Mystic Aquarium: What About Their Food?

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***Our family is on a home school travel trip as part of the EDvaCATION Network. We have been very blessed to have our trip covered by area businesses and organizations such as Mystic Country CT, Mystic Aquarium, and Mystic Seaport. That being said, all thoughts and opinions are my own.***

What would a trip be without the “Kitchen” side of us? We’re doing it. We’re tackling the kitchen at Mystic Aquarium, and today I had the perfect conversation for this. Check out 13 fun facts we learned about the diet of creatures at the aquarium on our recent trip to Mystic, CT.

13 Fun Food Facts for Mystic Aquarium

• The aquarium goes through 1/2 a ton of fish/squid every day at the aquarium for sharks, whales, seals, sea lions, stingrays, and penguins.
• The aquarium buys a 30 day supply of food AND stores a 30 day emergency supply at any given time.
• The food arrives frozen in flats and is stored in big walk in freezers. Imagine how big they must be!!
• The beluga whales eat 45-80 pounds of food per day.
• Food is used in training the animals for shows and self care. (Food is a huge motivator whether you’re human or animal, right?)
• The food is inspected before arrival and at least THREE times between arrival and feeding time to ensure there are no blemishes on the fish that could house bacteria or disease that could endanger the animals.
• The food is restaurant grade quality or HIGHER. This is important to maintain animal health.
• Food comes in frozen but is thawed over night so it is ready for feeding time.
• The aquarium blends some of their own nutrition for different fish and creatures at the aquarium.
• Horseshoe crabs catch clams to eat and use their mouths to grind up the clam shells.
• Birds dive into the water to catch little black snails for dinner. YUM! YUM!
• To feed the rays you hold fish or squid like an ice cream cone and hold it below them. When they swim over your hand, they suction the food out of your hand and you let go so they can take the food. (They have funny looking mouths.) (They don’t bite but they can nip if you don’t release your hand for them to take the food.)
• You can feed birds in “Birds of the Outback”. Sometimes they are more interested in climbing into your bag or pocket.  (One of my favorite parts. Who am I kidding? I will say that a lot.)

See what I did there? I totally made a trip to the aquarium into a foodie post. Just wait until you see the human foodie part of this trip! For now just enjoy the loveliness of fish and squid. It’s for the birds whales. Thank you to Mystic Aquarium for a great educational day, from morning to sunset, we had so much fun.

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