March Break for Young Explorers

The Huntsman Fundy Discovery Aquarium will be hosting Young Explorer day programs from March 2-6.  The program is for children 7-12 years of age and will feature themes such as Incredible Inverts, Awesome Arthropods, Wonderful Whales, Super Sharks and Fabulous Fish.  Throughout the week we will explore the ocean environment by playing fun games, getting hands-on with live animals, making educational crafts and conducting exciting experiments.  Register today!

Homeschool Program - Seals

Today the Homeschool Program at the aquarium was all about seals.  Loki and Snorkel were obliging models!

In the lab the oldest students conducted an experiment to learn about seal diving, specifically that seals exhale before diving.  We then discussed that seals are able to do this because they can store more oxygen in their bodies compared to humans.

With the Grade 3-5 group we discussed what adaptations seals have to live in the ocean.  As you can see from the picture before we would need lots of equipment to let us live in the ocean like a seal!  We also looked at the differences and similarities between True Seals (ie. harbour seals) and Eared Seals (ie. sea lions).   

The youngest students learned about seal senses today, specifically seal whiskers.  Seal whiskers are used to detect fish movements in the water and are so sensitive they can even pick out which fish is the biggest!  The students made a seal mask with beautiful whiskers and patterns.

We were also able to watch Snorkel and Loki eating their herring for lunch.  Seals are conscious breathers which means they must think about every breath the take. Note Snorkel's nostrils opened in the top picture and closed in the bottom picture.   

January video of the month - Fin whales

During the summer and fall fin whales migrate to the mouth of the Bay of Fundy to feed on krill and small fish, such as herring.  Fin whales are the second largest animal species, growing up to approximately 24 meters.  The only animal larger is the blue whale.  Despite its size fin whales are fast swimmers as you can see in the video.

This video was taken in September 2012 off of Grand Manan with students from the Ottawa Catholic School Board.  The male voice that you hear is Durlan Ingersoll our whale watching guide from Sea Watch Tours.