An Interview conducted by Breshea Revels

Today I sat down with Ms. Cindy Clairy, a marine educator at The Pier Aquarium who is working the Summer Marine Adventures day camps. I talked to her during the lunch break and I asked her seven questions.  Two camp sessions were held earlier this month for kids ages 6-8. 

Photos taken by the teachers and the junior camp counselors at camp are in our Estuary Explorers Photo Album.

My first question to Ms.  Cindy was: What does she enjoy most about the camp? She said she loves teaching as well as conversation with the children. She likes watching the children’s minds grow.

Now for the rest of the Q and A!

Question 2:  What trips did the Estuary Explorers make?

A:  They went by bus to Mote Marine Aquarium in Sarasota, Florida Aquarium in Tampa and Weedon Island Preserve and the University of South Florida Marine Science Labs in St. Petersburg.

They all sounded very interesting.

Question 3:  What did the children seem to like the most at the camp?  

A:  The kids loved catching the underwater animals. They also are very fascinated by the tools that they used to catch them with.  Oh yes, and they loved being in the water a lot!

Question 4:  What was Ms. Cindy’s favorite place to go with the campers?

A: Hmm, she said, “will have to say Mote Aquarium in Sarasota.”  Why? She said there are so many shows going on there about the undersea life. They also have a huge TV screen that surrounds you and when you’re inside the theater it seems as if you are a shark in the water.

Wow , wouldn’t you love to know how that feels?

Question 5: Did any animals catch her eye?

A: Yes, she said, “Every animal that is big, like sharks and sting rays.”

Question 6:  What were some of the fun Estuary Explorer activities?

A: The campers played a game of mangrove tag which is like regular tag but in the water it sounds way more fun.  Also they played a lot of building games, card matching and hands-on learning activities.

My seventh and final question was: What did the kids tell you they enjoyed during the camp? I wanted to know the top three favorites.

Answer:  They had fun learning about estuaries, they enjoyed dissecting a shark and they realized the importance of a mangrove.

The aquarium displays a whole family of Coral Catsharks which are very fascinating animals. These sharks originate from the Pacific Ocean.

 They’re small and grow up to two feet.  I bet you’re wondering how on earth these wonderful sharks got here.

 Well, first the mother produces one to two eggs each month about every four months. The babies are inside an egg just like chicken eggs but it’s not a chicken egg . Even though the shark is inside yoke sacs (which I don’t think is very yummy) just remember a shark is being formed inside. Shark eggs are actually called egg cases which are known as mermaid purse, not that sharks have bought a mermaid’s purse! It’s just the name.

The aquarists here at The Pier Aquarium place the cases in a smaller shark tank until they are hatched and have developed enough in size to defend themselves inside the adult tanks. Did you know that in the ocean when a mother has her babies, she lets the sacs hang on rocks and leaves them there? So when the baby does fall out of the sac, it’s automatically left on its own, parentless.

That’s why we put the babies in a smaller and separate tank because if we don’t, and we let the babies just swim around in the adult tank, the adult sharks will think they are food. They will eat them like everything else, which is scary.

 Baby Sharks have no relationships with their parents at all! N ow aren’t you glad you’re human? The baby sharks when hatched eat live ghost shrimp. Then when they get to be adults they’re moved to the bigger tank where they are fed frozen fish by our staff and visitors during feeding time.

I learned about the baby catsharks by watching our YouTube video (produced by Stacey Grusden) and a second video not yet uploaded to YouTube by Eckerd College Intern Ben Hamburger.  We hope to get that up soon.

If you come check us out, you can help feed our sharks in the aquarium.  For your help, you will receive an “Official Fish Feeder” certificate! Now that’s something you can frame and hang on your wall and impress all your friends!

Bresha Revels

My name is Breshea Revels, and I’m a student at Lakewood High School. I want to be a lawyer someday and am writing poems and songs as well as my journal.  Typing is something I’m very good at, and I don’t mind doing it any time.

I am a volunteer at The Pier Aquarium, and I will be an intern here.

Today is my first day of volunteering. First thing I did was become a member ($20 for a volunteer!) and with my membership, I received a gold Volunteer T-shirt and a membership card. With the card, I will be able to visit museums such as the Florida Holocaust Museum, the Dali Museum (until the end of this month), Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa, Mote Aquarium in Sarasota and a few others during different months over the year.

My assignment here will be to write on this blog and learn more about the aquarium (because I’ll be writing about it), the fish and maybe help at special events. Maybe I’ll learn enough about the fish to work the Touch Tank!

I was rescued by a wonderful woman by the name of Emily. I met Emily at the Pinellas Living Green Expo in Clearwater last month. It seems like a long time ago!

 My friend Jennah and I attended because we had won 2^nd place in a hydrogen car race, just two girls on the road to success. Out of all the boys that participated and raced our cars at a science event at Bay Point Elementary School, two girls went to the finals: Jennah and myself! As winners, we were asked to  perform LIVE at the green expo.

Emily told me about “How much fun it could be if I volunteered and worked at the aquarium.”

I said, “I have nothing but time on my hands.”

So today I started at 9:30am. At 1:00pm the fun started to begin.  It was Touch Tank Time! There were so many children gathered around the two fish tanks, eyes open wide as well as mouths.

They were so ready to pet the animals with their “ wows”  and “awesome” I heard them keep saying.

A lot of them told their mothers and fathers that they see Nemo and his friend Dory (from Pixar Animation’s Finding Nemo) which I found very cute. Every adult that attended this touch tank event was interested in this undersea world. Hey, who wouldn’t be?

The children followed all of the directions as they were told, which caught my eye. What surprised me is when Susan, the marine educator, our Touch Tank guide, asked the children “what kind of animals do they see” and 
“what do the animals that they  see eat” mostly all of the children already knew the answers!

In those two tanks combined there were more then 20 exciting animals such as hermit crabs, many sea urchins, sea stars, live and dead sand dollars and lightning whelks , which is a type of snail which I learned where the shell opens on the left, not the right.

We learned about the sea stars and many helped feed the sharks as well as see the shark eggs and learn about them.  I’ll talk more about the sharks another time!

The children and I learned that the olive snail is named that because it looks like an olive. Also sea urchins have sucker feet which they used to attach to the sides of the tanks.

What I thought was weird is that when sand dollars feel threatened they die. Just that quickly, who knew they were so sensitive?

I also did not know that snails need calcium just like we do. That’s something we have in common. Now, would snails appreciate the calcium that we have in our milk?

One nasty thing I learned which was interesting that definitely caught my attention was how the sea star eats. They eat in the middle of their stomachs and how they eat, wow, let me tell you!

They grab their prey,  which could be a clam, open it up with however many star ”hands” or “legs”  it needs to open the shell. The sea star somehow takes it stomach out and sucks its next meal into its stomach like a vacuum nasty rite.

There were more than 80 people or even more here today! I felt as if I was at a live event at Sea World. I loved every second of it!

Then at 4pm when Touch Tank was over, I could not wait to share my experience with you! So here we are working on this and getting ready to upload!

I  can’t wait for tomorrow to tell you more or better yet, see you at the aquarium gate at 1pm tomorrow!  

March: Physics and Technology
Week of March 16           Green Moray Eel
Week of March 23           Horse Conch
Week of March 30           Neon Goby        

April: Energy
Week of April 6                 Staghorn Coral 
Week of April 13               Giant Carpet Anemone
Week of April 20               Giant Clam         
Week of April 27               Frogspawn Coral

May: Sustainability and the Environment
Week of May 4                 Black Grouper
Week of May 11               Coral Catshark
Week of May 18               Elkhorn Coral    
Week of May 25               Red Drum

June: Oceans and Water
Week of June 1                Yellowhead Jawfish   
Week of June 8                Niger Tang         
Week of June 15              Tuxedo Urchin
Week of June 22              Balloonfish
Week of June 29              Chocolate Chip Seastar  
            
July: Astronomy
Week of July 6                   Stars and Stripes Pufferfish
Week of July 13                 Blackbar Soldierfish
Week of July 20                 Sea Star              
Week of July 27                 Lunar Wrasse

August: Weather and Climate
Week of Aug. 3                 Snowflake Moray Eel   
Week of Aug. 10               Coralline Algae
Week of Aug. 17               Hermit Crab       
Week of Aug. 24               Coral Beauty Angelfish
Week of Aug. 31               Southern Puffer              

September: Biodiversity and Conservation
Week of Sept. 7               Diadema Urchin              
Week of Sept. 14             Pipefish
Week of Sept. 21             Chromis             
Week of Sept. 28             White Spotted Bamboo Shark

October: Geosciences and Plant Earth
Week of Oct. 5                 Convict Goby
Week of Oct. 12               Slipper Lobster
Week of Oct. 19               Spiny Lobster
Week of Oct. 26               Lawnmower Blenny

November: Chemistry
Week of Nov. 2                Blue Spotted Ribbontail Stingray
Week of Nov. 9                Arrow Crab
Week of Nov. 16              Dogface Puffer
Week of Nov. 23              Pencil Urchin
Week of Nov. 30              Seahorse

December: Sciences and Health
Week of Dec. 7                 Horseshoe Crab
Week of Dec. 14               Sea Cucumber
Week of Dec. 21               Dwarf Octopus
Week of Dec. 28               Sponges

Did you know that 2009 is The Year of the Fish and the Year of Science for The Pier Aquarium?

We're celebrating our 20th birthday and honoring it with a year full of interesting (and educational) family-friendly FISH-ful Saturdays (FFS) held the first and third Saturday of each month. This observance coincides with a very important 2009 designation: The Year of Science by COPUS (Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science), of which we're a member. COPUS is a growing grassroots network of "anyone who cares about science and is concerned about national scientific literacy." We've created FFS programing directly from COPUS monthly themes.

For March, the theme is "Physics and Technology." Last week's FFS was "Fishy Physics!" which explored the idea of fish that could fly. Flying fish have unique pectoral fins (fins on their sides) which help them soar  through the air. March 21 is "The Study of Fish."

The rest of the year's themes:
April - Energy
May - Sustainability and the Environment
June - Oceans and Water
July - Astronomy
August - Weather and Climate
September - Biodiversity and Conservation
October - Geosciences and Planet Earth
November - Chemistry
December - Sciences and Health

We'll update you with the topics as we approach them each month (the end of the preceding month).