Posted by ChrisM on April 27, 2001 at 12:16:09:
In Reply to: Re: It's great therapy posted by Jeff B on April 27, 2001 at 11:02:32:
There's only one small exhibit with real coral. The rest is artificial.
You can use your own mask, fins, and exposure protection, but we are required to use their BCs and regs due to maintenance and insurance issues. If something goes wrong, they know the service history. I my own booties and, when I'm not presenting, mask. Everything else is theirs.
The main tropical reef exhibit is 27' deep, and about 40' from the glass to the back wall. 78 degrees. 350,000 gallons ("That's about 4 million cans of soda, kids!") I think Blue Caverns is about the same depth, maybe a little more, about 64 degrees?
No octos used as said above b/c the depths aren't that great and, since we're usually somewhere in the water column above the bottom, we could do a controlled ascent if something happened.
Cool story from just last night. In the main Tropical exhibit, I was cleaning the staghorn coral right in front, and having a staredown with the female Napoleon wrasse (almost everyone's favorite), when I felt a hard bump and gritty brush against my (gloved) hand. Looked down, and one of the 8' zebra sharks had decided to cruise right through the 2' distance between the coral and me, and apparently thought I was in the way. He just kept cruising tho.
It's also quite cool to take a couple minutes from the shift and drop down to where the zebras hang out and lie on the sandy bottom near them, just an arm's length away.