We met outside the Back to the Sea Touch Tank Hut and heard from the founder, Magali Gregoire, about the group’s vision to bring a catch-and-release aquarium to Halifax (finally!).
Inside the Touch Tank Hut, we had the chance to stick our very clean hands into the very cold water of the tanks. Photo by Toby Balch.
Visitors are allowed to hold the animals in the tanks, but first we learned how to do so in a way that doesn’t harm the animals.
We all had the chance to hold sea urchins (seen here), as well as sea starts, hermit crabs, mussels, and oysters. And we got to feed them!
Amazing… sea urchins have 5 “teeth,” so when they bite algae (their food) they leave a star-shaped bite mark, seen here.
The start of the squid dissection began with a description of the squid’s body parts, including how it moves through the water (jet propulsion!). Photo by Toby Balch.
Part way through the squid dissection the Back to the Sea volunteer removed the squid’s “pen,” a vestigal part that can kind of be used as a pen along with the squid’s ink!
