A Ship(wreck)'s Log II

Hello, again. I am so excited to bring you the next installment in A Ship(wreck)'s log. The last few weeks have been a flurry of activity. So let's raise the sails and begin.

Our construction team has renovated the exhibit hall to give us 250 more square feet of exhibit space, and completed the platforms for our aquariums. The aquariums are currently being built in California  and will be here in the next couple of weeks.
One of our aquariums will hold 10,000 gallons of water and is 18 feet long. The other aquarium will hold 4,000 gallons of water and will be 16 feet long. The platforms have to be pretty strong because our largest tank will be 80,000 pounds. Now since the platforms are finished the construction team can start building the rest of the exhibit.

Gary and Tom are constructing the platform for the ancient shipwreck display. This platform will hold the 10,000 gallon aquarium.

This platform is for the 4,000 gallon Pacific wreck.

Here's an example of exhibit walls.

Gary is doing some research on a curve at the top of one of the exhibit walls. This wall will be part of a graphic display for the Pacific Wreck exhibit.

Working on opening up the space.

Our husbandry team has been receiving new fish for the exhibit. Many of the fish we have come from accredited suppliers and from other zoos and aquariums.  But our newest residents are fish which were pets that became a bit too big for their homes.
Word to the wise, always do research on an animal before you buy it. I have seen many situations where adorable little fish have grown into over-sized predators . So make sure that the animal is a good life-long fit for your aquarium.
Here's a good example. One of the fish we received is a juvenile nurse shark. The nurse shark can grow to 14 feet as an adult and is a literal fish vacuum, so be wary.

This Nurse shark is very curious and is loving her new temporary home.

Hello from the Peacock grouper

This is one beautiful panther grouper, and I think he knows it.

In the next couple of weeks we will be finishing the installation of our filtration system and placing one of the new aquariums.  So make sure to look for the next installment of a Ship(wreck)'s Log, because it is really going to be exciting.

Until next time, fair winds and calm seas!

Jay

The Road to Otter Health, part III

(Editor's note: While Anang is off exhibit healing a broken bone we're continuing to provide behind-the-scenes looks at what she's doing to keep busy.)

If you've ever seen our otter exhibit, Otter Cove, or any of our bird exhibits for that matter, you might have noticed lots of "stuff" in them? Like small balls, logs, cardboard boxes, plastic animals, small pom poms, and blocks. We call these things enrichment.

What is enrichment? And why do we give enrichment? How on earth is a little box an enrichment? Well, let me tell you. Enrichment is a way to enhance animal environments, within the context of their own natural history. Changes to the exhibit are made with the goal of increasing animal's behavioral choices, or giving them more to do.

So, for example, we give our Green Wing Macaw, Leo, boxes with treats inside. You might say, "wait, he wouldn't get cardboard boxes out in the rainforest!" You're right.  But, he would have to find his food inside of things or all over the rainforest. So, instead of just giving him a pile of food, we put some of it all over his cage so he has to forage for it. 

With Anang (or Haley as we call her), our North American River Otter, we try to give her things that will bring out natural behaviors. One thing she loves to do it groom, so we give her snow, sand, straw, excelsior, turf, and blankets of different fabrics. We rotate them so she doesn't get sick of them. But, we also give her other things.  For example, today I gave her a dog kong. She really loves this purple kong. She has other kongs; red, green, pink, all of varying sizes and thickness, but the purple one is the favorite.

This morning I put one smelt into the kong, and she played with it for hours, seriously!

She took it in and out of the water and tried so hard to get that smelt!

She really liked my camera today, so she kept turning around to face it, and got super close.

 

 She thought maybe if she took it up on her little shelf she could get it out, but, no luck yet!

 

Trying so hard to get that smelt!

This one is my absolute favorite. (I am taking all of these through her holding bars, so that is why the angles and closeness are kind of strange!) This shows a great view of her super sharp claws and some of her whiskers. You can also see her cute little nose.

The Road to Otter Health, part II

Who isn't getting sick of the snow? I certainly am. But, I know someone who loves every little snowflake that she can get her paws on!

At least someone appreciates all the snow we've gotten around here this winter!

Anang (also known as Haley) has always loved the snow. We've noticed that when she gets buckets (and buckets and buckets!) of snow, she plays for a lot longer then she might normally with other "toys" at one time.

Today I gave her five buckets of snow in her holding area, where she is spending all of her time to heal. This is the reaction I got! 

We've also found that the cold snow really helps with any inflammation (as it is hard to give her ice packs to hold on her arthritic joints or leg). After playing in snow, she seems more mobile and active, which is great! 

The Road to Otter Health, part I

(Editor's note:  Anang the river otter is often called Haley by Aquarium staff.  It is her nickname and the name she had when she arrived at GLA more than a decade ago.) 


"Haley has a WHAT!?!" 

When the vet came back from looking at Haley's x-rays (which we do routinely at each exam, especially since she has arthritis), she simply stated "She has a fracture in her fibula." Curator Heidi and I were so surprised! Sure enough, you could see a little fracture in that tiny bone next to her tibia.

Well, let's start from the beginning. About a week before her vet visit, we noticed that she seemed a bit lethargic, and she didn't always have a good appetite. We did a fecal exam (just like your vets do for dogs and cats) to rule out any parasites or large amounts of gut bacteria. We always do those first to make sure it isn't something we can simply medicate for without sedating her. It came back normal. When after a few days she didn't seem to be feeling much better, we decided to make an appointment at the vet.

This is where her training comes in really handy. She is VERY smart. She hates going to the vet, and we never force an animal to do anything...so we let her decide if she will go in her transport crate. She didn't want to, so we tried again last Tuesday. This time, she went in willingly, but was still surprised when I closed her in.

Anyways, we did a routine check of her entire body, just like a regular checkup. And, all of her teeth look great (you know when you have a sore tooth? They can REALLY hurt.). Her joints moved well, her organs felt good, so then we moved into x-ray. She has arthritis in her back hips and knees, and has for most of her adult life. So we expected to see that on those x-rays. We also look for any other abnormalities in her body cavity or kidney stones or anything else.

We did NOT expect to see a little broken fibula.

After our "What?!?", our second question was, "how do we fix it?" Poor girl!

Obviously we can't put a little cast on it! She's an otter and otters LOVE water. We were so happy to hear one of our vets say that she has the best brace we could find, an intact tibia! Phew. That is great news! So, the recovery means rest and relaxation for that leg.

Easier said than done.

While she does in fact love her bed and blankies, she also loves to swim and play. That means we have to confine her to a smaller space to reduce her movement. She is now in her holding area where she can't climb around, therefore putting less pressure on her back legs. She sometimes likes to wait by the door to go out on exhibit, but then sees her fresh pool and realizes she has to stay in back, and goes for a swim or plays with her toys.

We still give her enrichment and things to do. This morning, she got her favorite stuffed animal, a large gorilla puppet. She loves to groom him and cuddle with him.

 This is her in her half dog crate with two blankies and her gorilla. 

She seems pretty happy burrowed under those fresh blankies!

We also switch out her beds (crate, fire hose bed, dog beds, etc.), give her leaves, straw, and branches, and lots of other things.

Stay tuned for upcoming blogs on Haley.  I'll try to get some videos of her playing with enrichment!

A Ship(wreck)'s Log

Opening an exhibit is a very exciting adventure. There are many moving parts with the development of an exhibit for Great Lakes Aquarium, from designers, researchers, construction, and animal husbandry. I would like to share this experience, and offer a behind the scenes look as this exhibit begins to surface.

The ceremonial closing of the doors, on November 8, was the proverbial switch that started the construction of the exhibit.

If you are an avid reader of "Just Add Water" you may be aware of the work that has been accomplished such as moving animals from the Masters of Disguise,  the removal of the exhibit pieces and cleaning out the room.

Here is where we are now.

Though we don't have water in the new exhibit yet we have to start collecting animals many months before we open. There are various reasons for this. First, we have to be prepared for animals when they are available, not at our leisure. The smooth hound sharks, for example, were donated from the Indianapolis Zoo and other fish we received in trade for the animals that we had in the Master of Disguise exhibit.

Smooth hound shark

Cownose ray acclimating to his temporary home.

Cownose having a swim around his new home.

Having these animals early gives us the opportunity work with them as well. Currently we are training our sharks and rays to be target fed by hand. Target feeding means we actually "target" each animal to ensure that each one receives food. This is especially important for the sharks and rays because we want to make sure that they get a specialized vitamin that is essential for a good diet. The other training that we are working on is letting the fish know when it is time for them to eat. We have different shapes and designs that we place in the water to let the rays or sharks know when it is time to eat.

Barb with stingray "target".

Smooth hound shark "target".

 This is critical for the rays who have to eat three times a day, as opposed to the sharks who are fed three times a week.  These steps will  ensure that each of the sharks and rays will be fed, and give our husbandry staff an opportunity to observe the animals, once they are on exhibit.

Darin feeding sharks.

As we are busy coordinating the animal collection other gears are moving to make this exhibit come alive.
If you're a frequent guest to our aquarium, you will not only have a close encounter with the amazing animals, but your experience will be enhanced by in-depth information about habitat, natural history, or just an amazing story about the exhibits. This is achieved by eye-catching signs and graphics, video, or hands-on interactives.
Well, Shipwrecks Alive! will be no exception. In order for us to develop these pieces we must do our homework. As we speak our research team is diving into the subject, immersing themselves with information on the animals that we are displaying, and shaping the unique story that the shipwrecks have.

Director of Education Sarah Erickson and Volunteer Coordinator/Educator Mary Pensak developing shipwrecks story.

Last, but not least, is the construction. In the last couple of weeks we have finalized and ordered a 10,000 gallon saltwater aquarium. We are putting the finishing touches to the floor plan and tying up some loose ends in the exhibit hall before any construction can begin. A big part of this exhibit is going to be water. We plan to have about 15,000 gallons of saltwater in this exhibit. In order for us to manage this volume of water we need an equally large storage container to mix and store the saltwater. The tanks are 6 feet in diameter and 10 feet high and each tank holds 1500 gallons of water.
Luckily for us these tanks are not very heavy because due to their size they were a little awkward getting into the aquarium.

This is just the beginning. In the next couple of weeks we will begin construction of the exhibit, install the filtration system for the aquariums, and finalize the story.
I look forward to sharing more of this exciting adventure on the next Ship(wrecks)'s Log.

--Jay

Great Lakes Aquarium's Top 5 of 2013

'Tis the season for leftover cookies, days spent with family and making plans for the future.  It's also a traditional time to reflect on the year that was.

At Great Lakes Aquarium, 2013 was quite a year.  Between planning, designing, researching, educating and caring for animals we're stepping back to look at what we've done and what we're just getting started.

5.  The Gitchi Gummi Connection
In 2013, Great Lakes Aquarium launched its first-ever interactive videoconferencing program, bringing Lake Superior and freshwater education to students across the country and, potentially, the world. 

Our pilot program classes, Urgin' for Sturgeon and Aquatic Invaders, went live in early 2013, in K through 5 classrooms as far away as California.  

New classes such as Food Web In-Motion and Culvert Design & Engineering, with curriculum for middle and high school students helped us reach more than 700 students this year.

Stay tuned for new, fun classes for kids called Water is Weird and Totally Turtles.  Who doesn't love a good turtle story?

4.  Energy Efficiency Partnership

The water wall at Great Lakes Aquarium has been, from the beginning, the grand centerpiece of our facility's entrance. The massive display in the Aquarium's lobby has welcomed hundreds of thousands of visitors with its symbolic homage to the waters of the world.  

Yet this year, something is different.  

New, dramatic, lighting which washes the wall in a cascade of colors provides not only a visual change, but a new direction in energy efficiency at Great Lakes Aquarium.

The ceiling-mounted LED system was recently installed with funding and design support from Minnesota Power's Power of One Business energy conservation program.   

It is one of several energy efficiency initiatives being undertaken through a unique partnership between Minnesota Power, the city of Duluth and the Aquarium.  The Aquarium has also installed variable speed drives on pumps that move water through its tanks and filtration systems.  Plans to upgrade lighting to LED throughout the building are underway with a long-term goal of reducing the building's electrical energy consumption by 30%. 

And, as projects are completed, Power of One rebates from Minnesota Power will be deposited into an energy-efficiency fund to help pay for future energy-saving upgrades.

3.  The Discovery Center
Education is at the heart of everything we do at Great Lakes Aquarium.  

Plans for a bright, spacious education center called the Discovery Center with three new classrooms, a teacher resource center and a distance-learning studio will help us enhance our ability to fulfill our mission in the years to come. 

The Discovery Center will double our available classroom space, allowing Great Lakes Aquarium to grow our increasingly popular educational programming.

While this is a 2014 project, much of the groundwork for the Discovery Center had to happen this year.  Great Lakes Aquarium received $125,000 in gifts and challenge grants from the Minnesota Power Foundation to make this vision a reality.  In the past month, the Aquarium met its $50,000 challenge for 2013 and is well on its way to meeting the 2014 challenge. 

Construction will begin in the coming months. 

2.  The Story of Shipwrecks Alive! 

Anticipation is building for the opening of our most ambitious, most extensive exhibit design since Great Lakes Aquarium opened its doors more than 13 years ago. 

The story of Shipwrecks Alive! started early in 2013 at the Capitol in St. Paul where, after months of planning, lobbying and presentations to legislative committees, Great Lakes Aquarium secured a $200,000 Legacy Funding Grant to bring home to the city of Duluth.  That grant, along with $50,000 in matching funds from the city's tourism tax surplus gave us the foundation to move forward on this huge project.

The $423,000 Shipwrecks Alive! project is being constructed in the Sandra and Roger Karon Exhibit Hall replacing Masters of Disguise, which closed November 7 after a more than three year run.  

Work began immediately.  Within 24 hours, Masters of Disguise was completely dismantled.  And construction of a wildly redesigned space continues.

Shipwrecks create hauntingly beautiful habitat for aquatic plants and animals.  Shipwrecks Alive! will explore these underwater ecosystems by focusing on three different wrecks, one in Lake Superior, one in the Mediterranean and one in the South Pacific.  

And the animals are already arriving.  The Aquarium has received dusky smooth-hound sharks, cownose stingrays and many tropical fish that will populate our Shipwrecks Alive! tanks.

The animals are currently housed in our holding room in the lower level of our facility.  Shipwrecks Alive! Sneak Peek tours are offered daily (free with admission) for visitors to get a look at our beautiful new residents before they go on exhibit.

1. Fire, Ice and the Rise of Life
Our crowning achievement of 2013 was a true labor of love for Great Lakes Aquarium.

The new exhibit, Fire, Ice and the Rise of Life opened to much fanfare in June of 2013, after months of intense work completed mostly by in-house staff.

Fire, Ice and the Rise of Life is an adventure through time, from lava flows to vast oceans to grinding glaciers, the exhibit explores the explosion of life in the region that became the Great Lakes. 

The spectacular centerpiece is a fossil cast of a Dunkleosteus skull, a ferocious-looking, ancient armored fish that grew to the size of a school bus. 

A grand opening celebration started with an unveiling and ribbon-cutting ceremony with Duluth Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors. 

An open house reception followed with members, special guests and dignitaries including Lieutenant Governor Yvonne Prettner Solon and Betty Ramsland, both Great Lakes Aquarium board members,  

Representative Mary Murphy and Minnesota Public Radio's Patty Mester, also a GLA board member,

and Duluth Mayor Don Ness with his son, Owen, who delighted in our new animals and dinosaur shadow puppets.  

As we look back we know none of our accomplishments and milestones would have been possible without the incredible support from our members, our city and our larger "community" across the country.  
 From all of us at Great Lakes Aquarium, thank you. 
2014 is going to be big.  
We're very excited to get to it.