Save The Bay Announces New Touch Tank Featuring Sharks

Save The Bay Announces New Touch Tank Featuring Sharks

Save the Bay has announced that a new shark-and-skate touch tank will be installed at its Exploration Center and Aquarium.

Starting January 1, the Center will be closed to the public for the installation of the new attraction, “Sharks and Skates of Narragansett Bay.”

“As a hands-on learning center, our touch-tank exhibits are one of the most valuable experiences we offer to our guests. We see the impact of our hands-on exhibits on visitors of all ages every day at the Exploration Center and Aquarium. The new tank will not only allow greater numbers of visitors to engage with the tank at a time and grant us the opportunity to offer new programming, but it will also be situated on the ground floor of the aquarium, providing visitors of all abilities easy access to these amazing animals,” said Save The Bay Director of Education Bridget Kubis Prescott.

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The Exploration Center and Aquarium will re-open in February 2020 to unveil the “Sharks and Skates of Narragansett Bay” exhibit and the Sharks and Skate Conservation Education Initiative.

The Exhibit

he new front-of-house exhibit—part of a larger Sharks and Skate Conservation Education Initiative made possible in part by the Institute for Museum and Library Services and the Alletta Morris McBean Charitable Trust—will house adult and juvenile dogfish sharks, catsharks and skates.

Through the initiative, Save The Bay’s aquarists and educators will connect visitors to the wonders of sharks and skates and their important role in local and global marine ecosystems.

The Sharks and Skate Conservation Education Initiative will allow visitors to examine unfertilized "mermaid's purses," or egg cases, before observing developing sharks and skates in special back-lit tanks; observe shark and skate adaptations and behavior; visit shark and skate predator-and-prey exhibits; and engage with non-living artifacts, including shark jaws, teeth, and fossilized feces.

PHOTO: Doug Costa, NOAA/SBNMS/Wikipedia