Rare look at Sea World

[Bige]

I went to sea world yesterday and went on a behind the scenes tour to feed stingrays. As tour started I ended up taking over because I knew more than guide. I then offered to donate coral for their propagation program. When I did that they invited me to go into "Lab". I was not allowed to take pics but it was awesome. They had a clam that was 2 feet long and a foot and half tall.

[Bige]

First pic is of shamus filters. 4.2 million gallons of water filters through. Water is changed by stripping salinity out and re-making water after it is highly filtered.

Second pic to left. Dolphin quarantine/ breeding tank.

Third pic second row. Main quarantine. Currently housing new stingrays. Most were over 10 feet long. You can see a fin sticking up.

Last pic and most interesting (to me). Mixing salt with a crane! Those white bags are salt and they are dumping it into a 50,000 gallon water pool.

[Bige]

All water is kept on site and reused. Filtered then put back in circulation.

[CA_BroncoFan]

Wow, thats amazing. Not your everyday tour!

[capj64]

That's great, too bad we can't see pictures of your lab tour

[cmor1701d]

Congrats on the tour. Where's the rest of the pics :p

[melosu58]

Very interesting

[Bige]

All pics are about quarter mile off site.

[Bige]

More back stage pics. The stingrays are in quarantine. They were either caught in fish nets or were some place they shouldn't be. The shark had laid eggs and was being checked on.
The ray in the first pic is about 15 feet long. All tail! Second ray is also very large. Pics do no justice of size.

[Bige]

4th pic is of a holding tank for fish that are being monitored. Also more filters in the back. There were about 10 sets of those filters around. Total about 15 million gallons!

[Bige]

More filters and holding tanks. In the holding tanks they had concrete coral. Apparently we can grow coral better than they can. In the "lab", they had every kind of light you can image. They were testing to see which one did the best. Even had natural light tanks. I told them I had LEDs and they freaked. I told them I would bring them some of my coral and they were very interested. Not sure why but they were. Everything had to be captive grown or aquacultured. They take nothing from the ocean unless it is hurt.

[Bige]

BTW. You think they have a lot of employees out front, you should see the back end. I could not believe the man power.

[Bige]

I was thinking. Why wouldn't they let me take pics in lab? It was not something we hadn't seen. I mean, is ocean world out to get their secrets.

[meegosh]

Could be because of proprietary information (policies and procedures for caring for the animals). I can think of a bunch of other reasons but that is usually the biggest reason for not allowing pictures.

Thanks for posting the pictures! I love behind the scenes tours. I think I need to go back to the Zoo, it has been 5+ years since I have been there.

[Bige]

I bet your right. I wanted to learn about their filtration and they wouldn't say a word. I am going to the new Dallas aquarium in a couple weeks. I have called 3 times trying to get back stage. You never know unless you ask. I may have to stretch truth to get there but I like looking at the filters and back care.

[Bige]

I tried to talk my way into the back of dallas aquarium. Waiting for the boss man to call me. I told them I went back stage at sea world and took some pics and wanted them to see. They thought that would be interesting. I also will make a donation if I have to. But will wait for that.