MAKING LAS VEGAS A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE

Shark Reef welcomes school kids

By Beth Fisher

CREATED Feb. 4, 2013

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  • The Mandalay Bay Shark Reef offers a special program for kids in the Las Vegas valley Video by ktnv.com

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Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) -- There is one place here in the desert where you can also go under the sea.  If you haven't been to the Mandalay Bay Shark Reef, you're missing out.  

But it's the two-legged land creatures that caught our attention recently.  School children who are invited to visit the Shark Reef for free every single day. 

One little boy shouts, "The ray shark! I see him. I see him.  The ray shark was right there."
 
Getting through an interview at Shark Reef is virtually impossible.
 
"This place is really cool.  It's like.  Oh. Big turtle.  It's coming by."
 
But then, what can compete with sharks, jellyfish, and sea creatures?  Every day, Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay has school tours.  Free to Clark county schools and a minimal charge to private schools.  So popular, the entire year is booked by August.
 
Shark Reef's Director Adrienne Rowland says,  "It was part of the ongoing mission of Shark Reef. Not only to  display these toothy predators, but educate the public. And not just the tourists."
 
Besides the sharks, the highlight is the touch tank where kids can feel a variety of fish and they feel (according to one student we talked to) "Soft and comfy when you got to touch it. Wiggly and slobbery."
 
In addition the tanks, Shark Reef has a classroom on site where the kids spend part of their morning learning about the sea and the animals that call it home.  To date, Shark Reef has hosted more than200,000 local school kids.