Out reach
Aquarium Encounters has been doing a lot of work out of the “office” lately! Our staff has been fortunate enough to be invited to a few outreach programs dedicated on educating children on science and marine life. Our main goal at the aquarium is education, through awareness, and we love sharing our knowledge of our local marine life with the public.
Recently Aquarium Encounters was invited to the Sugar Loaf school’s science expo night! We attended this event, and brought along a few friends. Kids came to our booth dragging parents and friends all to meet Charlie. Charlie is just one of our American Alligators that we bring out daily at the aquarium at 2:40 pm. For our booth we allowed kids to pet Charlie safely, while learning about this awesome species of reptile. Along with our American Alligator we had one of our juvenile Florida box turtles in a small enclosure. Both of these animals are local to our state and can be found in the wild if you know where to look!
We would like to thank the Dolphin Research Center for inviting us back this year for Ocean day. Our booth at Ocean day was full of life! Our staff brought along a few Yellow Stingrays, tide pool animals, freshwater turtles, an American alligator, and a tortoise! When each school group stopped at our tent, we talked about the importance of the stingray shuffle, as well as leaving local marine life untouched. We covered local regulations that protect the Queen conch and Bahama Sea stars and explained the differences between the freshwater turtles we brought. While talking about our tortoise we explained how they can live well over 100 years, so to plan for their longevity when thinking of adopting one as a pet.
Both of these events were a great success and we hope to continue to travel and educate kids through outreach events. If you aren’t available to attend these types of outreach, come stop by the aquarium!
Keep an eye out for us in Islamorada for Ocean Fest and at Stanley Switlik for their Science Expo.