Turtle Reef Coming Summer 2011

Last November SeaWorld San Diego broke ground on the construction of a new turtle exhibit. Its not just any turtle exhibit though. The plans are pretty extensive to include a 300,000-gallon aquarium featuring adult Hawksbill, green sea turtles ranging from 50 years old and over, plus younger green sea turtles that hatched at SeaWorld in 2009.  Swimming around with more than 60 of our shelled superstars will be thousands of awesomely colored tropical fish and sea life.

Turtle Reef will be one of  SeaWorld San Diego’s new attractions this summer and it’s definitely going to be a shell of a time. Guests of the attraction will get to enter the underwater world of turtles in a reef, simulated environment. The huge aquarium will emulate a very natural and real habitat, allowing us humans the opportunity to observe these wondrous creatures without any shell shock.

This is no ordinary walk through Aquarium exhibit. Leave it to SeaWorld to trick us into learning while we are distracted by all the fun stuff they have out for us to play with. As you enter the Turtle Reef you are immediately immersed into a journey that takes you through the life and cycle of sea turtles. Illustrations and interactive displays will give info as to what sea turtles eat, where and how they live and the threats they face. Guests will get to play a cool game called Race for The Beach, which tests your level of turtle knowledge. Then there will be Turtlelink, where through a touch screen map we can learn about the tracking of turtles and SeaWorld’s rescue efforts and conservation of the turtle species. Last but not least, The Turtle Reef exhibit will also have a ride called Riptide Rescue. The new ride will be located just outside the exhibit, where riders will get spun around in boats on a rescue mission of their own.

SeaWorld’s theme for this new exhibit and attraction area is to raise awareness about the endangerment of the turtle and other sea life species. This theme will be obvious in parts of the exhibit, especially with a display that will illustrate how trash and pollution can affect the species using two cylindrically shaped aquariums. One aquarium will house jellyfish and the other one with trash that can be mistaken for food. The point is to show us how sea turtles will often confuse trash for food and can die after ingesting these items. Definitely a great lesson to learn, to remind us that we can play a pretty significant role in keeping our oceans clean for our sea friends. 

Turtle Reef is scheduled to open in SeaWorld San Diego, this summer of 2011. 

***IMAGES AND MEDIA ATTACHED TO THIS ARTICLE, PROVIDED BY SEAWORLD SAN DIEGO***

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