Sea Turtle Exhibit at Pine Knoll Shores Aquarium

One of our favorite things to do when we go to the beach is to visit the aquarium, especially in the winter months. This weekend we took a quick weekend trip to the beach and also made it to the aquarium, and actually watched a couple of the programs.  The first we watched was at the shark exhibit. They had scuba divers in the tank who answered questions and talked about what they were doing while they swam. Sydney wasn't super interested in what they were talking about but she did enjoy seeing the scuba divers and sharks...but only from a distance. My favorite comment of the day from her was "that shark has ugly teeth".

We also watched the otter enrichment, again where the aquarium workers answer questions and give a basic overview of the otters. They also put fish and carrots (who knew otters would be so excited about carrots?) out in their habitat, which it was fun to watch the otters search for the goodies.

The aquarium has just added a new exhibit dedicated to sea turtles.  Nimbus, a rare white sea turtle with a cleft palate and permanent fixture at the aquarium, is the "star" of the exhibit.  Sydney got to wear a white lab coat and carry an electronic turtle around the exhibit. She put her turtle in one area for diagnosis. She got to draw blood and put in a machine for analysis.  Her turtle was diagnosed as having low weight. She then got to take the turtle to the treatment area. She lost interest at this point as it went into great detail about what the diagnosis meant and how to treat the turtle (including something about a turtle enema!) so we moved on to the next section. There she was able to weigh baby sea turtles. Finally, she got to release her turtle back into the sea! This exhibit was awesome. I'm sure we will visit it again soon!

Here's my turtle

Diagnosing the turtle

Weighing the baby turtle

Releasing the turtle back to the sea

Dr. Sydney