I’m taking a course called Museums and Communities this semester, and today we met at the Waikiki Aquarium to go on a tour and talk to someone from the education department. I’ve been at the aquarium a few times before, and really like visiting. I actually wrote a short review paper on their “Corals are Alive” exhibit earlier this semester. My main points in the paper were 1) it’s a small but nice exhibit that complements the rest of the aquarium; 2) it lets visitors learn about corals in a variety of ways (video, live corals + magnifier, audio, visual, stuff to touch); and 3) it’s good because it emphasizes local reefs, caring for reefs, and conservation.
A guy called Alan from the education department showed us around the aquarium, and I learned a lot more from him than I have in the past exploring on my own. I learned that the puffer fish is hand-fed because he’s too slow to get food when the other fish are fed. I learned that they are the only aquarium anywhere to have an Abe’s Angelfish, because they live so deep and are extremely hard to collect. I learned that their freshwater stingray was confiscated at the airport from someone trying to bring it into the state illegally, and then the aquarium ended up with it (what else do you do with a spare stingray?!). I learned how they feed the Day Octopus: they put a shrimp in a jar, put the lid on, and then let the octopus open the jar. Overall it was cool to see the displays and even cooler to learn what goes on behind the scenes.
One other interesting event – we were looking at the “Edge of the Reef” exhibit, which is an outdoor display linked to the ocean, and Alan pointed out a pencil urchin that apparently is usually hard to spot. I felt like it was a crazy coincidence because just this morning I got an email from Chris at Echinoblog directing me to a post at Stories in Stone explaining how HAWAIIANS HAD USED PENCIL URCHINS FOR PENCILS WHEN LITERACY WAS FIRST INTRODUCED.
Above: Edge of Reef pool – the reddish bits below the center are the Pencil Urchin. Wish I had brought a real camera – cell phone photos stink.
