Marine Explorers dive deep at the Two Oceans Aquarium

26th August 2014

Words by Paul Millar

Aquariums are places where kids can be seen delighting in the curious creatures on display; some of them undoubtedly leave with a heightened interest in marine life. And while some people may say that there’s a dividing line between learning and having fun, aquariums tend (wisely) to pitch their displays so as to create an overlap of these two concepts. The ‘Wow!’ factor is a big part of any aquarium trip – the biggest, brightest, weirdest and ugliest creatures always make an impression. For some young visitors, going to an aquarium may be their first experience of the marine world; for others the displays feed an already growing interest. Some kids take time to read the information labels or stare long and hard at individual animals. Others rush around ‘doing’ the aquarium as fast as possible, buzzing from one display to the next.

Save Our Seas Foundation | 2014

Thanks to the fundraising efforts of UCT Underwater Club, our Marine Explorers were treated to an outing to Cape Town’s Two Oceans Aquarium. The Marine Explorer’s Club embraces the idea that a young person’s interest and appreciation of the marine world can be ignited by positive, water-based experiences such as snorkelling. Since our group has now spent plenty of time in the sea, we hoped that the aquarium visit would provide them with a fun learning experience that would build on what they had already learned on their dives and the information sessions at the Shark Education Centre. It also provided us with an opportunity to see how the group interacts with display material, which currently is of particular interest to us as we plan new displays for the centre.

The Marine Explorers with members of the UCT Underwater Club and Paul and Zanele of the Save Our Seas Foundation Shark Education Centre

So with our educator instincts (slightly) reined in, we all had a great time walking, chatting and marvelling our way around the aquarium. The sharks, for once, had to take second place for awesomeness, as the huge loggerhead turtle stole the show. And what about the Marine Explorers – how did they approach the aquarium? Well, their individual styles varied from hurried passing glances to ones of long scrutiny accompanied by a million (mostly) carefully considered questions. But there was one thing that nearly all our young explorers seemed to have in common in their approach: a reluctance to read printed information. While we were obviously thrilled to answer questions from the group, any suggestion that they read was regularly met with a sigh and a shuffle off to the next display. On one point, though, there was unanimous agreement: ‘We really, really want to dive in there with those animals!’ they said when we were at the big predator and kelp displays.

Our Marine Explorers found Nemo

So we’ve taught the basics of diving and the kids have learned to love the water. We’ve had great success in generating interest in marine life, which – let’s face it – was never going to be difficult. Now what to do about the reading thing…?