As the end of year approaches, the 9th graders took their field trip to the Seattle Aquarium, located on Pier 59 with a variety of different fish to see. There were other aquatic animals such as shorebirds, seals, otters, and more for the students to see and learn about. With the 9th graders being split into groups to explore both buildings of the aquarium, each group got to see different attractions and learn info on the many animals there. The ninth graders were polled to see if they would go to the Seattle Aquarium, Museum of Pop, or the Woodland Zoo.
While building 1 was filled with mainly fish as the main attraction, the 2nd building was filled with touch pools “My favorite part was getting to touch the sea cucumbers and urchins,” Maya Fraley stated. The touch pools include animals such as sea urchins, starfish, sea cucumbers, anemones, and even crabs.
A memorable part of the trip was getting to see a tank cleaning, with one of the divers entering the giant tank, with the students being able to watch the diver interact with the marine life during the cleaning process. As this doesn’t happen much, students got to witness an experience of a rarely seen event at the aquarium. “They were cleaning the tanks this time and I hadn’t seen that before so I didn’t expect to see it.” Mr. Filler explained. Students also got to watch otter feeding going on, although there were so many visitors the exhibit was packed. Some of them headed over to see the harbor seals to see the seals interacting with each other instead.
Now for most of the students on the trip, this was their first time visiting the aquarium so there were different expectations. For some they thought the aquarium would be bigger. “I thought it would be way bigger,” stated Maya.
Asher Ebsen shared a similar opinion saying, “I was underwhelmed by its size for an aquarium.” Although students did enjoy it, especially getting to see the Bowmouth guitar fish, being a favorite of the students. Another interesting part of the aquarium was learning about sea life. With a guide explaining how fish are taken care of at the aquarium and different kinds of fish there along with where they came from and fun facts about their behavior. William Jameson learned that when fishes dance they mate, and he witnessed this in one of the tanks holding the Angelfish performing their dance.
Overall, the visit to the Seattle Aquarium gave an enjoyable and memorable experience for the 9th graders, giving them an opportunity to see tank cleaning to otter feeding, and getting able to learn facts about marine life and with it. The trip offered a variety of experiences that kept students engaged and interested in marine life.
