NEWPORT, Ky. — It was 25 years ago when the Newport Aquarium opened. Since May 1999, it has entertained thousands. To celebrate its silver anniversary, the aquarium is opening a new exhibit.
“Ring of Fire: World of the Octopus” features seven different displays focusing on the eight-legged mollusc. Visitors can begin learning all about them beginning Friday, March 22.
The aquarium’s giant Pacific octopus has new habitat in the Octopus Den and according to the aquarium, visitors will enter the cave and find a floor-to-ceiling display. The den will house a rotating collection of octopuses and fish. The aquarium says this will give visitors a new experience every time they come to the facility.
For the first time, aquarium-goers will get to meet the new wunderpus. This unusually striped creature mimics the appearance and behaviors of venomous animals, like sea snakes and lionfish. The aquarium says they do this to scare off predators.
Another new display showcases a cluster of hydrothermal vents and the animals that live on them. These structures form when molten lava and near-freezing seawater collide in the deep sea. The vents can reach up to 18 stories tall.
Another strange sight visitors will get to check out are the “ghostly-pale” giant isopods, a type of crustacean, which live in the deep sea and have adjusted to living in darkness.
The Newport Aquarium also has what it calls “some of the strangest residents of Puget Sound,” which is in Washington state. The aquarium has a painted greenling, penpoint gunnel and the new peacock mantis shrimp, so-called because of its iridescent body that looks like a peacock's feather.
Rebecca Foster, executive director for Newport Aquarium, said, “It’s our hope that by being able to connect with these animals in such a special, memorable environment that they’ll want to join us in protecting them and their habitats in the wild.”
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