

July 30, 2013\u2014The National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland, has opened the \"Blacktip Reef\" exhibit that recreates in great detail the ecosystem of an Indo-Pacific reef. A few of its new residents will include 20 blacktip reef sharks and a three-flippered green sea turtle named Calypso.

", "is_us_only": "false", "title": "A New Home for Blacktip Sharks and a Sea Turtle", "url": "http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/animals-news/blacktip-reef-exhibit-vin/", "country_code_deny_list": [], "allowUserEmbed": "True", "related": { "link": [ { "url": "http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/07/30/national-aquarium-unveils-worlds-largest-reproduction-of-indo-pacific-coral-reef/", "name": "National Aquarium Unveils World's Largest Reproduction of Indo-Pacific Coral Reef" }, { "url": "http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/ocean-life/", "name": "More About Ocean Life" } ] }, "credit": "2013 National Geographic", "smil": "http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/data/xml/blacktip-reef-exhibit-vin.smil", "country_code_allow_list": [], "HTML5src": "/video/player/media-mp4/blacktip-reef-exhibit-vin/mp4/variant-playlist.m3u8", "still": "http://video.nationalgeographic.com/exposure/core_media/ngphoto/image/69868_0_616x346.jpg", "transcript": "


For this particular exhibit, it's one of the first exhibits visitors will arrive at the aquarium.\u00a0 So we really wanted\u00a0 start on a, really kind of a \"Wow.\"\u00a0 And the Indo-Pacific reef is one of the most bio-diverse habitats in the ocean.

When most people go to the beach on their summer vacation, they look out and really don't know exactly all the habitats that are out there\u2013all the fish that are migrating up and down the coast. We want to expose people to this underwater world.

One thing we do is we really look at the really detailed assemblage of the reef.\u00a0 There's coral that grows closer to the surface in certain clusters. We have at least a hundred species of coral represented in the exhibit.\u00a0 We've done a pretty good job of taking photographs of the really thing and recreating it.

So, the process of making this habitat we do a clay model.\u00a0 We then have to start building the full-scale. So we have to build all these ridges of coral off-site.\u00a0 And all these panels\u00a0 are actually made of, first of all, fiberglass mold over a Styrofoam that has been sculpted into the shape.

So piece by piece gets lowered into the tank, assembled, and then we have to have all seams connected in the tank.\u00a0 So it's quite a process.

We find that if we make it exactly like the real habitat, the fish basically live just like they would in the real habitat.\u00a0 To them\u2013physical structure and the shape\u2013they relate to it.

The thing that is unique about this exhibit is we'll have twenty blacktip reef sharks.\u00a0 They're a shark that's social, they form social bonds.\u00a0 It does get a little frenzied when the sharks are feeding so we have to sort of break them up.\u00a0 So actually do target training for the sharks that sort of gets them to know when feeding time is.\u00a0 It's the equivalent of twenty dogs that are going to be fed at the same time.\u00a0 You would not want to have just one dog bowl. You want to have four separate stations for feeding.

Calypso is a green sea turtle.\u00a0 Now Calypso was an animal that was actually a rescue animal for us.\u00a0 She had some netting around one of her front flippers which cut off the blood flow.\u00a0 So unfortunately she had an infection in the flipper once we removed that marine debris.\u00a0 We unfortunately had to amputate one of her front flippers.\u00a0 She was an animal that really couldn't be released but she really is an animal that the visitors, when they see her come up for a breath right in front of them, are amazed at her size and beauty.

So it's just like that opportunity:\u00a0 if you were able to travel to one of these habitats.\u00a0 The biggest joy I get out it is seeing kids and families.\u00a0 They are just like, \"Holy cow!\u00a0 Look at this!.\"

", "id": "blacktip-reef-exhibit-vin" } }