Hello and welcome back Shark. Here is to another episode of
Deep Dives with sharks. My name is Alex.
I am the host here and I would walk 500 miles and I would walk
500 more just to be the man who walked 1000 miles just to hang
out with a shark. If it's syllable wise, if you
sing it. So this is going to be the first
aquarium review, I guess that's what I'm calling it.
But essentially I'm going to talk about one of the aquariums
that I have been to and the types of sharks you can see
there and the different shark related experiences as well as
some other fun facts that I can think of.
I also briefly mentioned in the last episode that I'll be moving
and this time it is across the country to California.
So that will be eating up a lot of my time.
But I still plan to get episodes out and be streaming on Saturday
mornings unless something comes up, which I'll try to keep
everyone up to date as much as possible.
And the best way to do that is by using the tap link and
following all the socials on there.
Of course, they'll be in the description and that'll get you
to the Instagram, YouTube, really anything else that I have
Twitch as well, anything there. All of it of course will be at
the dives with sharks. And Speaking of the tap link,
there is a new link in there and that is find the good brand.
This is a clothing brand that I recently became an ambassador
with to help benefit Mental Health America, which aims to
help spread mental health awareness and education
throughout communities and create a future where mental
health access is easier for all Americans, which we could really
use these days. Now if you use the link in the
description or in the tap link or go to
https://colondoublebackslashfindthegoodbrand.com back slash question mark REF
equal DDWS. You'll also be helping me out a
lot, which is quite a mouthful. But to give back to the shark
here is you can also use the promo code DDWS at checkout to
get 10% off your order. Plus will be helping to spread
mental health awareness, which is such an amazing cause.
So go check out find the good using the link in my tap link or
description. Now to stay up to date on
everything Deep Dives with sharks hit the follow button on
Spotify, Apple Music, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube, Amazon Music or
anywhere else to get your podcast at Deep Dives with
sharks. Feel free to leave a rating as
well and send any questions, share comments or any shark
related content to the social medias or in the comments as
well. I don't really use Twitter much
anymore, but if you end up sending me something there I
might miss it. So I definitely recommend
Instagram more or hanging out on twitch.
And I have gotten a couple cool things.
People sent me a couple egg cases to help identify.
Also someone sent me a couple shark teeth to look at too,
which was really cool. And I'm incredibly jealous
because I still need to find all the cool ones and I'm just not
trained enough to look at them and find them out in the wild.
But to get on to the episode now, we're going to go into, I
mean, this is pretty much just going to be an open love letter
to this aquarium. It's going to be rather biased.
It is the one that I went to the most as it was 30 minutes away
from my house growing up. And we'd also go with school or
field trips and could get tickets through my dad's work
either for free or discounted, which was pretty cool.
But of course, this episode, the first aquarium review, is going
to be about the National Aquarium in Baltimore.
Now the aquarium opened on August 9th, 1981.
So if you are listening to this episode on August 9th, say happy
birthday to the National Aquarium, thank you.
It's mission was to connect people of Baltimore and the
surrounding areas to nature and inspire compassion and caring
for our ocean planet, which I give them a lot of credit for
inspiring my love of the ocean and sharks.
My dad was telling me there was one time he had the day off and
he and I went while I think my mom and sister were on a field
trip and he let little toddler Alex kind of just run through
the aquarium and I think he said we got through the whole thing
in half an hour and then did it again.
So it was incredible. I absolutely loved it since I
was a baby. The Baltimore Aquarium was born
from the first aquarium in the US, which was in Woods Hole, MA
and eventually had to move. Now you might be able to guess
where it moved to. Any guesses?
That's right. It's Washington, DC in 1878,
which is actually correct. Yeah.
It was originally on the site of the little known Washington
Monument. Not too many people are familiar
with that giant white monument that sits right in the middle of
the National Mall. But if you live in America,
you'll hear a lot about budgets and how they need to be
balanced. And in balancing the budget,
they decided to move the aquarium from the site of the
now Washington Monument and moved it to the lower level of
the Department of Commerce building.
Well, years later, once again, the budget was balanced and the
aquarium was threatened with closure.
Now, you're probably thinking, I thought he said National
Aquarium in Baltimore, not DC. Well, you're very correct.
Shark here is. And that brings us to the 1970s
where Baltimore Mayor William Donald Schafer rallied for the
aquarium to be moved to Baltimore and it was eventually
built at Pier 3 at the Inner Harbor.
Mayor Schaefer wanted to upgrade the Inner Harbor as at the time
it was not very pretty and didn't have a lot of appeal to
it. But the aquarium was the first
step in making it what it is today, which now has a Science
Center, multiple restaurants, and a concert venue, which I
believe is now called Miku Pavilion, but it was formerly
known as Pier 6 Pavilion. Phenomenal venue.
I've seen see either 3 Doors Down, The Menzingers and Frank
Turner. They're incredible.
I highly recommend going there if you get the chance.
Now to get back to the aquarium though.
There are 7 species of shark listed on the aquarium website,
which include the zebra, horn, nurse, sandbar, sand tiger,
tasseled, wobegong, and black tip reef sharks.
But they also have some sawfish which are more ray than shark,
but they still look really cool. And they have a black nose shark
who's just a little guy who hangs out above the shark alley.
Now these sharks are spread across a variety of exhibits.
The first sharks that you'll come across are the Black Tip
Reef sharks in the centerpiece of the aquarium, the Black Tip
Reef. They have many Black Tip Reef
sharks here as well as the zebra sharks.
This is also where you'll find the Wobegong, but you will have
to search a little bit for the Wobegong because Homing does
love to hide. Thankfully, you've got someone
who spent way too much time and money at this aquarium, so I can
tell you right where he is. If you go into the Black Tip
Reef exhibit and go to the right, the closest corner to the
Shark Alley, you'll look straight down at that corner and
you should see a white Wobegong hanging out right among the reef
and he sticks out pretty well. Of course, there also is an
underwater viewing area which he'll be off to the left at that
point. You can also see Shark Alley
from the Black Tip Reef, which provides sights of sandbar and
sand tiger sharks, as well as the occasional sawfish, although
the sawfish like to kind of hang out on the bottom, so you might
have to go through all the exhibits to see them first.
Well, later. I mean, whatever, it works.
There are 15 exhibits throughout the aquarium that span across 4
floors. The first three floors span
around the perimeter of the aquarium and allow for a top
down view of the Black Tip reef in the center.
Now they do have the exhibits around the wall, so you're not
just looking at one exhibit from everywhere else.
But the exhibits aren't only inside the aquarium as they also
provide a free exhibit outside that is known as the Harbour
Wetland. This exhibit has also helped
provide extra filtration to the harbour along with Mr. Trash
Wheel and his army of four other trash wheels that helped to
remove trash from the harbour. The Healthy Harbour Initiative
was created to help clean the harbour after years of litter
and pollution had kind of destroyed the ecosystem.
Recently, they have restored the ecosystem to the point that
dolphins, otters and many native fish have returned to
Baltimore's inner harbour, which is crazy.
Also, Peabody Heights is a brewery in Baltimore and they
created a beer called Mr. Trash Wheels Lost Python Ale, which is
delicious and also helped the benefit the Healthy Harbour
initiative. But it's a little bit of a side
note. But even to go a little bit more
of a side note, when I was younger, European tourists
decided to come to Baltimore and they want to have a swim in the
harbour, which at the time was gross.
It actually made the news with how shocking and weird it was.
But recently, they hosted a harbor swim after years of
cleanup efforts have made it safe enough and clean enough to
swim in. The watercolor itself has gotten
much lighter, which is incredible.
And more and more people are able to do different things on
there, like kayaking, not too many locals swimming.
And still because it's going to take a little bit more time for
a lot of us to get the trust to do that.
But these initiatives are helping to make the waterways
more clean. And it also just still feels
like a weird thought since it was such a taboo idea years ago,
but hopefully it keeps continuing in the right
direction and we'll see even more.
But now actually to get back to the aquarium, you'll go through
multiple exhibits going through the aquarium.
And those include Maryland mountains to the sea, the living
shore, North Atlantic to Pacific surviving through adaption,
Amazon River forest, upland, tropical rainforest, Atlantic
coastal reef, and Shark Alley. But after Shark Alley, you kind
of get a chance to branch off to see Dolphin Discovery, Australia
Extremes or Jelly Invasion. Or you can head outside, but you
can't come back in if you go outside.
But that's where the Harbour Wetlands and Waterfront Park
are. They also have their quarantine
centre and their animal rehabilitation centre, but
they're a couple blocks away and you'd have to probably drive
there. It's a little bit of a walk to
get there. Now there are multiple cafes and
areas that allow for amazing views of the Baltimore skyline.
You can also go see Camden Yards, which is where the
Orioles play. So how about demos on?
Now I will say they're not doing great right now.
They keep losing, which is not good, but hopefully they'll get
it together. Now most of the sharks are
rather easy to spot as the black tips.
They don't try to hide, nor do the zebra sandbar, sand tiger or
black nose sharks. They all kind of swim around and
they're quite obvious to see. The zebra sharks kind of hang
out at the bottom, but they stand out among the sand.
But the horn and will be gong. They like to hide a lot more.
So I've already told you how to find the will be gong, but if
you're looking for the horn shark, you'll have to go next to
the puffin exhibit on the 3rd floor.
And if you go to the right of it, you'll see that there's a
couple rocks and some kelp and things.
And if you look under the rocks, he's usually under the one in
the center, but sometimes he's in the one off to the left and
you'll usually only get a glimpse of his tail or his body.
You might have to squat down a little bit, but you can usually
see him there. He's not too active so you're
not going to see him really swimming around a whole lot, but
he likes to hang out there so that's where you can find him.
Now these sharks are some of my favorite as I've seen them
through most of my life and I'd visit this aquarium frequently
and got pretty good at spotting them.
Of course, the first shark related thing you're going to
find at the aquarium will be the giant megalodon jaws.
When you come up the escalators now, depending on the source,
it'll tell you either it's real or they're a replica.
I would do know that they do have real teeth in them, but the
jaw itself may be a recreation as a lot of sources say that no
megalodon jaws have been found. Although I feel like I read
during the Megalodon episode that 2 aquariums have them.
But I feel like that's a super low number.
And I feel like I've seen more in different museums and things
like that. But I don't know.
I'm not great at identifying shark teeth or recreating shark
jaws. So I mean, like I say, there's a
correction corner for a reason. I could be wrong here.
But I will say that it is really cool and a great photo
opportunity because you can always go and they have a little
area, you can stand behind the jaws and then you get a nice
little view outside and it makes a nice, really, really nice
photo. So I definitely recommend doing
that if you get the chance. Now, the aquarium also offers
many tours, including their animal rehabilitation and
quarantine center, which is the only way you can really go in
there. You got to pay for it.
Sorry. That's next to the building
where I did one of my internships in grad school and I
felt teased every Monday, Tuesday, and every other
Wednesday when I would not be able to go hang out with fish
but would be right next door instead.
But that's my own personal feelings and I will get over
them one day. They also have an insider's
tour, a dolphin tour, sunrise tour, dolphin training tour,
which is different than the dolphin tour, the aquarium
sleepover and the guest diver tour, and of course a shark
behind the scenes tour. Now, before I move from
Baltimore and Goalie and I did get to do the shark tour in 2021
and it was incredible. They start by asking how many
shark species we thought there were, and there's probably about
14 of us in the group. And of course, everyone was a
scrub and got it wrong except for me because everyone else
gets the less than 100. And of course there's between
3:50 and over 450 species that we believe.
So, you know, get on my level, it's fine.
But of course that's a joke anyway.
But on the tour you got to feed some fish in the black Tip reef,
which was neat. See how they prepare the food
for the sharks and other animals as well.
They also get to see where they would provide any medical
treatment for the sharks in the aquarium if they weren't going
to the quarantine center or if they had to be transported to
the quarantine center, how they would go about doing that.
Now, at the end of the tour, you get to go above Shark Alley
where they go to feed the animals.
So you get to stand on that walkway, which is really
incredible because I've seen the sharks from through the glass my
entire life. But actually getting to be above
the water and see sandbar, sand tiger and sawfish swimming by,
it was incredible. I, I could have cried now, the
guy was incredible. I'm very sorry.
I cannot remember her name. She was very sweet and she also
showed us where to see the Wobegong which was greatly
appreciated because I kept seeing it online that we had one
but I'd never found it because the dude likes to hide and I
don't get why. Now I have posted him on my
Instagram a couple times on the story so I will eventually I'll
have to put him in a post. I'll actually I can do it on
this one as well. This works great but I'll put
him in there. There's so many pictures I have
in this aquarium. This post is going to be great
anyway, but I would like to give a quick warning.
You need to be careful on your timing when you go to the
Baltimore Aquarium as in my findings getting there opening
is best as there's not many people there and once it gets
around noon it tends to be absolutely packed.
Also you want to be careful though if school's in session.
I went one Tuesday morning and got there around 9:00 and I went
inside, got to the aquarium and thought, you know what, I did
that pretty quick, might as well do it again.
And then as I got far enough where I could not turn back, all
the school children arrived and I was swarmed in a sea of kids
that do not know personal space and also looked at me very weird
when I answered the questions correctly during the shark
presentation, the low haters were just mad they didn't know
the answers. I was not shouting them out, I
was saying them to myself. But the kid looked at me really
weird. Should know more about sharks I
guess. I don't know, but I will let you
guys know as well. The bottom, our aquarium, it is
not one of those aquariums where you have like a center area and
then you kind of go to whichever exhibit you want.
You do kind of have to go through all the exhibits now.
Of course, the Black Tip Reef is the one on the 1st floor.
As you walk past that one, you go up and then that's where
you'll see the From the Shore to the Sea exhibit on that one.
You then curve around and they all kind of keep going.
You have to kind of go through all the exhibits like the touch
tank exhibit. And then of course there are
certain parts you can skip. So if you don't want to go to
the upper Amazon area, you don't have to.
You can walk past that. There's also areas where if you
like, if you go one place, you don't have to go through
everything again to get back to certain exhibits.
But if say for example, you want to just see the Surviving
Through Adaption exhibit, you do have to go through the Touch
Tank exhibit and also the Maryland from Shore to Sea
exhibit. You can't skip those.
It's just not possible to get there.
There is a flow though, and it's kind of impossible to go
backwards against that flow. The only issue is that sometimes
people do jam up in the middle. But of course that's not really
aquarium staff fault. This thing was built in the the
80s, so in the 70s and 80s. So it was a lot fewer people
coming along at that time. And they see millions of people
a year now. But the Baltimore Aquarium has
multiple shark talks on sharks, of course, both at the Black Tip
Reef, and we'll also show feeding and training sessions in
a shark alley so you can see those, which is really cool.
The Black Tip Reef also gives some amazing views from under
the water where you can see across the whole exhibit.
I can see the animals interacting and going about
their business and you get a good look at the deeper part as
well. Now it is pretty impossible to
get good pictures down here. Every picture I've ever tried to
get down there has turned out very blurry.
So maybe one day I'll get better at it, but we'll work on it.
I'd also like to quickly point out some of my favorite non
shark inhabitants of the aquarium including the mantis
shrimp, mudskippers, dolphins, which dolphin discovery is such
a peaceful and calming area, the puffins, the sloth parrots and
the northern hog sucker. Because bro is just kind of
funny when he's in his tank and just kind of looks angry all the
time. And last but certainly not
least, I do love Kai, our green sea turtle who is at the
rehabilitation center. I'm not sure if they're going to
move him over to the black tip reef.
I have tried asking, have not got a good answer on that.
Now the aquarium had a beautiful sea turtle a few years ago.
Well not a few years ago. They had her for what felt like
decades but her name was Calypso and she only had three fins
because she got in a boating accident.
But unfortunately she did pass I want to say in like 20-18 ish
but she was great I loved her I miss her very much.
Now those are kind of all the facts about it.
Now is just where you kind of get my opinions.
As I mentioned that this is pretty much an open love letter
to this aquarium because it's essentially not my home, but I
know my way around. It is where I spent so much of
my time when I was going through grad school.
And every time I would finish a semester, I would treat myself
to go to the aquarium and go walk around for a little bit.
It was just a nice thing to do during my breaks.
And then also, there was one day I considered going in when I had
my lunch break at my internship, which was just around the
corner. The only problem is that the
tickets were like $45, so it was kind of hard to swing when
you're a college kid still. So that wasn't the greatest of
options. And at the time, I also couldn't
afford a membership, so I try to go frequently.
And then also, I was able to get discounted tickets through a
friend, which was great. But it is usually ranked within
the top three aquariums in the country.
There is one that is consistently #1 and that is of
course, Georgia, but there is, it's kind of like Monterey.
I think Monterey Bay is the one that kind of bounces back and
forth with this one between being #2 and 3.
So it kind of depends on which one you're going to you're going
to go to or what source you go to that I'll tell you because a
lot of them have different things that they rely on.
Now. I think that the aquarium is
absolutely beautiful both inside and outside.
Any time that you see Baltimore pop up on any of like the
national broadcast and they're showing the city, they always do
a shot of the inner harbour. And if you see the building that
has the blue like waves on the side, especially at night when
those lights are on there, that is the aquarium.
It's got that giant pyramid at the top, which is it's Amazon
rainforest area. And it's just architecturally
and visually like appeasing. It's really nice.
It also is just a really calm, beautiful place to go.
It's exciting and of course there are many kids and families
there. So if you're kind of looking to
get away from them, you're not going to.
It is the, I think the centerpiece of the Inner Harbor.
Of course, there are a couple other things that people could
argue, such as the USS Constellation, the Trade Center
down there. There are a few that people
could definitely argue, but I feel like when I go to the Inner
Harbor, of course my eyes immediately going to that.
So it does give you amazing views of Federal Helm of the
Baltimore Inner Harbour. I got some amazing pictures of
the skyline through there and it's just so nice and calming
and it's literally my second home.
It's just fantastic. I can't give you enough of
praise. The only thing I can complain
about is I did reach out to them to see if any of their shark
experts would like to be on the podcast and they're in a social
media person was very nice. And she said that she would ask.
And I don't know if they never got back to them or, or what
happened or if just it fell by the wayside because of course
they got a lot going on. But unfortunately, I have not
had the chance to, to talk to them.
And of course, living in Florida, have not had a chance
to, to run over there and, and ask.
But I will say that it's one of the places that I've not heard
many people complain about working at the staff.
It seems to be the same every time I go with minor changes.
I did also have one of my professors in college for my
history of zoos and aquariums class.
Formerly used to work at the aquarium and was the keeper of
the puffin exhibit. The puffins are also awesome
because they have microphones inside the exhibit, so all the
sounds you're hearing outside of the exhibit are coming from
inside the exhibit, which is so cool.
But it's a really great aquarium and it does take about 30 to 45
minutes to get through if you're going fast.
It can take a couple hours if you're reading every single
thing on the wall, but I feel like a lot of people don't do
that. Sometimes you just want to look
at fish and run. Now they do also at their
electric eel. They do also have a meter that
shows when it's pulsing and stuff like that.
So there is so many cool things that you can do and see and I
just love it so, so much. I highly recommend it if you're
ever going to Baltimore. Of course, I also recommend
catching an Orioles game. Camden Yards is the stadium that
they designed every other baseball stadium in the MLB
after one after it was built. And also on top of that, you
also have the Edgar Allan Poe house.
So this is also low Kia tourism ad for Baltimore.
But they're not paying me to give it to you.
So I'm going to end it there. But this was the first aquarium
review that is a little different than the other things.
Oh, also go check out the Guinness brewery because that's
really cool too. Shout out to everyone that works
there. I miss you all.
I used to work there as well. I don't anymore because I live
in Florida anyway. But yeah, that was the first
aquarium review. It's a little different than the
other things. But I wanted to get something
going for the shark here as while I was busy and I thought
this would be quick and easy and not a lot of research.
And I needed an episode that was going to be quick and easy.
And this one was not quick, easy, and was a lot of research.
So mission failed successfully. I guess, you know, we got it out
eventually. But happy Easter everyone.
I thank you all for listening and hanging out and all the
amazing things you guys have done.
I appreciate it very much. Please follow along on the
social media to stay updated. I try to give you guys an idea
of when things are coming out, what's going on.
You can follow on YouTube as well.
It's mostly just the podcast and the streams as well.
But of course, if you guys want to leave a comment, give us a
rating, tell me a great shark fact and I'll share it with
everyone as well. And thank you guys so much.
You all take care.