Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies

Smokies Aquarium in Gatlinburg Aims To Educate.

The Smokies aquarium staff includes 18 marine biologists. It is their mission to educate both tourists and serious students alike. The Gatlinburg aquarium has on-site classrooms as well as human divers who demonstrate various marine creatures interactions with man. In the aquariums theater, knowledgeable staff presents information and show films. In other displays, Smokies visitors learn through touching sting ray and horseshoe crab. Don't think Ripley's education programs are just for kids or just for adults. The general manager of Ripley's Entertainment, Richard Weinberger, has been quoted as saying, "If it's a subject that's interesting to adults, we'll find a way to make it more entertaining for the younger children."

Kids Learning And Loving The Ripley's Aquarium Of The Smokies.

The Smokies aquarium is in fact an attraction which particularly appeals to kids and their parents. In it displays invite the young and young at heart to climb under an aquarium and then stick one's head up through a large plastic bubble. From the outside of the display, it looks as though your head is inside aquarium. Funny looking as it is fun, this display is a favorite place to take pictures.

Teachers Bring Your Students!

School groups are welcome at the Gatlinburg aquarium. One program is an overnight field trip in which youth groups "Sleep With The Sharks" inside the aquarium's tunneled tank. "They can bed down and watch the sharks and other fish swimming overhead," Weinberger explains. " We'll do what's necessary to help people enjoy the experience as best they can."

Gatlinburg Aquarium Is more Than An Attraction In The Smoky Mountains.

Smokies lovers. If sleeping with sharks seems a bit much for your group, please know there are more tame classes and casual instruction going on in the Gatlinburg aquarium. Knowledgeable attraction staff are busy helping people by teaching them about the sea life. More formal classes of instruction are also available at Ripley's. Weinberger says, "What we've found out in our Myrtle Beach aquarium is that much of the general public wants to take a class if there's one offered." Someday, Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies may even offer internship programs to marine biology students attending local universities.