a cute one.

There is one biologist at the aquarium in charge of culturing (growing) and caring for the jellyfish. We have three windows, side by side, that show the three main stages of jellyfish development. The biologist was showing a little girl the window containing the very young jellies, and then moved over to the window showing the even younger, first-stage jellies.

Biologist: [pointing to the exhibit] And this is where the baby jellyfish come from!
Little Girl: Is that the hospital?

recognizing shark species.

At Touch-A-Shark:

Woman: Are these sharks going to get bigger?
Me: These sharks are juveniles, so they're going to jet just a little bit bigger.
Woman: Oh, Juveniles. Is that what kind they are?


********************

Also at Touch-A-Shark:
Little Asian Boy: [Points at Smooth Dogfish shark] Those... those sharks... th... they weird me out... [uses fingers to give himself slanty eyes] because they're Asian.

snacktime.

The other day, I watched a family of three (father, mother, child) sit down on a bench in the aquarium, open a plastic bag, remove three small ears of corn on the cob, and eat them as a snack.

sleeping whales, trick sharks, and man-eaters.

Woman, running inside after seeing a seal sitting at the bottom of the tank at the clearly labeled "Seal Shores" exhibit: I think there's something wrong with one of your whales!

********************

In the Shark exhibit, just before a shark talk.

Man: Is this a show where they're going to be doing jumps and flips and stuff?
Me: No, sir. You're thinking of dolphins. These are sharks.
Man: So these don't do that?
Me: No.

********************

For some reason, I thought that the general public had learned by now that sharks are not "man eaters" that are "out to get us." Oh well.

At touch-a-shark (which contains 3-foot, bottom-feeding sharks)

Woman: We can touch these?
Me: Yep. This is touch-a-shark.
Woman: They're sharks! They'll bite!
Me: No, not all animals bite. Not all dogs bite, right? These guys just bite their food.
Woman: Well, we're food for them, right?
Me: No... [I go on to explain how that's a misconception, sharks eat fish, etc.]
Woman: Wow! You learn something new every day!

proper grammar.

We have three touch exhibits at the aquarium. Each of them closes for 15 minutes per hour. This gives the animals a chance to de-stress, and, if need be, to be fed. "Creature Feature" is the exhibit where you can touch tide pool animals, like sea stars, crabs, anemones, and prawn (big shrimp). The prawn tend to walk around on the bottom. Compared to the other animals in the exhibit, they are by far the quickest and most visibly active.

A woman approaches. She is holding an infant and accompanied by two small (maybe 2 or 3 year-old) children.

Little Girl: We can touch 'em?
Me: Not right now. They're taking a rest now, and you can touch them in a few minutes.
[The little girl notices the prawn walking around on the bottom of the exhibit.]
Little Girl: [pointing] These is woke.
Me: What's that?
Little Girl: These is woke.
Me: I... what?
Woman: [Irritated] She said "These is woke."
Me: You mean... like... these are awake?
Woman: Yeah.
Me: Yep. Yep, they are.

amish and the shark cage.

On Jewish holidays, the aquarium gets hundreds of Orthodox Jewish families visiting. On these particular days, the number of Jewish families (who are easily recognizable by their religiously-influenced clothing) greatly outnumber the non-Jewish families.

After I perform a talk about the hippos, the (mostly Orthodox Jewish) crowd disperses, and we all jam up near the exit.

Non-Jewish woman: Excuse me, are there always this many [whispered] Amish people here?

Yes, she only whispered the word "Amish." I simply replied "No."

********************

We have a room that plays a video of footage taken from inside a shark cage. The shark bumps the cage on the video, and the floor moves to simulate the sensation. This is known as our "Virtual Shark Cage." It is labeled as such.

A woman enters the cage.

Woman: Are we going under, or is this a movie?

i met a (legitimately) crazy guy.

A wild-eyed man walks up to touch-a-shark and speaks in a voice that is just shy of shouting.

Man: Is this a special touching place?
Me: Yep. This is touch-a-shark.
Man: And you can touch 'em?
Me: Yep.
Man: You can touch 'em?
Me: (pause) Yes.
Man: You work here?
Me: Yes I do.
Man: And these won't bite me?
Me: Nope. They don't bite.
Man: You sure you work here?
Me: Quite sure.
Man: I'm (name). [reaches to shake my hand]
Me: [shaking his hand] I'm Matt.
Man: Matthew! Can I call you Matthew?
Me: Sure, that works too.
Man: I should introduce myself. I'm (full name). You may have heard of me.
*Note* I have not heard of him.
Me: Uh. Maybe.
Man: Yeah. You may have heard them talking. It gets around. Well, I'm crazy, I need to get back to the box!
Me: Uh, alright! See you!

I later found out that there was a group of adults from some institution there that day. So he probably was, in fact, crazy.