After spending some time in Chatham, we went to Naval Marine Museum, Samudrika. We were greeted by a huge whale skeleton at the entrance. The place is all things Andaman. And one should keep this as part of the first few sights in Port Blair at the beginning of the tour. There was a very informative short film being displayed in the main hall, that covered a traveller’s trail through out Andaman.

In the remaining halls, there were dedicated rooms for marine life such as Fish, Corals and shells etc.

We saw some really eager to please bat fishes moving in the aquarium, some star fishes, a stone fish, lion fish with all its fins spread 🙂

Several clown fishes in their natural environment were also there. It is delightful to see all of them. The only VVIP among them was the parrot fish, she decided to hide behind a stone and refused to come out despite me asking her with folded hands. 😀 

We then went into the coral and shell rooms, the samples are very well maintained as they are well segregated. It contained everything from a tiny shell to really huge clam shells.

In the end, we saw three tortoise shells on the wall. They belonged to Hawksbill Tortoise. I had seen them previously, so the shells did not amaze me, but the story did. It was a description of the lives of the tortoise species there, which are part of the endangered species due to the massive poaching. In the story, the biggest shell tortoise is the narrator, with the rest two as his family and goes on to end with their poaching. You feel a bit sad, and perhaps, a bit , jut a tiny bit more conscious about them.