Diving in to Count & Clean 2022!
- Monday 17th January 2022
Our Aquarist team begin to count our amazing creatures as part of our annual stocktake, ready for a 'fin-tastic' 2022!
Every January, our expert Aquarists put on their wetsuits and come armed with their calculators to take on the mammoth task of counting our nearly 6,000 creatures and marine species which are cared for by the team, as well as the hundreds more Leaf Cutter Ants, Cockroaches and Jewel Anemones.
From one of our smallest species such as the Tropical Milk Frog, measuring just 8 centimetres, to one of our largest inhabitants, the whopping Green Sea Turtle, Boris, who is 27-years old and measures 1.5 metres long and weighs 138 kilograms!
By performing the annual activity, our Aquarists are able to enhance the strong bonds they have with the creatures they care for as they get up close and personal with them throughout the process. Theys also get the opportunity to spruce-up our resident’s marine homes, ready to gleam for all our guests!
Count and Clean Fact File
- The largest animal in our Count & Clean is the Sand Tiger Shark (3m long!) and the smallest is the Coral Polyp (less than 1mm)
- We welcomed two adorable new Gentoo Penguin chicks named Raducanu, in honour of tennis star Emma Raducanu and Gilbert, after the co-creator of the AstraZeneca vaccine, Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert
- Our amazing ocean display tank houses hundreds of marine species including our two Green Sea Turtles, 27-year-old Boris, who is 1.5m long and weighs 138 kilograms, and 24-year-old Dougie, who is 1.45m long and weighs 101 kilograms!
- Our Ocean Invaders zone is the largest jellyfish facility in the UK with approximately 3,000 jellyfish including Moon Jellyfish (Aurelia aurita), Upside Down Jellyfish (Cassiopea sp), and the Marble Jellyfish (Lynchnoriza lucerna)!
