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Author: Greater Cleveland Aquarium

5 Ways to Commemorate International Talk Like a Pirate Day

September 19, 2017
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International Talk Like a Pirate Day isn’t just for Jack Sparrow, there aarrrrrrre plenty of ways to celebrate on September 19.
What is International Talk Like a Pirate Day? How did it begin? Surprisingly enough, by two guys playing racquetball. The entire story can be found on the ITLAPD website.

So how can you celebrate?

  1. Make up your Pirate Name
    There are dozens of sites with name generators and quizzes. We found a few for you to make it easier and get the (cannon)ball rolling. My favorite for my name, Morgan Wright? I can’t decide between Martha “Both Barrels” Jones or Dirty Morgan Flint.
    Pirate Name Generator Basic
    Pirate Name Generator Advance
  2. Test out your Pirate Lingo

    Dress up . . . or dress up your pet
    So you don’t have a parrot? Not everyone can be Edwin Encarnacion after a homerun. Find a bandana and eye patch and include Fido in your celebrations!

  3. Go full-on pirate on Facebook.
    Did you know you can switch your Facebook language to “pirate?” Want to see what it would read as when your Aunt Sue updates her status about your cousin’s first week of third grade? Change the language to pirate!
    – Step 1: Click the ENGLISH Hyperlink at the Bottom of Your Page
    – Step 2: Select English (pirate)
  4. Visit us!
    We’ll be celebrating all day TODAY, September 19 during general admission hours. Save your doubloons by celebrating International Talk Like a Pirate Day (ITLAPD). On Tuesday, September 19, read a randomly selected phrase while doing your best pirate impression and receive $5 off of your admission that day. The first 200 brave buccaneers receive an eyepatch.

INCLUDES:

Dress-up chest and paper plate pirate craft (11am – 3pm)
A swashbuckling story for the wee ones told by our own Lake Erie Monster-seeking Captain NEO (11am)
An appearance by land shark mascot Finn (2pm)
A target shark feed (3:30pm) and
A chance to search for treasure (10am – 5pm) in the exhibits.

Five Things I Learned from Fin Fest

August 18, 2017
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It’s hard to believe our week-long celebration of sharks has come and gone. While admiring the five types of sharks we have here every single day is a large perk of working at the Greater Cleveland Aquarium, Fin Fest led me to a deeper appreciation of these animals. Even though the media often portrays them as a terrifying, there’s actually much more to revere than to fear when it comes to sharks. Here are a few Fin Fest facts that stuck in my mind:

  1. Humans kill an estimated 100 million sharks every year just for their fins.

While some sharks are allowed to be caught, illegal shark finning occurs when fisherman cut fins off live sharks and dump their bodies into the open ocean. The most popular use for the fins is shark fin soup, a delicacy in Chinese cuisine.

  1. More people die from carelessly taking selfies than from shark attacks.

From 2005 to 2014, an average of six people per year died globally from shark attacks. But more than 73 people worldwide are reported to have died while taking extreme photos of themselves in the first eight months of 2016 alone. So, not only is a death by Facebook vanity shot statistically more likely than death by shark, but you have better odds of being taken down by lightning or succumbing to the flu than being killed by a shark.

  1. Sharks have no bones.

Sharks have skeletons made of cartilage. When they die, saltwater can dissolve every part of their bodies except for their teeth.

  1. Not all sharks need to continuously move forward in order to breathe.

Many sharks swim constantly for buoyancy and to keep oxygen-rich water flowing over their gills. Others, like the nurse sharks in our main exhibit, are able to remain still and draw water into their mouths and over their gills.

  1. On average, sharks eat a bit less than 2% of their body weight.

In the wild, sharks would eat maybe once a week. At the Aquarium, we pole feed our sharks three times a week, ensuring they’re full (and uninterested in their exhibit cohabitants).

 

— Morgan Wright, Marketing Assistant

5 Things I Learned About the Hi Fin Banded Shark

August 17, 2017
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Each time I walk through the Aquarium I see an animal I haven’t noticed before. The hi fin banded shark, however, caught my attention from day one. Here’s a little of what I’ve learned about the distinctive fish:

Of course, you can see hi fin banded sharks in the Lakes & Rivers gallery at the Greater Cleveland Aquarium . . . where your curiosity is only natural.

5 Things I Learned About Sand Tiger Sharks

July 27, 2017
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Big budget movies have encouraged us to be scared of sharks. In truth, there’s much more to revere than to fear when it comes to sharks. In fact, as their number one threat (humans kill an estimated 100 million sharks every year just for their fins), we need to protect these apex predators to keep aquatic ecosystems in balance. In honor of Fin Fest, our week-long celebration of sharks, I set out to learn more about sand tiger sharks.

You can see sand tiger sharks (and three other species of shark) in the 230,000-gallon shark exhibit at the Greater Cleveland Aquarium, where curiosity is only natural.

International Women’s Dive Day

July 11, 2017
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Let’s take a look at our women divers in action!

Our diver suiting up for a swim with the sharks.

Getting the diving gear ready to go!

Heading into the tank for one of our four daily dives for the day!

Twice a day, our divers will do a maintenance dive as well as two full face mask dives.

Our divers do an outstanding job cleaning our exhibits and keeping them looking squeaky clean for our guests.

Dive shows are a great way to learn more about our divers and what their job entails. Guests are able to interact with the divers and get to experience some of their daily tasks.

Our divers sanitize after every dive to make sure they don’t contaminate the water when going from fresh to salt water or vice versa. The divers also clean the corridor exhibits, in addition to the sea tube pictured above.

5 Things I Learned About Toby

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Ask anyone who has been to the Greater Cleveland Aquarium to share a few of the animals saw during their visit. Chances are they will rattle off a list of highlights—sharks, stingrays, eels, lionfish, puffers, seahorses and Toby. The only fish in the Aquarium with a name, Toby’s impressive size and willingness to tolerate a seemingly endless stream of humans posing for “kissing” photos have made the giant gourami the star of many social media feeds. There’s more to Toby than distinctive lips, though. Here are five fish facts about a fan favorite:

Giant gourami are native to Southeast Asia, but you can learn more about them (and snap a selfie with Toby) at the Greater Cleveland Aquarium—where curiosity is only natural.

5 Boats You Can See From The River Hut

July 5, 2017
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The Greater Cleveland Aquarium is just steps away from the Cuyahoga River. So, if you’re interested in bridges and boats, you have another reason to visit. On any given day you might see a freighter, cruise ship, barge, tugboat, pedal “brew boat,” or other water-worthy vessel pass by our Cleveland Clinic Children’s River Hut. And, if you need help with boat identification, we recommend http://ais.boatnerd.com/.

Here are five boats you can see from the banks of Cleveland’s crooked river:

Stephen B. Roman

The Stephen B. Roman is a freighter ship that transports dry cement from Canada. Named after Canadian mining engineer Stephen Boleslav Roman, it remains the last of Canada Steamship Lines’ original “Fort Class” of Great Lakes package freighters still in service.

Thomas R. Morrish

This tugboat from Michigan was built in 1980 under the name Lady Ora but has been through a series of names since. In 1999, Double Eagle Marine purchased and renamed the boat Island Eagle. White Near Coastal Towing acquired the boat in 2004 and renamed it Captain Zeke. And in 2014, Ryba Marine Construction purchased and renamed the boat Thomas R. Morrish.

Buffalo

The Buffalo is a self-unloading bulk freighter built in 1978. The Buffalo was built under Title XI of the Merchant Marine Act of 1970 which allowed U.S. shipping companies to construct new vessels or modernize their existing fleet through government funding and tax deferred benefits. The Buffalo was the seventh of ten ships launched for American Steamship under this program.

Herbert C. Jackson

In 1959, Great Lakes Engineering Works, River Rouge (Detroit), MI a new hull became the heaviest vessel ever side-launched by the shipyard. It was also second last ship built by the shipyard before it closed. Christened the Herbert C. Jackson for owners Interlake Steamship Co., it was part of a rescue of two boaters adrift on Lake Michigan.

Nautica Queen

nautica queen

Departing right next to the Aquarium, the Nautica Queen is a dining cruise ship. Passengers can enjoy an unlimited buffet meal, drinks, and musical entertainment while onboard. Plus, the Queen offers packages which include a discounted ticket to the Aquarium for a real underwater adventure!

5 Things I Learned About Banggai Cardinalfish

June 27, 2017
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New to the Aquarium, little by little I am learning about aquatic life. This week the Banggai cardinalfish caught my eye. Apparently this little looker has caught many people’s attention because the live marine ornamental trade demand has its numbers dwindling. Conservatively 500,000 are being scooped up in the wild annually—more than half of which don’t even survive long enough to make it to a pet store. A 2015 survey estimated only 1.4 million fish were left in its small, natural range in Indonesia’s Banggai Islands.
Here are five things I’ve learned about the coveted species that the US National Marine Fisheries listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act last year:

You can learn more about the Banggai cardinalfish at the Greater Cleveland Aquarium—where curiosity is only natural.

— Sam Fryberger, Marketing Director

5 Things More Dangerous Than Sharks When You’re 47 Meters Down: A Diver’s Perspective

June 20, 2017
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We recently saw 47 Meters Down. The new shark thriller starring Mandy Moore is designed to get your heart pumping, for sure. The fact that the silver screen has a habit of making us unnecessarily scared of sharks aside, the things that made us fear for the survival of the novice diving duo at the center of this horror flick had nothing to do with the animals that surrounded their dive cage.

1. Inexperienced divers going to significantly deeper depths than those for which they are trained can be a recipe for disaster even without a shark in the mix. Due to the effects of pressure, the volume of air a diver consumes in a given time typically increases with their depth—go deeper breath more. Other factors can also cause a diver’s air consumption rate to increase including exertion while swimming, speaking and cold water, just to name a few. Stress is also a major contributor to air consumption so two inexperienced divers being harassed by sharks like those portrayed in the film would result in a drastic increase in air consumption. At 47 meters even an experienced diver with a fantastic air consumption rate would quickly drain their scuba cylinder, probably in less than 20 minutes. An inexperienced diver swimming, talking and being harassed by sharks MIGHT make it five minutes at that depth.

2. The full face mask system used in the movie would be extremely dangerous for these inexperienced divers. Humans convert 5% of the oxygen we breathe into carbon dioxide which is then exhaled. The masks in the film do not have separate chambers for new and exhaled gas which would result in the diver breathing in carbon dioxide. The effects of breathing carbon dioxide on the surface are rapid breathing, rapid heart rate, fatigue, nausea and headache. Other, more severe effects can develop if the carbon dioxide exposure is not reversed. Underwater all of these effects would be more even sudden and life threatening.

3. According to the US Navy dive decompression tables a diver may spend up to five minutes at 160’ (47 meters) without needing to decompress during their ascent. The longer a diver stays underwater the greater their exposure to “the bends” becomes. The bends is a layman’s term for decompression sickness, which is caused by the accumulation of nitrogen breathed under pressure. This does not pose a problem until a diver begins to surface and nitrogen bubbles form in the bloodstream. The bubbles can cause the bends. The amount of time it would take a diver to safely surface increases as the amount of time s/he spends at that depth increases. It would actually take more than four hours to safely surface from a 60-minute dive at a depth of 160 feet.

4. Another risk often faced by divers at depths exceeding 80 feet is nitrogen narcosis. Commonly referred to as “rapture of the deep,” nitrogen narcosis makes a diver feel and act like they are inebriated, lacking inhibitions and generally numb to any concerns. Luckily nitrogen narcosis has not been known to leave any lasting effect so long as divers recognize it and ascend enough to limit its effects. It is easy to imagine the havoc nitrogen narcosis could play on a diver who needs to be very mindful of their surroundings and sharks!

5. Even in warm water hypothermia is a risk. Not wearing a proper fitting full coverage wetsuit can set up a diver for problems. Water can pull heat away from a diver’s body 25 times faster than air. Hypothermia’s effects on the body start with shivering which can become violent and lead to loss of coordination and function. In bikini-style suits the likelihood divers at 47 meters down would experience more than just a mild hypothermia is high.
Given the depth, equipment, clothing and stress factors, it would be a challenge for the most experienced divers to survive under these circumstances.

— Halle Minshall, Dive Safety Coordinator, & Erik Helgesen, Exhibit Diver