Waikiki Aquarium

This aquarium can be found in Honolulu, Hawaii. Being found in 1904, it is the third oldest aquarium in America. It carries over 420 species of plants and animals. They also have live cameras. These live cameras are found in the shark, seal, and coral research tanks. They research a lot and have a couple discoveries. Here are some things they study:

	Mahi mahi
	Mastigias Jellyfish
	Aurelia Jellyfish

The aquarium is right by a living reef. In 1919 the Waikiki Aquarium also became a part of the University of Hawaii.

The Waikiki Aquarium also has a school support program. They have over twenty-five thousand kids that are in elementary school visit each year. There are two different kinds of visits. One of them is Docent-Assisted Visits. This one includes kindergarten through sixth grade students. They are usually about seventy-five minutes long with a trained person that works with or at the aquarium lead the visit. It has a thirty minute classroom presentation and a forty-five minute tour of the aquarium’s exhibits. The other visit is the Self-Guided Visit which includes preschool through college students. This one gives teachers a chance to actually go to the aquarium and teach their class while on a field trip type thing. These Self-Guided Visits are usually about an hour long.

The Waikiki Aquarium also tries to do stuff to get the community involved with the aquarium. The thing that helps the most is classes. There are classes for both grown-ups and children. They also have some classes for families to do together. One of the classes is sharks and rays. With this one you are helping the aquarium find new big species of sharks and rays. Another class is Educators’ workshop Ocean Explorers with NOAA. This one is about modern explorers and researchers and their expeditions. Also, there is Keana Point Coastal Hike. This one is pretty self explanatory. You take a five mile long hike at Keana Point. Last but not least, there is Stingray Tracks. On this one you go to Coconut Island and bring up special receivers. These special receivers are used to find information on stingrays. The stingrays have tracking devices on them. You can also have some fun and splash around in the fresh coastal waters.

There is so much to learn about aquariums. It is almost like you have entered a whole another world full of fish talk. I hope you enjoyed learning about this one. As we say here in Hawaii, Aloha!