this oppurtunity doing a blog entry?!?

oh man she's coming back! okay people of the innerweb i gotta go! wonder how this is going to end???

cruising along

63.1 million BC

okay so the plan today started out as trying to cover as much ground to get to 65 million by this evening if i could. well it's turning out that true vancouver has a few more challenges then i was expecting. in the form of too many neat things to check out and explore...

i decided to comb the shoreline here first so as to avoid the delays i met in north vancouver. probably a mistake. just like the boardwalk this area has way too much cool sights and sites. the sighte squared effect i'll call it!

there is this cool port for big cruise ships. i'm not going near the boats though. i don't want to risk them attracting an iceberg! i don't handle the cold so good...

coolest thing here though is another fountain! i really like this one. a ball made of spikes. like a hovering urchin of wet! spent a good time checking it out!

mustering a bit of courage i decided to check out the mall beside the cruise boats. i remembered that the love boat didn't sink till they made the movie about it decades later. though i think it's name was better in the show. the titanium sounds like a movie with arnold as a robotic sea captain from the future... oh well. point is i made it into the mall avoiding contact with chunks of sea ice!



inside there was the coolest advertisment ever! it was a fake tank full of sea critters, and said to see real sea animals visit the aqua-rium... i'm so going! not only do i get to see critters, but seeing an aqua concert too! can't pass that up... though i thought they'd broken up. hope they didn't replace anyone with a lame replacement, cause i'll know!