What do Puget Sound and Hollywood have in common?

More than you would expect! Did you see the movie sensation “Avatar”? Did this all look a little bit familiar to you? Nice movie, you think, but what the heck does it have in common with our beloved Puget Sound?

Well, let’s look a little bit closer!

It is a pretty well known fact that Avatar’s creator and producer James Cameron has a love for the oceans. Would you believe me if I told you that Cameron’s love for scuba diving and the fascinating and beautiful undersea life is represented during the whole movie?

I would say that much of the flora and fauna of the movie is a computer-generated resemblance of the marine life. Trees retract themselves when the Avatars touch them – the same thing will happen when you touch a feather duster – a sessile worm, which you can find attached to the docks in Elliott Bay!

The seeds of the sacred tree Eyra undulate through Pandora like jellyfish (see photo to the right; image source) through the ocean. These similarities are hardly an accident.

When Cameron was asked about his Aquatic influence in an interview he said: “I just swept in every design influence in my life. I’ve always had this deep respect for nature and a lot of my youth was out in the woods hiking around. I was a total science geek. I spent over 2,500 hours underwater and I’ve seen things that are absolutely astonishing on the bottom of the ocean. It really is like an alien planet. I’ve always felt like that’s something I’ve been able to do was live out a science-fiction fantasy adventure for real in my diving work. So yeah, there’s a lot of stuff there. There’s even a lot of stuff in the shallow ocean that’s influenced things.” Click here to read the full interview.

You still don’t believe me? You want to see it with your own eyes?

Then come out to our upcoming pier peer at Elliott Bay Marina in Seattle this Wednesday, Oct 12 from 8:30 – 9:30 PM. You will be flabbergasted and amazed by what hides down there in the dark waters around our piers.

Take a peek into the dark waters using our underwater lights. See the fauna that comes to visit us and find out more from our naturalist, who will be there to identify our guests.

Click here for more information and to RSVP (Space is limited).

This is a FREE event for People For Puget Sound members, $10 for non-members.