There seems to be a bit of unwarranted animosity towards AIG. I can’t do anything about that; I don’t know them much, and have never seen their museum. But based on the comments, the animosity is unwarranted and uncharitable. I agree with you Timothy that the floating of the ark is not a major concern. It was a pretty big boat and would be able to withstand pretty big waves, as long as it was not close to a shore. Tsunamis are barely noticed out to sea, while near shore are devastating.
What about the animals, could 8 people care for them? Well, a number of things need to be considered. How many animals were in hibernation state. How big were the animals. As I suggested in another place, how do we know that they didn’t organize some kind of feeding system for those animals that needed it? They had a year or more to get the feeding system ready. Set up right with feed in the right spot, it wouldn’t take long to open a chute or gate to let animals feed. Today we have a lot less than 8 people feeding 40,000 birds, or 10,000 pigs. I know it used to take me less than 15 minutes to feed 300 pigs by hand. Do the math. The more animals you feed the less time it takes per animal. Most animals are much much smaller than pigs. Even cows… I used to feed 40 full grown cows outdoors in about an hour per week. Yes, I had a tractor, but with a different system, it would have even taken me less time. If the feed is placed right, with moveable gates… I doubt you have to worry about feeding or caring for mice and rats or sparrows or swallows. You are magnifying a problem that simply is not insurmountable.
I can see where not understanding this causes problems. But it is not a problem. First there is enough water on earth to cover the entire earth to a depth of several miles (not feet, not cubits, but miles) if the earth was flat. There is a lot of water on earth. 2/3 of the earth is even today covered by water. Some of that water is ten miles deep. So of course, the assumption would be that mountains rose subsequent to the flood, that ocean valleys deepened, and that continents separated. Water came from somewhere underneath, either groundwater or ocean water or both. As well as much rain, obviously.
This is the easiest problem: Insects can survive many many conditions. Many insects go through pupal stages and egg stages which are virtually indestructable, or at least a few would survive tough conditions. They don’t have to survive on mats. Like seeds of various kinds, some of them would be preserved in various soils, or just floating on water, or within the floating tree trunks, etc. Some insect parasites would survive on rotting corpses. There are many many insects that survive torrential monsoons every year. Insects are the most durable organism around.
Who says trees survived underwater for a whole year? Trees have roots and seeds that enable their survival. Interestingly, many trees survive freezing winters every year, others survive multi-year droughts, and some seeds require a fire in order to open the seeds enough for them to germinate. Plants have amazing survival ability under all kinds of conditions. Some seeds don’t germinate for twenty five years, when finally they do.
None of those things are very problematic. I suspect even when we think they are problematic, if we look harder we will discover the ways they could survive.