Visitors to aquarium stay dry on tour of ocean

CHARLESTON, S. C. -- If you're fascinated by the deep, blue sea but prefer to keep your feet on dry land, plan a trip to the South Carolina Aquarium in Charleston.
With more than 60 exhibits featuring thousands of marine animals, aquarium visitors can enjoy eye-to-eye encounters with the beautiful and mysterious creatures of the deep without having to don scuba gear.
Located on the scenic shores of historical Charleston Harbor, the South Carolina Aquarium opened in 2000 and has since attracted more than 1 million tourists.
The aquarium's Great Ocean Tank ranks as the site's most spectacular exhibit.
The Great Ocean Tank stands three stories high, holds 350,000 gallons of water and is teeming with more than 300 amazing sea creatures.
Inside its shimmering depths, giant sea turtles glide by, schools of colorful fish flash past and ominous sharks slice stealthily in and out of view.
Curtains of air bubbles glitter on their way to the surface of the tank's mirrorlike surface, and sherbet-colored corals provide hiding places for slithering eels and other enigmatic creatures.
Smaller, individual tanks house more delicate sea creatures, such as sea horses, jellyfish and starfish.
Although the South Carolina Aquarium specializes in sea life, its exhibits also honor freshwater animals and animals found on land.
How it's presented
The aquarium's numerous exhibits are divided into five categories representing the five major regions of the Appalachian Watershed: The mountains, the Piedmont, the coastal plain, the coast and, of course, the ocean.
The mountains exhibit perfectly mimics a mountain ravine habitat.
Although the exhibit is indoors, its glass roof, clouds of cool, misty air and steep ledges thick with lush fauna and hemlock, maple and poplar trees will convince you that you're outdoors.
Songbirds flit about and a two spunky river otters splash under a gentle waterfall.
The Piedmont exhibit provides aquarium visitors with a rare glimpse of life beneath the depths of a free-flowing river, and the coastal plain exhibit re-creates life in freshwater swamps and marshes, areas characterized by frequent flooding and drought.
The coast exhibit offers a look at a variety of habitats found along the Carolina coastline, including deepwater sounds, bays and tidal marshes.
Some of the smaller exhibits featured within these five main exhibits include: the turtle exhibit; the alligator exhibit; the swamp snakes exhibit; the rice culture exhibit; the coastal erosion exhibit; and the camouflage exhibit, which features a flounder that changes colors in order to waylay prey.
Fun for kids
Although the South Carolina Aquarium is first and foremost dedicated to education and preservation of wildlife, it's also geared toward giving its visitors a good time, and it offers a fun, kid-friendly environment with many exhibits designed for little ones.
In the aquarium's 1,700-gallon "Touch Tank," which is part of the Discover Lab exhibit, curious kids can touch horseshoe crabs, starfish and many other marine animals.
Although it is against South Carolina law for the aquarium to keep dolphins or whales, visitors just might catch a glimpse of a large population of resident dolphins playing in the waters of Charleston Harbor.
The aquarium's Riverside Terrace provides a perfect vantage point for observing these whimsical, intelligent creatures.
The South Carolina Aquarium is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and noon to 6 p.m. Sundays. These hours apply April 1 through Aug. 15.
Aug. 16 through March 31, the aquarium is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays.
Various ticket combination packages are available, but the cost of general admission is $14 for adults age 12 to 61; $12 for senior citizens; and $7 for children 3 to 11. (Children under 2 get in free.)
XFor more information on the South Carolina Aquarium, call the 24-hour information line at (843) 720-1990.