The (Amazing) Adventure Aquarium!!!

      On Friday, May 14, 2010, our entire unit was able to go to the Adventure Aquarium for a whole lot of exploring!  We saw many different and intriguing sea creatures including sharks, piranhas, turtles, and pufferfish.  While there, we were able to observe some playful penguins, "swim" in the shark tunnel, and touch bamboo sharks!  The facts scattered around the walls also gave us more insight and knowledge about aquarium animals and their natural habitats.

      When we got to the Adventure Aquarium, my group started on the second floor.  Once there, we looked at a multitude of interesting animals.  Somewhere there, in the rainforest section, I learned that although rainforest's take up less than two percent of the world, approximately fifty percent of the world's animals survive there.  This amazed me and I thought about it as I looked at the other exhibits.  Later on, I researched rainforest's a little bit.  I learned that they are gradually disappearing (five to ten percent every decade) due to unsustainable agriculture, mining, ranching, and other practices.  This will obviously have disastrous effects on the animals that live there.  Another fact that I learned stated that 99% of animals were extinct!  This fact shocked me.  I had no idea!  That meant that only 1% of the animals that used to be on Earth are alive now! Only 1%!  I guess I didn't really think about the dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals.  In addition to the rainforest section, we also had a chance to look at unique fish such as the ones who live at the very bottom of the deep ocean.  Outside, we saw penguins and two seals!  The penguins were joyfully waddling along their teeny tiny island and swimming in the water.  They had little cubby holes for themselves, too!  Moving along to the seal exhibit, our group saw one seal actively swimming around and the other lazily "tanning" on a large rock.  The second floor was definitely very captivating!

      The most hands-on and fun experience of the aquarium (for our group) was the Touch-A-Shark area.  We were allowed to touch sharks!  Not the huge and dangerous ones, of course!  The shallow pool was instead filled with White Spotted Bamboo Sharks.  An instructor told us to use two fingers to gently touch the back of the sharks.  She also told us that we shouldn't touch their head or tail as they might get annoyed, disturbed, or frightened.  Unfortunately, some of the younger kids ignored the warning and did so anyway!  One shark actually started swimming extremely quickly along the edge of the pool, moving up and down, near our hands.  It was very interesting to see what happened to the sharks when they were disturbed or frightened.  Anyway, I was eager to touch the sharks but somewhat nervous about it.  It took me about 20-some tries to finally be able to touch the back of the sharks!  Those 20-some tries consisted of me putting my hand in the water, waiting for a shark, moving my hand to touch it, chickening out 4 centimeters from the shark, quickly pulling my hand out of the water, and doing it all over again.  Also, a random guy started laughing at me.  Finally, though, when I was able to touch a shark, I was so excited and elated about it that I kept at it for at least ten more minutes!  Sadly, our group wasn't able to visit the Jules Verne Gallery, but we heard about it from others.
      All in all, this field trip to the Adventure Aquarium proved to be an extremely enlightening trip.  We were all able to learn about different sea creatures and observe them in their habitats.  Not to mention the interactive sites and the penguin exhibit!  I'd definitely love to go on another field trip like this any day.  
      
      I used this site to learn more about rainforest's.  My first picture can be found here.  My second picture is from here.  My third picture is from here.  


~Starflower794