Summer Camps Wrap Up

September 28, 2016

Education

Another season has come and gone for the Greater Cleveland Aquarium summer camps. Knowledge was gained, crafts were constructed, and friends and memories were made. Camps varied greatly in size and topics, but all of them had their own highlights and unique happenings to touch on. If you missed out on GCA camps this year, hopefully this will inspire you to come check us out next summer!

One camp was so important we just had to run it twice. Marine Scientists in Training has always been a popular camp here, and for good reason. A big shout-out to our curation staff, who made many of these experiences possible. The campers had the amazing opportunity to actually feed our shark exhibit. They went behind the scenes and tossed in food to the resident fish such as the Barracuda, the pufferfish, and even a few Sand Tiger sharks, who swam by to check out the commotion. As if that wasn’t cool enough, these campers were able to take home art beautifully painted by our own stingrays. Even the cownose pups contributed a few strokes to the canvases!

Of course, we love all of our animals here at the Aquarium, but we also love our environment outside the Aquarium too. We traveled over to Edgewater beach and did our best to make it spotless, leaving our mark on the war against pollution. All in all, we hope our campers came out of the week with a new passion for their future careers!

On the opposite end of the age spectrum, we ran our first half-day camp for the little ones this year, called Under the Sea. From feeding our Painted Turtle and our stingrays, to going aboard the massive William G. Mather steamship, a lot was packed in to such little time. With this particular camp, we hope to see these campers over and over again until they graduate from Marine Scientists in Training. After attending all of our camps here, there’ll be nothing left to know about the earth’s aquatic life! (kidding)

Another new camp this past year revolved mainly around our neighboring waters, Lake Erie and the Cuyahoga River. Come Sail Aboard the Schooner Appledore IV, as the camp was titled, involved boarding a tall ship. The kids took to the open waters and learned all about what’s threatening the lake and even raised the sails of the Appledore IV. The rest of the week’s highlights included trying on SCUBA masks to breathe under water, learning all about shipwrecks in Lake Erie while hearing a firsthand account of someone who has actually dived those, and of course feeding our stingrays.

Our last two camps were returning favorites of years past, Aquatic Adventures and Sharks. Sharks of course entailed the famous sleepover in the sea tube. There’s nothing quite like falling asleep and waking up to magnificent sharks and other sea life swimming right over you. These campers had the ultimate experience of feeding our local fish in the Ohio exhibit, while also feeding the animals in the shark tank, to compare and contrast the vast differences in the fresh and salt water habitats.

Our Aquatic Adventures campers once again had a blast aboard the Nautica Queen, and our fishing trip this year was especially exciting. One of our lucky campers caught a HUGE largemouth bass which actually snapped the fishing pole in two! Miraculously, the fish was still reeled in and caught. I don’t think anyone attending that day will be forgetting that image anytime soon.

As you can see, it was an event-filled summer at the GCA camps. We hope to see everyone come and visit throughout the fall, winter, and spring. Then next summer we’ll be back, bigger and better than ever! If you haven’t already, follow us on social media to keep up to date on all of the happenings around here, because there’s always something exciting going on.

The Great Lakes

September 14, 2016

Education

Written by Greater Cleveland Aquarium

The Great Lakes or the Laurentian Great Lakes (from the name of the glacial ice sheet that formed them) may sometimes be referred to as the inland seas, due to the characteristics that it shares with the open oceans (long sustained winds, extremely strong currents, and long rolling waves). The lakes are a series of five interconnected fresh water lakes that are located in the Northern Midwest of North America. They were glacial formed nearly twenty thousand years ago when the planet started to warm causing the glacial sheets to retreat and start to melt. The massive size of the North American ice sheet carved the surrounding land into a basin and the melting waters would then go onto fill the basin we now call the Great Lakes.

FUN FACT: Lake Superior is the largest lake in North America by both surface area and volume, while Lake Erie is the smallest of the Great Lakes by volume, but it beats Lake Ontario in size by surface area and it is the only Great Lake whose maximum depth is not below sea level. It is also the shallowest of the Great Lakes at 210 feet.

The five lakes are Lake Erie, Lake Superior, Lake Huron, Lake Ontario, and Lake Michigan. The names originated either from Native American or French languages. The five lakes combined make up the largest body of fresh water on the planet. They account for just over twenty percent of earth’s unfrozen fresh water and approximately eighty five percent of North America’s fresh water supplies. They contain six quadrillion gallons of water and has an area of over ninety five thousand square miles. If the water was spread across the contiguous United States, we would be swimming in almost ten foot of water. The shoreline of the Great Lakes is over ten thousand miles and creates one thousand miles of international border.

FUN FACT: The five major Great Lakes are bordered by eight U.S. states but only one Canadian province.

There are over two hundred and fifty species of fish in the Great Lakes and this brings the concern of environmental impacts on the Lakes. The fisheries started to decline as far back as the late eighteen hundreds. The native fish had to contend with increased water temperatures, and loss of habitat, and increased silt levels from poor forestry and agricultural practices. Direct discharge from factories and waste from major cities created many health impacts for fish and humans alike. Many people thought that the enormous amount of water contained within the basin would prevent situation from happening, but when you look at the fact of pollutant retention times ranging just over two and a half years for Lake Erie to the one hundred and ninety one years for Lake Superior, one can begin to see that what we put in will not go away any time soon. Some of the issues have been addressed, but today we face many invasive species to add to the list.

FUN FACT: Despite its small size, Lake Erie is the most biologically productive of all the Great Lakes with more fish taken from it commercially than all of the other Great Lakes combined and is even home to the mythical “monster” named Bessie that is said to be thirty to forty feet in length.

Endangered Species

July 25, 2016

Written by Greater Cleveland Aquarium

What exactly does endangered mean? You often hear species described as “endangered” but what does that imply? When an animal is deemed “endangered”, it means that species is likely to become extinct if changes in the conservation strategy are not altered. The term endangered is one of many classifications on the Red List created by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). This list is the world’s most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of thousands of biological species and is used to assess their extinction risk.

This figure shows the relationships of the different classifications of the IUCN Red List *EX-Extinct, EW-Extinct in the wild, CR- Critically endangered, EN- Endangered, VU-Vulnerable, NT- Not Threatened, LC-Least Concern

According to the 2015 Red List, 3,801 animals are listed as endangered. Species at higher risk are classified as critically endangered which is only one step below extinct in the wild. There are 2,542 animals in this critically endangered category. 5,639 animals are classified as vulnerable; this means that these species will likely become endangered unless the circumstances threatening their survival improve.

As you walk through the Greater Cleveland Aquarium you can spot some of these threatened species. In the Ohio Lakes and Rivers Gallery, you will find our spotted turtle (endangered) and shovelnose sturgeon (vulnerable). As you make your way through our ocean exhibit your eyes will be drawn up towards some of our largest residents, our sand tiger and sandbar sharks, both of which are classified as vulnerable.

There’s also another very important species in the exhibit: the critically endangered goliath grouper.

You’ll likely find this fish in the very front of the exhibit, often tucked between a few of our nurse sharks. This impressive fish can grow to be 8 feet in length and weigh up to 800 lbs. Naturally residing in shallow, tropical waters along the Atlantic coast this fish was often sought after by fishermen. Their fearless nature made them especially easy prey for spear fishermen. Unfortunately, due to their large size, slow growth and reproductive rate these fish are very susceptible to overfishing. This has led to severe population declines, classifying them as critically endangered.

Goliath groupers are now protected from harvest: if you catch one it must be released immediately. These sanctions set in place are beginning to positively impact the grouper populations. There are many other ways you can help threatened species like the goliath grouper:

Recycle! A lot of trash ends up in our lakes, rivers, and oceans. This is very bad for the organisms that call these places home. By keeping trash out of these areas, species will have a better environment to thrive in! (The GCA hosts beach cleanups throughout the year!)
Fish responsibly and support responsible fishing methods! Millions of tons of marine species are caught each year as bycatch. Sometimes this bycatch significantly outweighs the intentional catch. This poses a serious threat to many marine species including dolphins, whales, sharks, and turtles.
Actively support legislation to prevent overfishing. Many species are now threatened due to overfishing and irresponsible fishing methods. Help support regulations to protect marine species!

Find and Watch Dory, But Don’t Buy Her

July 15, 2016

Animal Care

Written by Greater Cleveland Aquarium

With the recent release of Finding Dory, marine life organizations want to remind families of being a proper pet ownership for fish.

In the movie Finding Dory, the main character is a Blue Tang. At the moment, Blue Tangs cannot be bred in captivity. What some marine life organizations fear is that Blue Tangs will be pulled out from the wild and attempted to be sold in pet stores. When that happens, collectors will double their efforts to obtain more blue tangs, and that will inevitably lead to their coral reefs habitats in the Coral Triangle being harmed. While blue tangs are sold as 1- to 2-inch animals, they reach 12 inches as adults and have difficult care requirements, making them unsuitable for most home aquarists.

Similarly, this happened with Clownfish with the release of Finding Nemo. After the release, sales skyrocketed for Clownfish. These fish are different from Blue Tangs in that they can be good for a beginner pet fish owner and can be bred in captivity. According to Variety, “By 2012, the orange and white stripped fish were the fifth-most imported species in the United States. In the process, wild populations of Clownfish in countries such as the Philippines were decimated.”

The positive from movies such as Finding Nemo and Finding Dory is the spike in interest from all different age ranges about marine life. The opportunity for education now presents itself about fish, aquarium keeping and other topics to discuss in the classroom and at home.

Disney developed educational materials for those who may look for more information regarding pet fish ownership, including recommendations that “Blue tangs, like Dory, do not make good pets so instead choose appropriate aquacultured fish.”

Sewage, Sludge, & Fire: Students Investigate Water Quality of the Cuyahoga River

May 10, 2016

Written by Greater Cleveland Aquarium

What comes to mind when you hear the words “Cuyahoga River”? If you said “gross,” “burning river,” or “industrial wasteland,” you are not alone. And, unfortunately, that is not too far from the truth. The Cuyahoga River has quite a colorful history with sewage, sludge, and fires, but, let’s start at the beginning.

THE BASICS

Map of the Cuyahoga River Watershed Photo credit: Wikipedia

Cuyahoga means “crooked river,” and it certainly earns the name; it kind of looks like a backwards letter “U.” The river’s origin starts in two separate branches in Geauga County which join and flow south through the city of Akron. The river then loops back north to the city of Cleveland making several tight hairpin turns at the end before emptying out into Lake Erie.

The Cuyahoga’s watershed, or drainage basin, consists of farmland, many urban and suburban neighborhoods, and some green space like Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

THE HISTORY LESSON

When Moses Cleveland first landed on the Cuyahoga in 1796, the river was beautiful and pristine. He surveyed the land around the river and deemed it a prime place to expand our country westward; and thus, the city of Cleveland was born.

Through the 1800s, Ohio’s growth became exponential. With the addition of the Ohio and Erie Canal, connecting Lake Erie to the Ohio River, local businesses and farms had access to fancy goods and building materials from factories along the east coast. Ohio’s farmers could sell their goods for higher prices in a more competitive market. Our city grew quickly and Cleveland became THE place to be.

By the 1900’s America was at the height of the industrial revolution. John D Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie contributed significantly to the growth of Cleveland. Carnegie produced steel mills (steel is essential for building sky scrapers and large bridges) and Rockefeller produced oil refineries (kerosene lamps were used to light every home in the country). At this time, more millionaires lived in Cleveland than in New York City.

One of Rockefeller’s oil refineries. Photo credit: wikipedia

While businesses boomed, and Cleveland became richer, the Cuyahoga River suffered the consequences. With no laws in place to regulate waste, industries dumped all kinds of chemicals and waste materials into the river. Imagine open trenches in which gasoline slid from the oil refineries to the river (gasoline was an unwanted byproduct prior to the invention of cars). The pristine Cuyahoga landscape Moses Cleveland once surveyed had been replaced with buildings, concrete, and an immense amount of pollution.

Here comes the crazy part. There was so much sludge, gasoline, industrial waste, etc. entering the river that the Cuyahoga caught on fire! Not once, not twice, but thirteen times. The biggest fire, pictured below, occurred in the 1950s. The most famous fire, igniting in 1969, gained national attention and sparked an important environmental movement. Have you ever heard of Earth Day?

Photo credit: Ohiohistorycentral.org

Time Magazine published a famous article about the Cuyahoga, titled “America’s Sewage System and the Price of Optimism.” It describes the river at its worst using phrases like, “Chocolate-brown, oily, bubbling with surface gases, it oozes rather than flows,” and, “Anyone who falls in the Cuyahoga does not drown… He decays.”

Photo credit: Cleveland.com

Along with the Clean Water Act of 1972, and the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the general public started to increase their environmental literacy. Slowly but surely, over time, the river started to recuperate. Though we’ve amended some of the obvious pollution sources (no more open trenches of gasoline), we still have a long way to go to fully restore the river to a healthy state.

AT THE AQUARIUM

Students assemble a timeline of Cuyahoga History. Photo credit: GCA

In our Rivers & Lakes: Keeping the Great Lakes Great program, and our Water Quality Scientist program, we take kids to the Cuyahoga to determine the health of the river today. Guided by the scientific method, the students complete a set of scientific tests to determine whether the water quality is excellent, good, fair, or poor.

***Link Rivers & Lakes: Keeping the Great Lakes Great program to https://www.greaterclevelandaquarium.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Rivers-Lakes-Keeping-the-Great-Lakes-Great-Teacher-Guide.pdf

***Link Water Quality Scientist to https://www.greaterclevelandaquarium.com/educate/fieldtrips/

Students test for temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, phosphates, nitrates, and turbidity. We discuss why each of these parameters is important and what can make their levels change. For example: oxygen levels can drop if the water is stagnant, phosphate levels spike when farm fertilizer runoff enters the water, and nitrate levels rise when human sewage is dumped in the river from sewer overflow points. According to our research, most days the Cuyahoga’s health comes out “fairly good.” There is definitely still room for improvement.

Student teams test the water for dissolved oxygen content.

LOOKING FORWARD

We end our water quality programs with a discussion about the future. How can we restore the river to its excellent, healthy state? First and foremost, become environmentally aware and literate. Share the information you learn with your friends and family. Every action, from every person, contributes to our river’s health. We all have to do our part.

How can YOU help the Cuyahoga River? Here is a short list to get you started:

Stop littering and pick up trash you see along the river
Plant trees — trees and plants hold back sediment and reduce turbidity.
Turn off the water while you brush your teeth and take shorter showers – by conserving water, less wastewater will enter our rivers during heavy storm events through combined sewer overflow
Learn about Combined Sewer Overflow: https://vimeo.com/7707491

Buy organic produce — organic farms do not contribute to fertilizer runoff
Support local parks and help with river restoration projects
Reduce, reuse, and recycle
Continue Learning! Check the additional resources below.

Learn more about Cuyahoga River history and the many river fires:
http://www.pophistorydig.com/topics/cuyahoga-river-fires/

Learn more about watersheds and stormwater runoff:
http://www.neorsd.org/stormwater-watersheds.php

Read the 1969 Time Magazine article:
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901182,00.html

Learn more about education programs at Greater Cleveland Aquarium:
https://www.greaterclevelandaquarium.com/educate/fieldtrips/

Water Quality at the Aquarium

April 28, 2016

Animal Care

Written by Greater Cleveland Aquarium

Taking care of the animals at the Greater Cleveland Aquarium means taking care of their homes. Sometimes that means cleaning the décor, and sometimes it means taking care of the water itself…this is where water quality testing comes in. I do most of the water quality testing here at the aquarium. There are many interesting pieces of equipment (with fancy names) that go into testing, including a spectrophotometer, pH probe, refractometer, and titration kit.

Spectrophotometer

We test for a number of things at different times. Nitrogen is one of the most frequent tests. The nitrogen cycle includes ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Bacteria convert the toxic ammonia from fish wastes to less toxic nitrite, and then to the much less toxic nitrate. We test all of these regularly, adding reagents that will react to the nitrogen, and using the spectrophotometer, a machine that reads the color change and converts it to a measure of ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate.

Blank ammonia test, sample ammonia test, sample nitrite test

Two more very important tests are pH and salinity. Evaporation can change the salinity of the water as the salt gets left behind in the smaller volume of water. When adding water back, it is important to know how much fresh and how much salt water to add to keep the salinity in the narrow range that is best for the animals. These are tested with the pH probe and refractometer directly.

pH probe refractometer

Alkalinity is related to pH. It is a measure of the buffering capacity of the water; its ability to maintain a steady pH in the face of other changes. We measure this with a titration kit.

Alkalinity titration

Some animals have special needs, and their water gets additional tests. For example, elasmobranchs such as sharks and rays require iodine, so their water is tested for it. Corals and hard shelled invertebrates like snails require lots of calcium and magnesium to make their shells. These are tested ensure the water always has enough for them. These two tests also use titration methods.

A lot goes in to making sure our animals are healthy and happy. What many people don’t realize is that chemistry plays a large role here at the aquarium in addition to the manual labor and biology that takes place in every day operations. I am lucky enough to participate in these roles for work every day.

Pharyngeal Jaws and Green Moray Eels

April 20, 2016

Species Highlights

Written by Greater Cleveland Aquarium

Did you know that there are animals at the Greater Cleveland Aquarium that have more than one jaw? Moray eels have been known to have a second jaw, or pharyngeal jaw. The aquarium is home to several moray eels, many of which you can find in the Shark Exhibit swimming right along with the sharks and other fish.

Green moray eels are a pretty amazing animal, full of secrets. Just about ten years ago researchers discovered that these curious animals actually have a second jaw. This jaw, known as a pharyngeal jaw, is how they are able to eat. Most fish use suction to swallow. They expand their mouths to create negative pressure. This negative pressure causes water and prey to rush into their mouths allowing them to swallow their prey. Moray eels do not have this ability. Instead, they lie in wait in caves and crevices for their prey to swim by. They then burst out and grab their prey with their oral, or first set, of jaws. Their pharyngeal jaws then move forward to grip it. They can then move these jaws backwards to swallow their prey whole. They typically eat fish, shrimp, squid, crabs and octopus.

Another secret that green moray eels have is that they are actually brown! Their bodies are covered with thick yellow mucus that gives them their vibrant green color. This mucus protects the eels from parasites and infectious bacteria.

Green moray eels are found along the western Atlantic and into the Gulf of Mexico. They’re frequently found in the Bahamas and the Caribbean and been found as far south as Brazil. When full grown they can get to be 8 feet long and weigh as much as 65 pounds. Green moray eels have few natural predators once they reach full size, although smaller eels must look out for sharks and other large predators.

Next time you are at the aquarium make sure you look for the green moray eels. They are nocturnal in nature so they tend to spend a lot of the day hiding in the rocky structures around the exhibit. You’ll see their heads and part of their bodies sticking out. However, we often see them swimming around throughout the day. They even like to visit the divers when we are in the exhibit. Also, be sure to visit the aquarium on a Sunday, Tuesday or Thursday at 3:30 to watch the shark feed! The eels are often seen coming over for a snack as well. Look fast! Maybe you’ll just catch that pharyngeal jaw in action!

Invasive Species in the Great Lakes

April 14, 2016

Written by Greater Cleveland Aquarium

Sometimes it’s easy to take for granted those big bodies of water next to us known as the Great Lakes. But did you know…the Great Lakes hold the largest supply of surface freshwater in the world? And that they provide drinking water to 40 million(!) U.S. and Canadian citizens? This is just the tip of the iceberg in regards to the importance of the Great Lakes. Also of relevance are the economic windfalls of these waters, and the lure of tourist attractions, plus a multitude of other factors that make them so valuable. But sadly, they’re facing major problems. Together, we have to figure out ways to keep these beautiful lakes safe.

One very big reason why the Great Lakes are in danger is due to invasive species. An invasive species can be described as an organism that has successfully established a population where it’s not originally from.

In all, there are around 180 invasive species causing havoc around these ecosystems. Each one makes their presence negatively felt in various ways. In general though, these pests will out-compete our important native species and push them out of their homes. The food chain becomes severely disrupted by these invaders, and the habitat overall degrades. Invasive species cause enough negative ecological impacts to the plants and animals that share their space, but what about us? Why should we care about them?

Most people probably don’t realize that we’re all paying for invasive species in our lakes, whether it be with our health or with our money. Overall, these invaders cost residents and businesses of the Great Lakes basin over hundreds of millions of dollars per year. We see spikes in our water bill when extra efforts have to be made to keep it clean and safe for drinking. Food prices will also increase due to invasives lowering the population of popular commercial eatery fish. Prices are going up, while our health might possibly be going down. For example, zebra mussels can contain harmful toxins in their systems, which are then passed up the food chain to larger animals consumed by us. Invasives can also be vectors for foreign diseases that we don’t yet have defenses against. The list of harmful effects goes on and on unfortunately.

One especially harmful invasive species can be viewed in our Aquarium’s very first tank you see when you walk in through the main entrance. Being the stuff of nightmares for some, the Sea Lamprey isn’t the prettiest fish to look at, and its effect on lake ecosystems is not pretty either. With its round, suction-disk mouth filled with sharp teeth, this lamprey has the ability to kill 40 or more pounds of fish during its parasitic lifetime. They’re not picky either, so their effect on the fishing business in the Great Lakes has been extreme.

Combating invasive species is no small task. It requires advanced and expensive methods to keep out and control these organisms. It will be much easier to accomplish this so long as new invasives aren’t popping up, which is where you at home come into play. When buying a live plant or animal from a pet store or bait shop, please do not release them into the wild at any time. It may be tempting and seem harmless to put your unwanted goldfish or turtle in the pond out back, but that’s exactly how invasive species problems can begin. The Great Lakes are a magnificent resource for ages of all kinds, and they’re under enough pressure from humans as is. The Lakes provide us amazing opportunities without having to drive for miles and miles, so the least we can do is protect them in return.

For more information, check out these great resources:

http://www.regions.noaa.gov/great-lakes/

http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/areas/greatlakes/explore/great-lakes-aquatic-invasive-species.xml

History of the Powerhouse

March 23, 2016

Education

Written by Greater Cleveland Aquarium

Moon jellies in an old smokestack? The Greater Cleveland Aquarium is not your typical aquarium experience and guests can learn about more than just aquatic life when visiting the FirstEnergy Powerhouse.

The Powerhouse originally was built to manage and control electric streetcars and railways, becoming one of Cleveland’s most recognizable icons in the 1880s.

Designed by a Cleveland architect, John Richardson, the Powerhouse was the first power plant to give electricity to streetcars in Cleveland; it double in space in 1901 to meet the demand of more streetcar lines. Richardson also designed buildings such as the Perry-Paine building and Franklin Castle.

Richardson designed the Powerhouse in the Romanesque revival style; built to resemble the European factories of the time with gabled roofs, arched windows, and thick window sills made of stone. The original structure was built in 1892, and was the first power plant dedicated to providing electricity to streetcars in Cleveland. In the 1920s, the demand of automobiles increased, forcing the Powerhouse to close its doors, where it remained dormant for about a quarter of a century. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the Powerhouse was the home of several comedy clubs, restaurants and a few retailers; many may remember some of these businesses including Howl at the Moon, Rock Bottom Brewery and the Improv Comedy Club.

In 2012, the Greater Cleveland Aquarium opened in the Powerhouse building. Marinescape NZ Ltd., a New Zealand-based company, specialized in refurbishing preexisting structures as aquariums. Marinescape chose Cleveland after studying various cities in the Midwest because of its location, market opportunities and other variables.

Most of the original structure still stands and the character of Cleveland’s history can still be seen. The iconic smokestacks are now part of our Discovery Zone exhibit, which is home to our moon jellyfish. Guests can gaze above into the displays as the jellies float in the glowing environment and learn about their life cycle and the adjacent exhibits. In both our Indo-Pacific and Tropical Reef galleries, original archways that were used as coal chutes now hold multiple exhibits.

Recently, Cleveland’s own Leon Bibb featured the Powerhouse building and its unique features as a part of his “My Ohio” series.

The Greater Cleveland Aquarium has been featured in numerous articles highlighting the ability to re-purpose the building, including the New York Times and AOL.