Health & Fitness
After Storm Delay, Giant Shark Exhibit at New York Aquarium in Summer
CONEY ISLAND — Workers will build a new shark exhibit at the WCS New York Aquarium here starting next summer.
By Thomas Topogna and Michael Micciche, Staff Reporters
CONEY ISLAND — Workers will build a new shark exhibit at the WCS New York Aquarium here starting next summer. Construction was originally supposed to start in January, but the aquarium was badly damaged by Superstorm Sandy.
In fact, the aquarium is closed indefinitely while repairs are made to it. If you want to donate money to help the aquarium, you can go here. The shark project will still go on.
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The WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society), an organization that works to save wildlife around the world and runs the aquarium, will make a three-story building that has sharks, fish, turtles and a massive stingray. There will be ragged-tooth sharks, sandbar sharks, dogfish sharks, nurse sharks, reef sharks, wobbegongs, guitar fish, bamboo sharks, rays, sawfish and turtles (loggerheads and hawksbill turtles).
The sharks and turtles will get along together well. The shark exhibit is being built to show people many types of sharks and other sea life in New York and teach about conservation.
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Can you imagine a tank with 500,000 gallons of water? Sharks don’t eat the fish in the tank because they’re fed big meals, and after eating, they don’t want to eat more.
“If I gave you a big meal of turkey and mash potatoes and put you in a room of peanut butter sandwiches, you wouldn’t eat it, would you?” said Jon Dohlin, director of the New York Aquarium.
If you are in fourth grade, you will be finishing seventh grade when this tank is complete.
How will the sharks get moved into their new home?
The sharks get put in a sling which looks like one of those things that you put dead people in. Once the shark is lifted out of the tank, a crane puts it into a box of water big enough for the species to fit. The box gets put on the back of a truck.The truck drives slowly over to the new exhibit. Once the shark gets to the new tank, the workers who are holding the sling lift it into the new tank.
Other good exhibits to visit are Sea Cliffs, Alien Stingers and Glovers Reef. Also be sure to visit the Bronx Zoo, the Central Park Zoo, the Queens Zoo and the Prospect Park Zoo, which are all run by the WCS.
This story also appears on the Colonial Times website.
