THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 15, 1996 TAG: 9606200646
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: SPECIAL EDITION: A VISITOR'S GUIDE TO THE EXPANDED VIRGINIA MARINE
SCIENCE MUSEUM
SOURCE: BY PAT DOOLEY
STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 78 lines
IF YOU'VE never been to the Virginia Marine Science Museum - or even if you have - the original exhibits still offer glimpses into worlds seldom seen.
Consider the re-created environment of a river emptying into the Chesapeake Bay, or an aquarium filled with the world's largest collection of Bay fish.
Walk through the 2,000-square-foot coastal river habitat, where trees grow, fish swim and small birds and animals roam under a ceiling of skylights. Even the temperature rises and falls to duplicate changing seasons.
Cross the bridge over a freshwater ``river,'' patterned after the lower Rappahannock, or any of Virginia's rivers as they near the Chesapeake Bay.
See quail, cardinals and other birds. ``Quite often you come in here and you hear them,'' says Alice Scanlan, a museum spokeswoman.
An eel glides through the see-through water world, along with freshwater fish including carp and large-mouth bass. At 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily, a museum staff member feeds them.
A small exhibit room depicts the salt-marsh environment where the museum is situated. An exit leads to the marsh trail and the Owls Creek Marsh Pavilion.
Continuing inside, the next exhibit is ``Birds of the Marsh and Shore.'' Here, glass cases are lined with intricately carved birds - not hunters' decoys but a rotating display of delicately painted, detailed specimens borrowed from collectors and other museums.
Learn about the Chesapeake Bay basin simply by pushing a button. Water spills into a model of the Bay as a recording explains how more than 50 rivers flow into the 2,200-square-mile, 30-foot-deep estuary.
Around the corner is a ``touch tank,'' where volunteers pluck hermit crabs, horseshoe crabs, and snail shells from a small pool of water. Visitors are permitted to look and touch.
The horseshoe crab, with its long spike and army-helmetlike shell, is a favorite. ``They really look scary,'' says Bill Dieffenbach, a museum volunteer. ``But we point out to people that they are really quite harmless.''
Just around the bend a long hallway descends, much like the Bay's floor. Look to the left: The Chesapeake Bay Aquarium, a 50,000-gallon saltwater tank, is home to 50 species of Bay fish, including red drum, black drum, lookdowns, spot and croaker.
The setting is similar to an island along the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, says Chris Mast, exhibit specialist. Some fish linger by rocks, some near the bottom, others near the top. A nurse shark hovers behind a rock, practically out of view.
Museum staff feed the fish at 3 p.m. daily. In summer, a scuba diver also feeds the fish from inside the tank at 6:30 p.m.
Other exhibits focus on water conservation; the chemistry of seawater, and ocean movement; weather forecasts; and plankton, microscopic plants and animals that populate the sea in huge numbers.
The microscopic plant variety of plankton starts the food chain. They are eaten by animal plankton, which are eaten by animals.
A display of tropical fish lets visitors compare the Bay's residents to more colorful varieties, such as the long-nosed butterflyfish.
No sea collection would be complete without shore: A Sand Room features a collection of ocean objects, some found by locals.
A cultural and historical exhibit called ``People and the Sea'' spotlights the Chesepiooc Indian tribe, whose village was in the Great Neck area of Virginia Beach in the late 1500s, says exhibit specialist Mast.
At a nearby carver's shack, craftsman Charles N. Seidel makes bird decoys and hunting boats, and talks with visitors.
At the ever-popular ``Hooray for Rays'' exhibit, visitors can feel stingrays' smooth backs as they glide through the water.
Though ``Hooray for Rays'' was to be replaced by another temporary exhibit, these cousins of sharks have performed their water dance since 1994. It's being kept indefinitely.
They've been,'' Mast explains, ``so popular.'' ILLUSTRATION: LAWRENCE JACKSON
The Virginian-Pilot
UNIVERSAL PICTURES
THE 50,000-GALLON CHESAPEAKE BAY AQUARIUM IS HOME TO 50 SPECIES OF
BAY FISH. by SS