Do you know the St. Louis Aquarium is home to nine species of sharks?
The family-friendly attraction at St. Louis Union Station is celebrating Shark Week from now through July 30, with a host of shark-related activities, including exploring Shark Canyon, touching a shark at the Touch Pool, and making your own paper shark hats in the Kids Zone.
Shark Week, made popular by programming on the Discovery Channel, celebrates and brings awareness to the ocean’s most recognizable predators.
Shark species at the aquarium include sandbar/brown sharks, blacknose sharks, zebra sharks, whitetip reef sharks, black tip sharks, nurse sharks, bonnethead sharks, bamboo sharks and cat sharks.
Shark Canyon, the largest habitat at the aquarium, is home to a wide variety of sharks, as well as stingrays, sea turtles and fish. A large viewing wall provides visitors the chance to enjoy a Dive Show at 1:15 p.m. every day except Tuesday. Divers wear a special scuba mask that allows them to talk with visitors and answer questions while in the 250,000-gallon habitat.
There’s also a behind-the-scenes tour (offered as an add-on) that offers visitors the experience of crossing the 15-foot rope bridge atop Shark Canyon – if they dare. The tour also includes a visit to the Life Services area, where salt water is created and monitored to keep the marine animals healthy, as well as a stop in the veterinary lab and kitchen where restaurant-quality food is prepared for the animals.
At the Touch Pool, visitors have an opportunity to reach into the water and touch a bamboo or coral cat shark, as well as feed friendly stingrays.
The St. Louis Aquarium is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with extended hours until 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Visit the aquarium’s website for more information.
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