cra2
Contributor
Dove in the Marineland Aquarium this weekend.
For those who haven't been -
I think we paid first, at the gift shop, then got arm-bands and went to deal with the gear.
You pull just past the entrance and you'll see a wooden fence painted like a dive flag between some bushes. Easy to miss.
You drop off your gear on the curb (leaving someone with it) and go park across the street.
You come back and walk your gear up a set of stairs to the outside ledge at the top of the aquarium.
You suit up and the dive master goes over some rules like "no touching the turtles" and "no putting anything on the edge of the pool while suiting up", etc.
Then, you walk over to the wooden deck to do a giant-stride into the water.
Inside, you see that it's only like 10' deep at both ends, but dips down in the center to probably 17'.
The bottom is covered in shells/gravel and big reddish formations of fake coral you're welcome to touch and swim through.
The aquarium is 450,000 gallons and the walls are covered with algae and little square windows where aquarium visitors can peek in at you.
There are lots of big fish in there - I'm not even going to try to name them all.
They're not the small, cute kind you see in aquariums either - these are all football sized or larger (some bigger than me).
There were 3 six-foot nurse sharks (one a gorgeous, smokey blue with soft white speckles).
Also, there were 3 stingrays and 3 big turtles.
They did a feeding while we were there so we got to watch the turtles chomp at heads of lettuce while we gazed at them only a couple of feet away.
note: the divemaster DID warn us to keep our fingers tucked around the turtles who might mistake them for food.
The water's a little silty but that's because they say they take it almost directly from the ocean which the park is directly next to.
The temperature was probably just below 80F, and we got to stay in for an hour.
There is a slight current that keeps the water moving around the tank in a counter-clockwise direction so it's easy to just hover around the tank, swimming through schools of huge fish and gliding over rays and sharks.
The sharks are so used to people that it was unnerving at times. I had to yield to one that swam at me and didn't look like it was going to stop. I turned slightly and it brushed me on the way by.
A turtle did just about the same thing. It glided at me and then pulled up at the last second, flying inches over my head.
The divemaster and assistants were very helpful.
And the price includes admission to the park (unlike Disney's divequest) so you can shower afterwards and hang out and watch the dolphin shows and look in the aquariums and stuff.
You could easily get bored, as it's not a vast, colorful reef system. But I enjoy watching the fish and turtles and sharks up close so I was entertained just sitting on my knees and leaning down close to watch how a ray "breathes". We've never been able to get that close in the wild. Everything scoots off when you get within 5-10'.
Also, it was a perfect place to practice some skills. One guy was there doing a refresher dive who had been away from diving for 3 years. And a woman there was doing her "discover diving" course to see how she liked the gear.
I worked on my trim, staying horizontal while doing the frog- and backwards-kicks.
For those who haven't been -
I think we paid first, at the gift shop, then got arm-bands and went to deal with the gear.
You pull just past the entrance and you'll see a wooden fence painted like a dive flag between some bushes. Easy to miss.
You drop off your gear on the curb (leaving someone with it) and go park across the street.
You come back and walk your gear up a set of stairs to the outside ledge at the top of the aquarium.
You suit up and the dive master goes over some rules like "no touching the turtles" and "no putting anything on the edge of the pool while suiting up", etc.
Then, you walk over to the wooden deck to do a giant-stride into the water.
Inside, you see that it's only like 10' deep at both ends, but dips down in the center to probably 17'.
The bottom is covered in shells/gravel and big reddish formations of fake coral you're welcome to touch and swim through.
The aquarium is 450,000 gallons and the walls are covered with algae and little square windows where aquarium visitors can peek in at you.
There are lots of big fish in there - I'm not even going to try to name them all.
They're not the small, cute kind you see in aquariums either - these are all football sized or larger (some bigger than me).
There were 3 six-foot nurse sharks (one a gorgeous, smokey blue with soft white speckles).
Also, there were 3 stingrays and 3 big turtles.
They did a feeding while we were there so we got to watch the turtles chomp at heads of lettuce while we gazed at them only a couple of feet away.
note: the divemaster DID warn us to keep our fingers tucked around the turtles who might mistake them for food.
The water's a little silty but that's because they say they take it almost directly from the ocean which the park is directly next to.
The temperature was probably just below 80F, and we got to stay in for an hour.
There is a slight current that keeps the water moving around the tank in a counter-clockwise direction so it's easy to just hover around the tank, swimming through schools of huge fish and gliding over rays and sharks.
The sharks are so used to people that it was unnerving at times. I had to yield to one that swam at me and didn't look like it was going to stop. I turned slightly and it brushed me on the way by.
A turtle did just about the same thing. It glided at me and then pulled up at the last second, flying inches over my head.
The divemaster and assistants were very helpful.
And the price includes admission to the park (unlike Disney's divequest) so you can shower afterwards and hang out and watch the dolphin shows and look in the aquariums and stuff.
You could easily get bored, as it's not a vast, colorful reef system. But I enjoy watching the fish and turtles and sharks up close so I was entertained just sitting on my knees and leaning down close to watch how a ray "breathes". We've never been able to get that close in the wild. Everything scoots off when you get within 5-10'.
Also, it was a perfect place to practice some skills. One guy was there doing a refresher dive who had been away from diving for 3 years. And a woman there was doing her "discover diving" course to see how she liked the gear.
I worked on my trim, staying horizontal while doing the frog- and backwards-kicks.
