Home Sweet Aquarium

Every summer, the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher hosts summer camps. Each week has a different theme. During our Animal Keepers week we asked our Ocean Explorers, campers aged 10-12, to tell us what they learned about caring for the animals at the Aquarium.

Campers learn how staff care for amphibians

Kai said “Something I learned was that all the fish in the Cape Fear Shoals live off of the coast.” The North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher features animals that are native to North Carolina. This helps the staff to collect and care for the animals.

“It is important to take care of a sea animal. They need water, food, somewhere to hide. It needs a big tank and the tank cleaned once a month.” Sydney shared with us the importance of a good habitat at the Aquarium.

An Ocean Explorer feeds a horseshoe crab

Leah told us, “I think it’s important to learn to feed the animals. This is what I enjoyed the most. My favorite animal to feed was seahorses. I thought I wouldn’t be able to do most of this stuff at the camp because of my disability. But I realized now, I can do everything well. Even feeding animals.”

Noelle enjoyed the sea turtles. “I learned about how to feed the animals and conditioning them. Like when the basket lowers, the sea turtle gets in the basket to be fed. I even got to feed a goliath grouper. I also observed that salamanders need wet moss so they can’t dry out. Aquarium Camp was super fun. Thank you!”

Campers meet an aquatic turtle behind the scenes

“I think that it is important that you keep the environment clean. It is important because sea turtles could eat the trash and die. That would seriously hurt the population of them.” Thanks for the great reminder, Kinsey.

Campers collect a water sample of a tank

If you want to learn more about sea turtles and how we care for animals at the aquarium, consider signing up for summer camp. Make a splash! You can learn more about our summer camps here. Call our registrar, Casey Radley, at (910) 458-7468 for more information on our summer camp programs. Our turtles are getting ready for summer too. We can’t believe how much they’ve grown. This week Turtle A is 14.8 cm long and 538 grams and Turtle B is 15.3 cm long and weights 616 grams. Not sure what to do with this weight and length? Learn more here (hyperlink).

Have you been to summer camp at the Aquarium? Tell us about your favorite part in the comments below.