NEWPORT, Ky. – Here in the shadows of Earth Day, it’s always a good reminder that about 71 percent of the Earth is actual covered with water.
It is our gold. Fresh water and air are what we need to survive. Those life-giving elements are what separates our planet from a billion other shiny stars.
While oceans hold about 96.5 percent of all water on Earth, water is also in our air, in nearby rivers and lakes, in far away ice caps and glaciers, in the ground and even in us.
For a fun family lesson in water, conservation, and to celebrate all of its colorful creatures, few places in our region are as fun and meaningful to explore as Newport Aquarium (newportaquarium.com/1-800-406-3474) which is open to the public 365 days a year and located across the Ohio River from downtown Cincinnati at Newport on the Levee at One Aquarium Way, Newport, KY 41071.
We were reminded of that and were fully immersed in the joy of rediscovery of this regional tourist treasure recently when we were flying out of Cincinnati’s Regional Airport (located on the southern side of Cincy in Kentucky) and had a day to kill. Looking around at things to do in Northern Kentucky, we were all quickly in concert that it had been way too long since we had explored the wonders of Newport Aquarium, which was just chosen in April as No. 6 in the Top 10 U.S. Aquariums as voted on by USA Today readers.
Showcasing thousands of animals from around the world in a million gallons of water since 1999, Newport Aquarium, at less than three hours away, is a great weekend destination for parents looking for a fun (but educational) outing in the region with its motto of “Sea Touch Explore Together.”
While the days are long gone when our shaggy-haired gingers would have run straight to the Penguin Palooza, Gator Alley and Shark Central, we found ourselves walking and talking with our teen leader Boy Scouts, well aware, of the desperate need for conservation and care of our planet’s resources, more slowly soaking in – the messages thoughtfully placed along the way.
Just barely through the doors, I was taken by the simple, yet intense graphic that merely read “Water … the basis of life. ….the shaper of land. …the matter of clouds. … the blanket of our planet” that leads into the first display of the World’s Rivers (fish from nine different rivers on five continents) where you can view fish such as far away as the rainbow fish from Australia to the equally colorful Longear Sunfish of the nearby Licking River, as well as some truly bizarre species including the electric white lobster and the eyeless crayfish and cave fish.
The Aquarium also has symbols at each exhibit that take that conservation message deep and wide with themes of:
Water Story: info about our most precious resource;
SSP: Species Survival Plan indicates that an animal is part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan program (SPP) and is being managed within multiple zoos and aquariums so that it doesn’t become extinct.
Vanishing Animal: Means the species is either threatened or endangered and in need of our help or attention.
Conservation: Showcases a conservation message or a conservation project supported by the Aquarium’s WAVE Foundation’s Aquatic Conservation Fund.
As is a requirement, I think, at every zoo, and aquarium, the Newport Aquarium is stellar at displaying some of the true odd species, that showcase how truly and wildly species vary and adapt making it easy to marvel at such species as the Asian upside down Catfish that thinks everyone else is swimming weird and missing out on the fun of swimming right upside down.
While fams with younger kids would really enjoy the theater show with the stars of the PBS Kid TV show, “Jim Henson’s Splash and Bubbles,” we found ourselves mesmerized around the next corner that housed the Aquarium’s newest exhibit “Seahorses: Unbridled Fun,” that pays homage to the weird yet delightful seahorses, sea dragons and pipe fish – unique animals that are fascinating from head (they have eyes that can move in different directions at the same time) to foot (well, OK, tail, that is actual square shaped and helps the not-so-great swimmers hold onto the grasses and corals in their habitat).
If that’s not enough to fascinate folks of any age, seahorses are also the only animal where the dad becomes pregnant and carries the babies or fry.
As is the case throughout the Aquarium, in Seahorses there’s a display about the problem with byproducts of our modern society such as “Microbeads,” which are used in cosmetics, toothpaste and soap and that are being phased out in 2018 because of them finding their way into waterways polluting them. In fact, a study published in Environmental Science & Technology reported more than 8 trillion microbeads were entering the country’s aquatic habitats daily. The volume was enough to coat the surface of 300 tennis courts every day. In December 2015, President Obama signed into law a ban of microbeads.
A life-long fishermen, I thought one of the coolest species on display (right around the bend from the seahorses) was Kentucky’s paddlefish, a species that is 50 million years old, that pre-dates the dinosaurs and that is still thriving in the Commonwealth. In fact, I was happy to read and learn of Kentucky State University’s Paddlefish Aquaculture Program that harvests and sells the eggs of this prehistoric and long-billed giant for caviar. Find out more at (http://kysu.edu/academics/cafsss/aquaculture/)
As is always the case with any good production, the drama builds in the Aquarium as they save some of their biggest stars for last. A walk through Gator Alley is truly a unique one since you get to see two of the rarest animals in the world – Snowball and Snowflake, two white American Alligators of which there are only 100 known white gators in the world.
Of course, they are just small tykes compared to Mighty Mike, a 14-foot-long, 800-pound behemoth that is the king of that Bayou-themed exhibit.
Past the gators and the Frog Bog play area, in the old Canyon Falls area will be “Stingray Hideaway: Enter their World.” which opens in May. A $1 million investment, it is being billed as the only stingray experience of its kind in North America, will be the biggest development at Newport Aquarium since Shark Bridge opened in 2015.
When it opens this summer, the 6,000 square feet signature attraction’s 40-feet high atrium ceiling will allow
sunlight to filter down on the wide-open, expansive area of tropical habitats below.
Highlights include a 17,000-gallon stingray touchpool where guests can interact with two dozen stingrays. Among the most innovative of
elements, the touchpool will feature a 30-feet long tunnel where kids and adventurous adults will be able to see stingrays swimming from below
the touchpool’s surface, effectively allowing them to enter the stingrays’ underwater world. Another special feature is a touch area for
smaller children to get up close to several juvenile sharks at their level. Rounding out the experience, guests will be able to explore the
tropical island habitat around the touchpool featuring land-dwelling creatures like iguanas and lizards.
While we will have to go back to check out the Stingray tunnel, the thrill of the Surrounded by Sharks tunnels was more than enough excitement for the day. It is in Surrounded by Sharks that you walk through acrylic tunnels immersing yourself in the ocean as four exotic Shark Rays, Southern Stingrays, Honeycomb Whiptail Rays, Sand Tiger Sharks, Sandbar Sharks, Blacktip Reef Sharks, Zebra Sharks and Denver, the Loggerhead Sea Turtle, all swim around and over you.
Of note for scout troops and youth groups, is that you can spend the night sleeping under the shark-filled tunnels (cost is $49.99 per person) with a minimum of 20 people for a Monday or Tuesday overnight and 50 for any other private overnight. Our Cub Scout pack did this back in the day at the Cincinnati Zoo and those overnights are truly unforgettable back-stage experiences as to how animals are cared for, fed and areas cleaned.
If the Shark tunnel didn’t do it for you, you can also get a unique look at the Shark tank, thanks to Shark Bridge, a 75-foot rope bridge is the only one of its kind in North America that allows guests to walk just inches above nearly two dozen sharks, four exotic shark rays, two stingrays and more than 300 fish in one of the country’s largest open air tank displays.
Although I was feeling quite brave and proud of myself for not adding more um, liquid to the tank, during our slow walk over a tank full of sharks, I am not alone in my bravery, as Spring Break marked the 2 millionth person crossing Shark Bridge.
If seeing all of those sharks, and walking above them and getting to touch a starfish (in the shore gallery) wasn’t enough for you, you can Touch A Shark at Shark Central, a special shallow pool where you can give Leopard and Cat Sharks the official “two-finger” touch while a nice worker says reassuring phrases like “They don’t want to bite you but they do have teeth,” and “wait until their heads are underwater before you pet them.”
On the way out of Shark Central, a sign gives you perspective as to who the dangerous species really is – that sharks kill 12 people a year, but people kill 11,000 sharks per hour.
While a few years ago a trip to Penguin Palooza, one of the most diverse collections of cold-weather penguins in the country, would have taken a solid hour of little boy wonder mesmerized at those black and white-suited oddbirds that can’t fly but that can swim (22 miles an hour), these teen days it was a a brief head nod at those cool characters, an exit through the gift shop, and out onto the Levee.
We laughed that hitting up the nearby Mitchell’s Fish Market, would be too ironic after having made so many newfound finned Aquarium friends, and so with heads full of knowledge, hearts swayed a bit for our misunderstood sharks of the world, we strolled out through the Levee, all the better for having visited the local, regional and world wonders from the waters inside the Newport Aquarium.
Now, over to the Hofbrauhaus Newport for a liter of good Bavarian barley water.
