Swimming with sharks....no really!

nobody@vox.com(KCRW Engineers) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:19:25 -0700

After spending two weeks with two legged lawyer type sharks here at the convention sites, I had an opportunity to experience REAL sharks, you know the aquatic type at the “Underwater Adventures Aquarium” located at the Mall of America.

Mike Newport and I headed there very early this morning to swim with the fishes at the Rainbow Reef exhibit, touted as their newest EXTREME adventure. It's an artificial reef filled with over 60 types of tropical fish, including puffers, stingrays and some sharks. Two Zebra sharks appropriately named "Obama" and "McCain" were swimming about the tank with us. (Obama is slightly larger than McCain).

As a long time diver, ocean swimmer, surfer and underwater hockey player, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to slip into the tank and experience this up close and personal.

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The water is about 72 degrees and I certainly didn't need a wetsuit but the aquarium felt it was a good idea to have us all insulated and so we wouldn't get scraped up on the artificial reef.

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The exhibit is a series of tanks with a large acrylic tube stretching through the reefs so you can experience the setting without getting wet. I prefer getting wet myself! This next video was shot from the tube in the shark tank area which I'm told I could have dived on scuba had I brought my "c" card with me.

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One find I wasn't expecting was their alligator. I wonder if this is where the fair gets the fried alligator??

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Underwater Adventures Aquarium is located at the Mall of America located near the MSP airport in Bloomington, Minnesota. Before today I'd never have thought I'd go diving in Minnesota with tropical fish at an aquarium at a mall?

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Swimming with sharks....no really!