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ZOOLIGHTS Nov ZOOLIGHTS Nov. 24 - Jan. 1 Hammerheads! Swim into a Sea Winter Break is Eagle Rays! of Zoolights made for camp Sea Turtles! pages 4-5 page 7 page 2 POINT DEFIANCE ZOO & AQUARIUM | TACOMA, WASHINGTON | WINTER 2017 ‘I GO HOME EVERY NIGHT THINKING ABOUT THEM’ Dedicated aquarists care for hammerhead sharks, eagle rays and sea turtles as aquarium completion nears The animals began arriving toward The aquarium team is establishing the end of the summer – sharks and relationships of trust with the graceful, eagle rays from a sustainable fishery winged eagle rays, which love whole in Hawaii; green sea turtles Sunny and clams as well as squid; and with the Azul from SeaWorld San Diego. turtles, eaters of romaine lettuce, other Though the scalloped hammerheads vegetables and pieces of seafood. are endangered around the world as Once in their Baja Bay home, a species, they are plentiful in Hawaii. each animal will have its own spot So are the eagle rays. Both species met for feeding. Hawaiian regulations for transport to And all will be ambassadors for an out-of-state aquarium. The sea turtles, their wild counterparts, helping Point Looking down on their 26,700-gallon, hatched at Sea World in 2003, are not 40-foot-long-by-20-foot-wide temporary Defiance Zoo & Aquarium visitors learn releasable to the wild, according to the about the threats to the world’s ocean home, Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. staff aquarist Melissa Bishop watches and the animals that live there—and several young scalloped hammerhead Aquarists, architects, engineers, the steps each of us can take to save sharks glide smoothly through the plumbers, electricians and others our seas. water, then swiftly flip their tails, turn spent months studying tanks and and home in on ½-inch chunks of filtration systems; building a state-of- chopped up squid. the-art Aquatic Animal Care Center; filling it with water from Puget Sound; BE A SEA ‘STAR’ “I feel very privileged for the and then carefully monitoring bacteria, The $51.6 million replacement opportunity to come in every day and temperature and pH levels so the for the North Pacific Aquarium care for these extraordinary animals,” animals would have a healthy is due to open next summer. It she said. “Our team has worked hard new home. is funded primarily with bonds to prepare for their care.” Bishop is the lead keeper on these approved by Tacoma voters in Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium’s staff, three species, but everything is a team 2014, but opportunities remain members and visitors are less than effort. Aquarists carefully observe for private donors to help with a year away from watching these each animal, continually monitor their finishing touches. Call Zoo scalloped hammerheads - along with sophisticated life-support systems, test Society Executive Director Larry spotted eagle rays and green sea water quality and make adjustments as Norvell at 253-404-3663 for turtles - explore their new 250,000 needed to ensure optimal habitat. information about the exciting gallon Baja Bay habitat in the Pacific chance to make a contribution Seas Aquarium. “I go home every night thinking to the new aquarium. about them,” Bishop said of her The buzz is building. aquatic charges. 2 Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium Dive Safety Officer Gavin Wuttken, right, holds a hose that supplies water to a silvertip shark’s gills as other members of a Fins Attached team work to tag it in the Gulf of California. download their data, and replace them in the ocean. “This is basic research,” Wuttken said. “We have almost no baseline information about the shark populations in this area.” Wilken and Wuttken made their trip through a grant from The Zoo Society’s Dr. Holly Reed Wildlife Conservation Fund. In recent years, the fund has designated about $35,000 for shark and ray conservation efforts. They included: • Purchasing 10 acoustic tags and two receivers to monitor the movements of sharks in the Revillagigedo Islands off the tip of the Baja Peninsula. The aquarium staff also repurposed and donated four receivers from previous projects to this effort. • Partnering with aquariums across We’re in the Sharks’ Corner the nation to protect sharks in the wild through the Association of Zoo initiatives provide money, expertise Zoos & Aquariums SAFE (Saving Animals from Extinction) Sharks and advocacy for conservation efforts and Rays initiative. Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium But now, Wuttken and Wilken were in • Helping to fund research on sharks Dive Safety Officers Gavin Wuttken the field, putting their knowledge and and rays for the IUCN Red List. and Heidi Wilken knelt on a rolling passion to work in a crucial shark- Documenting the number of species boat deck off the coast of Baja tagging program designed to add in the wild helps governments and California, each holding one end of to the scientific community’s sparse other organizations make informed a tape measure stretched across the knowledge on some of the world’s most conservation decisions. length of a living silvertip shark. mysterious animals. Wuttken held a hose that kept water It was delicate, dangerous, flowing over the shark’s gills, allowing necessary work. And they it to breathe as a skilled team from the HOW CAN were eager to participate. conservation and research group Fins YOU HELP? Attached made a short incision in the The pair has helped thousands of Point shark’s skin, inserted a small transmitter Go to pdza.org/savesharks Defiance Zoo & Aquarium visitors learn and sewed it up. for a list of actions you can about the threats facing sharks in the take to help wild sharks. Pick Minutes later, the shark was gently wild over the last four years. Some up a Seafood Watch card placed back into the sea, thrashing 12,000 people have participated in the at the Zoo or download one its tail as it quickly swam away. The Zoo’s Eye-to-Eye Shark Dive experience, at seafoodwatch.org and process is replicated with more sharks, which immerses visitors in the South purchase only sustainably more transmitters. Pacific Aquarium, where they get an up caught seafood. close look at these magnificent animals. Underwater receivers can pick up To book an Eye-to-Eye More than 85,000 people have each shark’s movements, logging how Shark Dive experience: watched—and listened to divers’ far it swims, how deep it dives and Go to pdza.org/dive. talks—from the aquarium’s large how long it sticks to one feeding spot. viewing window. Divers periodically retrieve the devices, 3 Swim into a sea of Zoolights 30TH ANNUAL HOLIDAY TRADITION TO DELIGHT VISITORS NOV. 24-JAN. 1 A 100-foot octopus glows amid waves of ocean-blue lights. Zoolights, a wondrous amalgamation of old favorites (think An 8-foot green sea turtle swims serenely against an inky sky. Flame Tree, Narrows Bridges, salmon-catching eagle) and A giant crab, pincers constantly in motion, also inhabits this new loves (hammerhead sharks, green sea turtles, eagle inland sea, where fish swim and aquatic creatures frolic on rays, a color-transforming octopus and more), is celebrating the Zoo’s main lawn. its 30th annual edition this year. And just as the real landmark looms over Puget Sound, “From humble beginnings in 1988, Zoolights has grown into Mount Rainier stands tall above it all, a 23-foot-tall replica a beloved community celebration of the holiday season,” of the real volcano atop the North Pacific Aquarium. Zoo Deputy Director John Houck said. A handful of displays —all originally constructed in-house by the Zoo’s talented Over where the new Pacific Seas Aquarium is rising, carpenters, electricians and maintenance team—turned hammerhead sharks, eagle rays, sea turtles and jellies into dozens of whimsical animal scenes and lifelike local swim serenely in a blaze of color. landmarks over the years. The tradition that began with a Come next summer, their real counterparts will delight few thousand lights all those years ago has morphed over visitors inside the new building. time into more than 650,000 energy-efficient LEDs for 2017. 4 The 30th annual event, which runs from Nov. 24-Jan. 1, is presented by Fred Meyer. And to celebrate this milestone, here are: WAYS TO ENJOY 30 ZOOLIGHTS 8. BE SOCIAL 24. LOOK FOR LANDMARKS #pdzazoolights on those Find the Narrows Facebook and Instagram 17 bridges, Mount Rainier posts. Your friends will and other local icons— be envious. all ablaze in lights. 9. WEAR YOUR 25. START A NEW TRADITION WALKING SHOES Give E.T. a high five as There are more than you enter the Front Gate. HOP ABOARD A WALRUS 650,000 lights to see. The new 2,150-pound Or a polar bear. Or a slug. sculpture of the loveable Take a spin on the Paul Titus 1 walrus will greet guests antique carousel. every night. FALL IN LOVE AGAIN WITH AN OLD FLAME 18. DREAM OF A NEW 26. DANCE IN THE RAIN (and take a keepsake AQUARIUM Yes, it might rain on holiday photo). And guess The Pacific Seas Zoolights, but sprinkles what? The Flame Tree has— Aquarium is coming on the pavement make wait for it—30,030 lights. along. Check out the lights reflect that the progress. much more brightly. 2. SKIP THE LINES 19. SIP HOT CHOCOLATE Buy your tickets online at This holiday tradition pdza.org/zoolights. 10 will warm your soul. 27 3. MEMBERS GET A RIDE A CAMEL 20. WARM UP WITH A GLASS SWEET DEAL Get a new perspective from OF WINE OR AN IPA Tickets are just $5 each.
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