Beyond the a dripping wintery day in the desert, steps away, one can enter the steamy tropics of the new SeaQuest Interactive Aquarium. Boasting of a staggering 1,500 species on display – many under 100,000 gallons of water – the new Boulevard Mall attraction may be an educational experience for both kids and adults.
Yet there’s a slight difference between textbook learning to being able to experience and learn directly. SeaQuest owner and general manager Shane Shimada, thinks so at least. At SeaQuest, learning means getting up close and personal with nature, whether it’s holding an iguana in the palm of your hands, having a parakeet perched on your arm – or even swimming in a tank, snorkeling with stingrays… yes, it’s THAT exhilirating!
With the majority of the activities targeted toward learning activities say Brad Boyle, another SeaQuest owner says how even his 4-year-old daughter serves as an inspiration because she innocently demonstrates the “ability to connect and interact with everything that’s here.”
The stingray swim requires reservations and a supplementary fee ($29.95 for annual members, $39.95 for nonmembers, including all-day aquarium admission). If splashing around with a stingray is not your thing, SeaQuest even provides plenty of opportunities to appreciate all the other creatures who adorn this beautiful place.
The California Coast area’s star magnetism is an enormous Pacific octopus that “you can touch and feed,” co-owner Erin Boyle explains. Its 500-gallon tank home is flushed clean every couple of minutes, rising and falling to simulate the ocean tide. But a nearby tide pool offers more kid-sized residents: sea stars just waiting to be picked up and perused.
“For a lot of kids who never make their way to the ocean,” Boyle adds, SeaQuest’s diversity of environments – and animal inhabitants – offer a direct connection. Inside the Mayan Jungle-themed aviaries, where colourful parakeets and lorikeets (the latter from Australia) chirp and tweet their delight as they dive-bomb food-proffering visitors.
Enter the Egyptian Desert area, where tiny tortoises – no older than some of the preschoolers picking them up under the supervision of a SeaQuest staffer – are snuggled into a corner. Adjacent, an olden example of a sulcata tortoise, Einstein – probably named as such because of his shell that greatly resembles the human brain – prowls in deliberate fashion.
According to marine director Grant Carter, keeping the water in SeaQuest’s tanks clean and pure is a rather challenging feat and this is mainly due to the harsh water in Las Vegas. As a result, the water’s “super-filtrated,” and passes through seven different filtration stations prior to filling the tanks.
From luminous, rippling moon jellies to Amazon-native pacus equipped with eerily human-like teeth, the aquarium’s themed areas display a collection of intercontinental creatures. Informational signs describe “Creature Features” and point out “Where in the World?” you can find the natural habitats of many SeaQuest dwellers.
Undoubtedly, the Silver City has a plethora of activities to offer Las Vegans and visitors alike. Here at 702 ENT we like to encourage our patrons and anyone visiting our beautiful city to make the most of their time here. That’s why we urge you to contact us, so we can help book and plan your itinerary for the perfect trip packed with fun and entertaining activities from start to finish!
