News and Events 2011

 

Our annual Christmas fun weekend starts at 11am on Saturday 17th December. We’re hoping Santa will make his usual appearance in the tank to feed the fish their Christmas treats!

 

Our six foot long conger eel, Rip made it known to us recently that he had had enough of his easy life in the aquarium’s kelp reef exhibit and wanted to take his one chance at love in this world!

 

Conger eels are known to migrate to the deep waters of the Azores Islands in the western Atlantic to breed and Rip’s intentions to make this journey were clear at the aquarium recently. Resident in the aquarium’s main kelp tank since 2004, Rip had a favourite hidey hole in some rocks in the centre of the tank and was rarely seen, except by the divers who hand fed him. On a hearty diet of squid and mackerel, Rip grew to such a size that it was difficult for him to move around in there and he mostly stayed put. Eventually the drive to mate was so strong that he forced his way out of the hole, leaving a pile of rubble in the tank!

 

Rip’s lucky day came on Monday 14th November when we sorted out a crane and lifting bag, thanks to friends at Macduff Shipyards and Water Weights Ltd, Aberdeen, and set about catching him from the tank to set him free to find love.

 

Rip wasn’t exactly keen to begin with and needed some persuasion from divers Billy and Claire to get into the lifting bag – and then he wouldn’t get out again! But eventually he swam away, a little dazed from his experience, but hopefully on the right path to the Azores!

 

 

 

Photo credits: Lex Ballantyne, Newsline Scotland

 

We are looking forward to celebrating all things shark next week for
European Shark Week, in conjunction with the Shark Trust. It may be hard to believe, but there are over 30 different kinds of sharks living in British waters - some with poisonous spines, terrible teeth and wings as big as doors! But sharks don't all deserve their reputation as ferocious beasts and we'll be introducing visitors to some of these amazing fish living just beyond our shoreline. The aquarium is home to six species of shark and has its own shark nursery where baby rays and dogfish are hatched and cared for before being released into the wild.

 

Sharky activities will run throughout the week and visitors will have the opportunity to enjoy illustrated talks about sharks, have a go at making a sand shark, discover just how threatened our local species are, and take part in a 'Tales from the Shark's Mouth' trail.

 

The celebration will kick off on Saturday at 10am and we're delighted to have guest and shark expert Dr Lauren Smith along for the day, who will be talking to visitors about her experiences following sharks around the world and of her face to face encounters with some rather large sharks!

 

It's an event with bite and not to be missed!!

 

Have you ever looked out across the North Sea in the hope of seeing mysterious creatures of the deep moving in the water? Well if so, you have maybe been looking too far out, for the strangest, most freaky looking beasts can be caught in a bucket of sea water. They may be small, but these marine creatures are full of personality!

This summer we're excited to bring to close focus these tiny plankton and have unveiled a brand new microscope facility. The exhibit, which has been jointly funded by Scottish Natural Heritage and the People's Postcode Lottery Trust, will enable visitors to look through the microscopes themselves and be led through the fascinating world of plankton by our enthusiastic staff. The new facility includes a microscope camera linked to a flat screen TV monitor for easy viewing. The camera will allow staff to take still and moving images of the subject under the lens.

Plankton is often overlooked by aquaria because it is so difficult to display but the importance of these plants and animals that drift in the ocean currents impacts on all marine life.

 

The equipment will also be used to examine other sea creatures such as starfish and anemones in extreme close up. Staff at the aquarium have been so excited about the new equipment they have started to collect a variety of animals and objects to put under the spotlight. For example, Tracy Scott, a member of our dive team, recently picked up a jaw bone from a dogfish skeleton while diving, and on checking under the microscope it is clear that this small, common shark has very fierce teeth!

 

Come and enjoy some close encounters of the weird kind!

 

 

Here is an image from our new video microscope – any ideas what it may be?? Answers on our Facebook page – click here!

 

This year for our annual celebration of the seas we found ourselves washed up and marooned on a remote Scottish island with only our wits to help us survive... visitors had to make it through a survival challenge and got some tips for castaways along the way.

 

There was heaps more fun to be had, including bouncy castles, food, music with Deveron FM, divers, face painting and we were delighted to have special guests from WDCS, RSPB and Aberdeenshire Rangers for dolphin and bird watching and rock pool rambles.

 

We took part again this year in the annual Banff and Macduff COAST Festival and over the May weekend we encouraged visitors to add their wishes, dreams or pledges for the future of our environment to a giant fish created by local artist and friend of the aquarium Carn Standing. This 3m long fish sculpture was set up outside the aquarium for anyone to add their wishes to it. It was made from wicker with a huge mouth and great googly eyes. All of our wishes were written on to fabric, tied onto the fish frame to flutter in the sea breezes and be carried off into the atmosphere...

 

 

Carn Standing's Wish Fish Sculpture before we added our wishes...

 

We were delighted to see the arrival of Spring and decided to encourage our visitors to get out, get adventurous and get to know our own amazing wildlife here on the Moray Firth shores.

 

Throughout the Easter break we were teaching our visitors all about the lives of seashore critters and where to look for them before they headed out to the beach for wildlife adventures of their own. We cleared up our beach of rubbish with help from Aberdeenshire Council's Waste Aware team and enjoyed some rock pooling with Aberdeenshire Ranger Jodie. We even had our own sandpit for castle-building practice so we're all ready for the summer now!