Visiting the Aquariums of America: The Plan

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm going to detail my plan for the web series I hope to do. It's something I've been wanting to do ever since I graduated from high school, and the plans for it has changed quite a lot ever since I first conceived the idea.

At first, I wanted to visit every zoo, aquarium and natural history museum in the U.S.... in one summer. Yeah, that would never happen. Then I narrowed it down to just aquariums, but still, there's quite a lot of them to visit. So, instead, I divided aquariums up by their location. The first location of aquariums I want to visit will be in the Southeast. That will consist of around 23 facilities that will be visited in a span of around 30 or 31 days.

Friends have told me this route looks like a Manta Ray, how fitting!

Filming at these places won't have much narration, but just having the footage of the facilities so they can be used later when making the episodes. I suppose what I might do, is begin each episode introducing the aquarium in person at the beach or something, talking about the history of it, and then narrating over the footage we took over the trip. Yes, I said 'we' in that last sentence... because I won't be doing this alone, I will have two others traveling with me. Wouldn't you want to experience these places with someone else rather than by yourself?

I'll be talking about the aquariums I plan to visit in an article series each month leading up to the day I finally take this trip. The articles will consist of my expectations and what I'm excited to see there. Hopefully, this will remind me that everything I'm trying to earn now will be leading up to this trip. By 'everything I earn' I mean money obviously, but also my Associate's in Science that I should receive at the end of the year. This trip will be the start of my journey to become a Marine Biologist.

Window to the Sea

A little more than a week ago, I signed up for a free trial of Netflix, and I've been enjoying it so far. One program I found on the service was a PBS special about aquariums called 'Window to the Sea' featuring four facilities here in the states: The John G. Shedd Aquarium, the New England Aquarium, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and the Waikiki Aquarium.

Here's a preview of the program:

If you have Netflix, I suggest watching this if you have any interest in aquariums.

I bring this up because it relates to a web series I want to create that I mentioned in my preview in January. I guess it also relates to the importance of aquariums on the list, but I suppose the two ideas can be fused into one.

Anyway, tomorrow I'll be detailing what the web series will consist of. I'm not completely sure when the series will start specifically, but I'll definitely be starting it sometime next year.

Georgia Aquarium's Dolphin Tales and SeaWorld's One Ocean

I've always been excited about seeing dolphins finally make their way to the Georgia Aquarium ever since they announced the expansion back in 2008. From what the video shows, it seems to be a pretty large exhibit. I have a bit of a gripe with the place though... they said that this wasn't going to be a 'SeaWorld' show... what? They mean like Believe or Blue Horizons? Because that's sorta what it looks like from the video... I thought they meant the show was going to be more educational and not have much of a 'story' behind it. Speaking of SeaWorld... they just announced a new show this month:

I suppose it's because of the backlash with the congressional hearing they had last year, questioning the educational value of their shows... but then... One Ocean doesn't seem that different to me... maybe it's just the fountains and special wetsuits that bother me, it makes it seem like a big production.

I don't know... for some reason, these shows really bother me... I want the Shamu Adventure show back, at least that didn't seem as cheesy and fake as Believe is. If marine parks and aquariums really want to have shows like this, I wouldn't make it a regular thing, I'd rather see it as something seasonal, like the summer shows at SeaWorld. I'll withhold my official opinion on both shows for now though, since I haven't actually seen them.

Oh yeah, one more thing... why are they charging separately/extra to see the dolphin show at the Georgia Aquarium? That probably bothers me the most... though other aquariums have done it as well, like the Brookfield Zoo and National Aquarium in Baltimore. I still think it's pretty ridiculous to charge separately.

A preview of what's to come

To hold you over, here's a picture of me with Buster, a short-beaked common dolphin.

I'm not sure how much traffic I will be getting to this blog, since I have it linked in many different places and I try to inform people when I make new post. Hopefully, they will be curious enough to see what this blog is about. I thought I would whip up a small preview of what I have planned for the next several posts and list the topics that will be discussed. So... here is a list to preview what's to come for this blog in the near future.

• DRU - Dolphin Robotic Unit
• A robotic dolphin and it's implications for research
• Public Aquariums
• The importance of public aquariums and how they impact people
• Education of conservation through video games
• A brief overview of a video game series called 'Endless Ocean' and how it can help people's awareness of marine conservation
• Documentary mini-series about cetaceans
• A dream documentary that would be a scale of something like 'Blue Planet' or 'Life' 
• Web series about aquariums
• A planned, mapped out series I hope to start in 2012 about the aquariums in America
• Evolution of Cetaceans
• A general overview of the history of cetacean evolution and my opinions on recent findings
• Marine Life Art
• This may be a weekly series of photos, drawings, and paintings that I find to share with you, some of which may be my own
• More Closer Encounters
• Like this article, there will be more, of both other people's experiences and my own.