{"id":3248,"date":"2009-10-28T10:39:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-28T15:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=3248"},"modified":"2010-01-16T11:24:31","modified_gmt":"2010-01-16T16:24:31","slug":"night-at-the-museum-the-blue-monster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=3248","title":{"rendered":"Night at the Museum: The Blue Monster"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"museum<\/a><\/p>\n

Shadowed Monster at Cape Cod Museum of Natural History<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Spooky and dangerous things lurk in the shadows of a darkened museum at night.\u00c2\u00a0 Since childhood we’ve known, despite what silly\u00c2\u00a0adults tried to tell us, that monsters hide in the corner of lightless rooms, wedge themselves behind drapes, and lie motionless under beds until our eyes become heavy and close in a moment of weakness.\u00c2\u00a0 We knew what scratched against the window in a passing storm.\u00c2\u00a0 We knew what moved curtains in a still,\u00c2\u00a0 breezeless night.\u00c2\u00a0 We knew what made those creaking sounds in the hallway.\u00c2\u00a0 We knew what lay beneath.<\/p>\n

\"museum<\/a><\/p>\n

With some trepidation we accepted the invitation of the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History <\/a>in Brewster to give a near Halloween, nighttime\u00c2\u00a0presentation on sea turtle strandings and the new NMLC<\/a> marine animal hospital in Buzzards Bay.\u00c2\u00a0 Shortly after setting up our equipment came the fateful words that must have channeled Vincent Price from too many horror classics in the last century.\u00c2\u00a0 “Would you like to spend some time in the museum while you’re waiting for the audience to arrive?\u00c2\u00a0 The lights are out, but you can still find your way around,” tempted the museum’s office manager and institutional memory, Julie O’Neil.<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

Click Here to View Video in High Quality<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Moon Jellies Shine in Reflective Glow of Emergency Lights<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As we creaked down the stairs to the darkened basement museum, edging against the wall so that no gobblin could sneak behind us, we rounded\u00c2\u00a0a blind corner\u00c2\u00a0to spy\u00c2\u00a0a column of moon jellies swirling like shimmering ghosts\u00c2\u00a0in the reflective glow of corridor overheads.\u00c2\u00a0 Beautiful, graceful and definitely “mood setting” for a Night in the Museum.<\/p>\n

\"museum<\/a><\/p>\n

Night at the Museum: The Blue Monster<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

What they neglected to tell us, what no one had mentioned, was the legendary Blue Monster that haunts the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History.\u00c2\u00a0 Part Hydra, part Medusa, part Gorgon, this terrifying spectre with bulbous eyes, prickly horns and snake-like appendages has taken hold of one of the museum tanks, patiently waiting for some unsuspecting visitor to stumble in the dark.\u00c2\u00a0 Beware, Ye Who Tread Where No\u00c2\u00a0Mortal Should Venture!<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0\"museum<\/a><\/p>\n

Crabby Prisoner Held in the Blue Monster’s Lair<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Still blissfully ignorant of the Blue Monster, but\u00c2\u00a0nervously wary of the creatures of the dark, we pressed onward through the shadows.\u00c2\u00a0 We found scratching against a glass\u00c2\u00a0cage to our right a really crabby prisoner who had been trapped by the museum’s Blue Monster.\u00c2\u00a0 You could almost make out\u00c2\u00a0his muffled screams for help mouthed through\u00c2\u00a0the watery cell.<\/p>\n

\"museum<\/a><\/p>\n

Midnight Mugging<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We shined the\u00c2\u00a0beam of\u00c2\u00a0our pocket flashlight on another glass cell and uncovered what appeared to be a midnight mugging as one painted turtle held down another in the darkened caverns of the museum.<\/p>\n

\"museum<\/a><\/p>\n

Nervous Young Striped Bass<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In a nearby tank a juvenile striped bass floated silently in the dark, listening to scratching, scratching, scratching, rapping coming from around the hallway bend.\u00c2\u00a0 We looked at each other.\u00c2\u00a0 Could this be the terrible Lord of the Lair who cast such an aura of fear among his minions?<\/p>\n

\"museum<\/a><\/p>\n

Blue Monsters Emerges from the Shadows<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, we could see outlines of the Blue Monster as he emerged from a dark corner.\u00c2\u00a0 The camera’s infrared detector caught movement and snapped a somewhat shadowy mugshot of the culprit.<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

Click Here to View Video in High Quality<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

No turning back!\u00c2\u00a0 The monster stood between us and the stairway to freedom and back to the museum auditorium.\u00c2\u00a0 THE SHOW MUST GO ON … monster or no monster.\u00c2\u00a0 So, we trained our camera flash on the creature and clicked a series of images, blinding him momentarily and allowing us to escape into the light above.<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0\"museum<\/a><\/p>\n

Don Lewis Discusses the Marine Animal Rescue Cycle<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

After our nerves settled, the presentation proved a success thanks to the gracious hosting and wonderful facilities\u00c2\u00a0of the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History.<\/p>\n

\"museum<\/a><\/p>\n

Bob Dwyer, Julie O’Neil and Don Lewis<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Our very special thanks go out\u00c2\u00a0to Bob Dwyer, Executive Director, and Julie O’Neil, Office Manager and recently designated Hero of the Environment.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m personally hopeful that the blue sign over Bob’s right shoulder\u00c2\u00a0and the red sign over my left shoulder\u00c2\u00a0in this picture snapped by Sue Wieber Nourse don’t\u00c2\u00a0portend a secret message subliminally transmitted\u00c2\u00a0by the Blue Monster below.<\/p>\n

For a truly exceptional experience, day or night (!!!!), we recommend you visit the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History<\/a> in Brewster.<\/p>\n

Postscript:\u00c2\u00a0 For those who may be interested, the shadowy “monster” in the first image above is a juvenile snapping turtle in its darkened tank.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ll leave the identification of the Blue Gorgon to your own imagination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shadowed Monster at Cape Cod Museum of Natural History Spooky and dangerous things lurk in the shadows of a darkened museum at night.\u00c2\u00a0 Since childhood we’ve known, despite what silly\u00c2\u00a0adults tried to tell us, that monsters hide in the corner of lightless rooms, wedge themselves behind drapes, and lie motionless under beds until our eyes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3248"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3248"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3290,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3248\/revisions\/3290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}