I’ve been in the ocean with sharks, and I don’t exactly love it, but I do love walking through an aquarium tunnel and seeing them above me! Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada in Toronto is a fantastic place to do just that. I got to chaperone a big group of kids from my home island, Sint Maarten, on their trip to Canada and Ripley’s Aquarium. Puppy, our littlest in the group at six years old, had a wonderful time at the aquarium.

Of course, the first thing Puppy wanted to do when he saw the inside of the aquarium was take off into the crowd and find something loud, shiny, and colorful. There’s plenty of loud, shiny, and colorful in the aquarium building, but Stacey and I made sure to keep a tight grip on Puppy! Fortunately, all the kids were dressed in matching bright yellow shirts, so we adults had a fairly easy time keeping track of them all.

There was so much to see! And everyone seemed to want to see it. We squeezed through the crowd to press up against glass tanks full of colorful fish. Puppy liked anything that moved quickly and stayed within his field of vision. I liked the jellyfish, particularly the upside-down jellies that we have on our own island in Simpson Bay Lagoon. The pink ones were also pretty cool.

“I shall call him squishy, and he shall be mine and he shall be my squishy.” -Dory

Then, of course, there are the jellyfish’s cousins, the anemones.

The best part of all was the moving sidewalk through the shark tunnel! Puppy was absolutely mesmerized as we glided past the huge sharks, sawfish, groupers, and turtles. He had a thousand questions to ask about everything! Stacey and I tried to convince him to get in a #sharkselfie with us, but he couldn’t pry his eyes away from the sharks right in front of his face.

As much fun as Ripley’s Aquarium was, there was a lot more to this field trip than just letting a bunch of kids see some fish. For some of the boys, this was the first time they got to see what’s beneath the waters surrounding their island.

They are the ones who will make tomorrow’s decisions about how those waters will be protected– or not protected. The marine ecosystem of the Caribbean island is so delicate! It’s under threat from tourism, over-fishing, chemical spills, and people just not caring. It’s vital that the people who live on the islands understand the importance that their reefs hold in many arenas, from tourism to preservation of species.

I hope that a peek at that underwater world, plus follow-up conversations from us, will encourage the kids to take an interest in their world and their responsibility to care for it. And how can you not care about this happy ray?

Puppy actually wasn’t so sure about the rays, but he did love the kid-sized shark tunnel and even convinced some of his friends to squeeze through it with him. There were a lot of cool interactive things like this that encourage little ones to kinetically engage with the ocean life around them and look at it from a different angle.

The aquarium was a blast! There was so much to do, see, and investigate. At the end of the morning, Puppy was worn out!

Read Tre’s article on camping

Read Theo’s article on Safari Niagara

Read Tristan’s article on Harriet Tubman

Read Lewis’ article on the Welland Canal Locks

Read Adonis’ article on the Ontario Science Centre

Read Skijlaar’s article on Niagara Falls fireworks and magic

Read Little King’s article on their little league game in St. Catherines

Read Big King’s article on Niagara Falls and the Maid of the Mist boat ride