Day 57

Smith and I have "special days" when he's at home in the peace and calm of a one child family, without the associated madness and chaos of his big brothers.  Usually on these days we'll do something "special" like mini golf, going to "skeleton dinosaurs" (the museum), or going to the supermarket (hmm, nothing too special about this for either of us!).  Yesterday he asked to go to the aquarium.  It was a little too late to do the big trek into the city to the real aquarium so we just headed to the smaller Manly Ocean World.  "Not this one", he stated when we (finally) got a park. "No, the one with the fairies and dragons is the aquarium I want to go to, not this one".  What the?  I later found out he was meaning the Martime Museum, so I would have got it wrong regardless.  "Nope buddy, this is the excellent one with the sharks and stuff", I hoped said.  And praise the lord, thanks to the fact HALF of the bloody thing was closed for construction, we only paid half price.
He was like a pig in mud running like a mad man checking out the fish, submerging his sleeved arm in the touch pool, while lining up all the sea urchins along the edge, begging me to do the same (I couldn't didn't), and just being an absolutely delighted 4 year old who loves wildlife of any variety.  It was worth the $15 and the shark from the giftshop, he'd lined up when we arrived.  But one thing I did find interesting was information about the Eastern Australian Current.  Bet you didn't know about this?

So what is the Eastern Australian Current?

Freaking fascinating, but you know by now I kinda love this sort of stuff!

The East Australian Current (EAC) is an ocean current that moves warm water in a counter clock-wise fashion down the east coast of Australia. It is the largest ocean current close to the shores of Australia and is sourced from the tropical Coral Sea off the north-east coast of Australia. It can reach speeds of up to 7 knots in some of the shallower waters along the Australian continental shelf, but is generally measured at 2 or 3 knots.  It can be up to 30km wide and 200m deep.
The EAC results in a current vortex in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand. The EAC also acts to transport tropical marine fauna to habitats in sub-tropical regions along the south east Australian coast.


The EAC is usually stronger in summer, when it reaches further south, often bringing with it northern tropical species such as tuna. There have even been large sea turtles following this current into Bass Strait!


Sound familiar?  Aha, in Finding Nemo, it was depicted as the "super highway" carrying  Marlin and  Nemo's friends down to rescue him in Sydney Harbour.

Fascinating eh!