New Exhibits At Estuarium

By Chad Petri Reporter

The Dauphin Island Estuarium has a few new exhibits to check out. New Exhibits At Estuarium

Published: Wed, October 08, 2008 - 3:25 am Last Updated: Wed, October 08, 2008 - 8:53 am

Chad Petri

Among the jagged shells, small fish find a new home. They're not the main attraction of this tank, it's those mollusk husks scientists want you to study.

“[An] oyster is a filter it's a filter that filters all the waters of the bay and so whatever's in the water gets incorporated into the oyster,” says Assistant Director of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab Dr. John Dindo. The oyster tank is one of the Stadium’s newest exhibits. It recreates the bottom of mobile bay, shows how oysters interact with bacteria and how science can keep people from getting sick.

“Relay that information to the public health system and they can close the oyster reef,” says Dindo. Outside is the small Marine Debris exhibit. The junk display shows how long it takes your trash to break down. The colorful trash inside is just a small sample of the junk collected regularly by school groups.

“When they go to the beach and enjoy their visit to the beach they bring all their trash back home with them so it doesn't end up on the shores of Italy or somewhere else,” says Dr. Dindo. Back inside this small model of a deep sea voyager lazily twirls among a school of fish. It's controlled by joysticks, and the video game screen lets you see through its eye.

“The air force has these drones that they use in Afghanistan and Iraq, scientists oceanographers and marine scientists have the same type of equipment only it's used underwater,” says Dindo.