JACK COVER, NATIONAL AQUARIUM GENERAL CURATOR

For this particular exhibit, it's one of the first exhibits visitors will arrive at the aquarium.  So we really wanted  start on a, really kind of a "Wow."  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–all 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.  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.  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.  We then have to start building the full-scale. So we have to build all these ridges of coral off-site.  And all these panels  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.  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.  To them–physical structure and the shape–they relate to it.

The thing that is unique about this exhibit is we'll have twenty blacktip reef sharks.  They're a shark that's social, they form social bonds.  It does get a little frenzied when the sharks are feeding so we have to sort of break them up.  So actually do target training for the sharks that sort of gets them to know when feeding time is.  It's the equivalent of twenty dogs that are going to be fed at the same time.  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.  Now Calypso was an animal that was actually a rescue animal for us.  She had some netting around one of her front flippers which cut off the blood flow.  So unfortunately she had an infection in the flipper once we removed that marine debris.  We unfortunately had to amputate one of her front flippers.  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:  if you were able to travel to one of these habitats.  The biggest joy I get out it is seeing kids and families.  They are just like, "Holy cow!  Look at this!."