Shark Awareness Day at SeaWorld Orlando

Shark Awareness Day is July 14th and SeaWorld Orlando invited us out to the park to celebrate and learn about these beautiful and often misunderstood underwater creatures!

The first stop on our tour was the Sharks Underwater Grill & Bar. Here, guests can dine alongside various shark species such as nurse sharks, zebra sharks, whitetip sharks, sand-tiger sharks, and my personal favorite, the saw shark. I find the saw shark most fascinating because of its long saw-like snout that’s lined with sharp teeth. They use these teeth to kill their prey by swimming through a school of fish and turning their head side-to-side to slash through as many fish as possible. The fish then fall to the ocean floor and the saw shark is able to eat from there since their mouths are underneath their head much like a stingray.

There are two specialty shark-inspired drinks available for guests to try, the Mako Margarita and the Shark Tail. The Mako Margarita is only available at Sharks Underwater Grill & Bar, but the Shark Tail is available at various locations across the park. However, the Shark Tail will only be available throughout the summer. The Mako Margarita is a Milagro Silver Tequila-based drink with Blue Curacao and lime juice. The Shark Tail is a vodka-based drink with lime juice, blue raspberry juice, and coconut topped with a shark gummy.

Our next stop on the tour brought us to the top of the shark exhibit, overlooking 700,000 gallons of water! Here, we could see not only every shark and fish inside the aquarium but also the walls outlining the restaurant and the tunnel inside Shark Encounter with guests walking through! This is where divers and trainers are able to take care of the sharks and the exhibit itself. Sharks have low metabolisms so they only need to eat twice a week. The trainers feed the sharks every Wednesday and Saturday by using grabber poles to dispense fish at different feeding stations. This prevents the sharks from associating the trainers (humans) with food. Each shark gets a specific amount of food based on their yearly physical and measurements. Divers are able to clean the aquarium using various machines (pressure washers, hoses, etc.) because the noise does not bother the sharks. In fact, the sharks typically ignore the divers altogether, except for the nurse sharks who are very curious and enjoy watching the sand get disrupted. The blowing of the sand is like confetti to them.

Next, we went back into Sharks Underwater Grill & Bar to talk to the divers via radio intercom about their jobs. They said one of the main things that often surprises people about diving in the shark exhibit is how peaceful it is. The divers told us that as long as they’re holding their PVC pipe “trident”, the sharks stay away from them because it acts as a deterrent. There is rarely any contact made between diver and shark unless it’s accidental such as a diver lifting their head just as a shark swims above them. Almost all of the sharks at SeaWorld Orlando have been there since the 1980s, but these divers were able to pick a favorite; Darwin, a zebra shark. Despite the name, these sharks are actually covered in spots. However, when they are born, they are covered in white stripes instead.

My most anticipated part of the tour was up next; touching a shark!! We were able to touch a white-spotted bamboo shark! The skin on these carpet sharks is very intriguing. Running your fingers down their back is smooth, but running them in the opposite direction is a complete texture change and it feels like sandpaper. This is because shark skin is covered by a layer of scales called dermal denticles which are more similar to teeth than scales. These dermal denticles help sharks swim faster and more quietly as they decrease drag and turbulence.

We then walked through the shark encounter exhibit and got to witness something I had never seen before, live baby sharks inside their egg casings! These are often called “Mermaid Purses”. These egg casings are found by divers and trainers throughout the shark encounter exhibit and are moved into little window aquariums where they will hatch within a few weeks.

Next, we headed outside of the encounter to learn about the filtration systems within the exhibits. SeaWorld Orlando uses 14 million gallons of water throughout the entire park. The shark exhibit encounter uses 700,000 gallons alone. The art of filtration is a combination of chemistry and plumbing. Each tank of water needs to be engineered to match the water of the environment of the animal living inside. There are various chemical elements that have to be monitored daily to ensure the animals have an exhibit they can thrive in.

To conclude the tour, we got to ride Mako! Mako is named after the fastest species of shark, Mako sharks, who can reach speeds up to 30mph. Mako is Orlando’s tallest coaster and reaches speeds up to 73mph.

100 million sharks are killed by humans every year. We can put an end to shark hunting by promoting shark awareness, teaching the importance of sharks and their role in the ecosystem, refusing to support restaurants that sell shark fin soup, participating in beach cleanups, etc.

Extra Fun Facts About Sharks:

• Sharks have a sixth sense! They have electroreceptors right under their eyes called Ampullae of Lorenzini. These electroreceptors allow sharks to sense the heartbeats of prey and other sharks as well as temperature changes in the water.
• Sharks can go through three different types of births: live birth, egg laying, and a slight mixture of both called ovoviviparous reproduction.
• In clear water, a shark’s vision is effective at a distance of up to 50 feet.
• Sharks often hunt prey that is sick or dying/already dead which helps prevent the spread of disease in other ocean animals as well as keeps the oceans clean.
• Some sharks are unable to close their mouth due to the number of teeth they have.

 

If you love sharks and you want to learn more about them, SeaWorld Orlando is the place to do it! You can participate in a very similar tour by purchasing a Sharks Up-Close Tour add-on experience through their website or inside the park.

Learn more here: https://seaworld.com/orlando/tours/sharks-up-close/

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