My First Time Diving

December 30, 2016

I never would have expected that the first time I donned my gear and stepped into the water that my life would be forever altered.

As a zoology major I took a special interest in Marine Science. While looking at potential jobs, I realized that getting my scuba diving certification would be a necessity. So, after classroom and pool instruction, one early May Saturday morning I woke up before the crack of dawn and made my way to Gilboa Quarry.

Being my first dive and not knowing what to expect had me both excited and nervous. The water was a brisk 45 degrees so I was instructed to wear gloves and a hood, which I had never practiced before. The feeling was restrictive which only made my nerves worse. Although I was scared, I was exhilarated knowing I was finally going to dive, so I took a deep breath and jumped in.

Being in the water was amazing. I felt like I was entering an entirely different world. Visibility of at least 40 feet made my experience with seeing the rainbow trout, perch, catfish and paddlefish more than I expected.

When I reached the underwater platform, we began to practice the skills we learned in class. When I was instructed to take off my mask and put it back on, I started to freak out. I had a million thoughts running through my head. Will this be different from what I practiced with a hood on? Will I be able to breathe? Will I be stuck with a water-filled mask? Luckily we were not far from the surface so I went up and calmed myself down.

Once I collected myself, the instructor walked me through everything and I realized that I would be completely fine. After practicing a few more skills in the water, we followed my instructor for a “fun dive”. This consisted of stare downs with perch, swimming through tire obstacles, feeding zebra mussels to blue gills, pretending to jump on a trampoline, playing rock paper scissors, and lots and lots of smiling. Actually, I kept flooding my mask with water because every time I smiled, water cracked through the bottom of my mask! However, I didn’t care; I cleared it as practiced and focused on the underwater world in front of me. It felt like the quarry went on forever, finding new treasures and organisms every inch we went. We explored the inside of sunken airplanes, cars, boats, helicopters and buses. Some of these are things I’ve never even experienced on land!

The most memorable part of this dive was when our instructor took us over the big sunken school bus. He stopped us before we swam and gave us some weird hand signals that we thought meant, “follow me”. We were wrong… we followed him over and rested at the top. In an instant, we are surrounded by at least 100 fish; big, small, brown, yellow, hungry, starving. Us students were laughing into our regulators; flailing our arms in a tornado of fish until eventually we swam away panting. After we got out of the water, turns out those hand signals meant, “swim on the side of the bus, and don’t go over it.” Apparently that bus is a place instructors go with food to feed the fish, so they always swarm there (thanks for the warning instructor am I right?) After what felt like an exhilarating few hours, we surfaced only to find twenty-three minutes had passed. Time slows when you’re underwater, and thankfully so.

I had the time of my life. My eyes couldn’t believe what they were seeing, my brain couldn’t believe I was breathing and my heart couldn’t believe I’ve missed this feeling for twenty two years of my life. Though its embarrassing to say, I climbed out of the water only to run to my mom and tell her, “I can’t wait to get back in!!!” with a gigantic smile on my face.

That first dive, six months ago, has lead me to my current position as an Exhibit Diver here at the Greater Cleveland Aquarium and I happily wake up at 6am everyday anxious to get in the water.

To see what I explored on my first dive, click here!

Diving Physics

December 19, 2016

Written by Greater Cleveland Aquarium

Becoming a SCUBA diver is more than learning how to breathe under water; you also have to understand the physics that explain why certain things occur while you are diving.

Starting with the basics:

Density: water is 1000 times denser than air, and while air’s density can vary- the density of water cannot.

Heat: Water has a high heat capacity ~4 times more than air. Water also has high thermal conductivity. Heat is conducted 22-24 times faster in water. This means, divers get colder quicker when in water. Wet and dry suits are different types of clothing worn by divers that can keep them warmer for longer.

Sound: Sound travels differently through water than air. When something makes a sound above the water you generally can tell what direction it is coming from, whereas in water you cannot pinpoint a direction. This is due to the fact that sound travels four times faster in water than in air.

Compressibility: Air can be compressed. When divers fill their dive tanks, they will use air compressors to fill the tank to 3000 psi. Water, however, cannot be compressed. You cannot take two liters of water and fit it into any container smaller than a two-liter bottle.

Light: Ever stick a straw in a cup of water and look at it from the side? The straw appears to be bent. This is due to the refraction of light when it passes through water.

Objects also appear larger and closer when under water. It isn’t uncommon for new divers to reach for something in front of them (a rope for example) and completely miss grabbing it. This is because the rope appeared to be closer than it really was.

Light absorption in water is high compared to in air. The first color to disappear as you go deeper into the water is red; the following colors of the rainbow too would disappear when you go deep enough. This is why underwater cameras, for example, GoPro, often have a red filter so that the photographer can capture all of the colors of beautiful reefs and fishes while at depth.

There are also some important principles to take into account when scuba diving. The first, Archimedes Principle, states that a body immersed in liquid is buoyed up by force equal to the weight of displaced water. As a diver you have to be able to accomplish neutral buoyancy when diving. Neutral buoyancy means that you are neither sinking nor rising within the water column.

Divers first need to use some weight when diving, especially when wearing a highly buoyant wet suit. The excess weight helps displace the water that surrounds the diver. The next important piece of equipment is called the Buoyancy Compensating Device (BCD). This is the vest that divers wear; it contains an air bladder that can be filled with the air from the divers scuba tank. The BCD helps the diver become neutrally buoyant by adding the correct amount of air to almost counter the weight worn by the diver-it should look like the diver is hovering within the water.

Another important principle is Boyles Law-volume varies inversely with pressure, with the greatest relative change in volume occurring near the surface.

Simply put-as a diver goes deeper into the water, the pressure on everything becomes greater. The volume of air in the dive tanks is getting smaller while the pressure rises. Remember from the basics that you can compress air. This also means that the air in the divers lungs also becomes compressed when at depth. When the diver surfaces- one of the most important rules is to be continuously breathing. Never hold your breath when ascending. This is due to the air in the lungs will start to expand because there is less pressure of the water exerted on the body. Holding your breath can cause catastrophic injury to divers lungs.

Charles Law, which states; at constant volume, pressure varies directly with temperature. When divers need to fill their air tanks, they must do so slowly. This is because as the tank fills, all of the air molecules are being jam packed into a rigid area.

Those molecules will start bumping into one another as the pressure builds- creating heat. A newly filled tank will feel warm and if filled too quickly will show a higher pressure than what is actually in the tank. Given time to cool, the tank will read at a lower psi.

Dalton’s law of partial pressures is our next physics lesson-especially for divers who are diving on NITROX. NITROX is a mixture of gases that allows divers to stay at depth longer due to its enrichment of oxygen. The law states that the total pressure exerted by a mixture of gases is equal to the sum of the pressures that would be exerted by each gas if it alone were present and occupied the total volume.

Ptotal = P1 +P2 +P3….

Even though a gas mixture is made up of several different constituents, each gas will demonstrate its own behavior. This is important for divers to understand because they must be aware of oxygen toxicity (yes, you can have too much oxygen if you go too deep on enriched air) and Nitrogen Narcosis which occurs at depths around 100 feet and deeper and makes the diver sluggish and even drowsy and can have an effect on good decision making.

The final law divers should be aware of is Henry’s Law. The solubility of gases: the amount of gas that will dissolve into a liquid is a function of the partial pressure of the gas over the liquid. With great depth comes greater partial pressure. More gas dissolves in cold water. This law is important to divers because as they go deeper in the water their body will absorb nitrogen gas into their tissues. When the divers want to return to the surface they must do so at a controlled slow rate so that the nitrogen they absorbed at depth is effectively off-gased. Divers should be aware that at greater depth they would have high absorption rates of gases.

Although these laws may be a lot to take in, they are all very important to all SCUBA divers. The laws help divers remain safe when adventuring in the world underwater.

Diver Costume Construction

October 10, 2016

Written by Greater Cleveland Aquarium

The dive team loves participates in many GCA holiday events including Halloween and Scuba Claus. Construction of the underwater props and costumes for these dives needs to ensure that both the diver and animal safety is always taken into consideration. Marine animals are very aware and often curious about changes in their environment and will investigate, pick at and if given the opportunity, eat anything new. We see this every year with our Halloween pumpkins. Within minutes of being placed in an exhibit they will be picked, ripped and eaten. Because of this anything we build and take into an exhibit that can be eaten needs to be approved be the curator. Props need to minimize dangling straps, threads, strings and anything that an animal can remove. Care must be taken to not have anything come off the costume such as metal which can scratch the acrylic or sequins that may be ingested.

Construction materials used for props need to chosen to not cause an adverse reaction in the exhibit. Some metals, copper in particular, can be toxic to the animals and should not be used. PVC and approved adhesives are best as these minimize the potential to upset the delicate chemical balance in the environment. Paints and coating must chosen with the same consideration. Paints and coatings must also resist flaking and peeling for the same reasons.

The goal of costumes is to enhance the guest interaction, particularly our younger guest. Planning for these events starts months in advance. Choosing a theme that is relevant and easily recognizable is debated and finally decided on. Once that decision is made we brainstorm what costumes and accessories will enhance the show. Often costumes can be purchased but often we will construct accessories. Last year’s “Ghost Busters” Halloween costumes were purchased, but the additional accessories, such as the Proton Pack and Ghost Trap were made using the guidelines outlined above. Using PVC pipe to create swords and nunchucks enhanced the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costumes.

Scuba Claus is a major event for the Dive Team. The addition of the full face mask with underwater communications adds to the experience but also contributes to a more complicated and time considerations in getting divers safely in their gear and in the water. Did you know it could take up to 15 additional minutes for Scuba Claus to get dressed before he makes his trip down to see all the guests? Because the team makes so many dives in a short time, the costume requires constant attention and repair.

Summer Camps Wrap Up

September 28, 2016

Education

Written by Greater Cleveland Aquarium

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.

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/

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.

I See Sea Creatures Program

March 16, 2016

Education

Written by Greater Cleveland Aquarium

Hermit crabs, sea anemones, and urchins, oh my!

During our I See Sea Creatures education program, we investigate all sorts of animals living at the Greater Cleveland Aquarium. Designed to complement science and early reading goals for preschool and kindergarten students, this class is a fun way for young learners to explore our exhibits and learn about aquatic life.

Students count the arms of a sea star as it is added to the story board.

Beginning with an interactive story session, students are introduced to Eric Carle’s story A House for Hermit Crab. As the story is read, students create a visual story board to keep track of each animal the hermit crab encounters through his year long journey. We practice story sequencing, counting, and imaginative play.

After the story, students tour through the aquarium to find the living inspirations behind Carle’s characters. With the addition of our invertebrate touch pool, we get to meet many of the animals up close! Feeling the texture of a sea star, the spines of a sea urchin, and the hard cover of a snail shell, is a great way to discover the biodiversity of ocean life.

Students compare the soft cover of a sea cucumber to the rough cover of a sea star at our invertebrate touch pool.

To learn more about the I See Sea Creatures program, please visit our education page. We provide booking information, program descriptions, and even educational activities to do at home. Our teacher guides provide helpful resources for both parents and teachers; activities include math, science, music, sequencing, and make-your-own puppet printables. You can find the I See Sea Creatures guide here.

Wondering if hermit crabs really decorate their shells as Eric Carle describes in the story?

They do. Common Hermit Crabs, Pagurus bernhardus, host a variety of organisms on their shells including barnacles, protozoans, and polychaete worms. Hosting sea anemones, with stinging tentacles, adds the benefit of protection from predators. Most hermit crabs prefer shells with organisms over plain shells. Though these animals do not engage in polite conversation as they do in the book, check out the awesome video below and for more information on hermit crabs visit these resources:

http://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Pagurus_bernhardus/

http://www.arkive.org/common-hermit-crab/pagurus-bernhardus/#text=All