Coastal Companion

Your ultimate guide to the coast

South Carolina Aquarium Celebrates 10 Years

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This weekend, May 14 – 16, 2010,  you can help celebrate the Aquarium’s 10-year birthday with fun, fish and feedings.  Enjoy special dive shows, unique feedings, animal enrichment programs, a mascot parade, crafts and more! Enjoy special celebratory programs at the:10s of each hour.   Check out the newest addition to the Aquarium, a rare albino alligator and watch as this jaw-dropping reptile is fed breakfast at the Gator Feeding Program; catch a glimpse of a fishy cake in the Great Ocean Tank at the ‘Hang 10 with the Divers’ dive shows; watch as one of the Magellanic penguins goes Picasso with Penguin Art, and participate in an Aquarium-wide Mascot Parade including four Aquarium mascots, educators, volunteers and the crowd-pleasing Waddle Wagon.   For a limited-time only, make sure to check out the new historical timeline display which takes you through the years of the Aquarium detailing major events, animal acquisitions, accomplishments and more.

Aquarium guests will not want to miss these Birthday Celebration Programs:

Especially for the early birds!
Visitors can join educators first thing in the morning for a favorite returning program, Harbor Happenings at 9:10 a.m. Enjoy complimentary coffee by our friends from Charleston Coffee Roasters as you hear more about the creatures that swim and play in the harbor.

Happy Birthday Otters!
A species that has been around since the Aquarium opened, watch as the otters are given a life-size birthday cake at 10:10 a.m.! Enjoy seeing them climb and play in this interactive wooden cake during an activity that helps enrich their daily lives.

It’s our party and we will put cake in the tank if we want to!
Join educators and staff for a very special Interactive Dive Show, ‘Hang Ten with the Divers,’ at 11:10 a.m., where guests will participate in a 10-year game show and watch what happens when you put Cake in the Tank!

Alligator Breakfast
Watch as the newest addition to the Aquarium, a rare, one of 50 in the world, albino alligator is fed breakfast! A jaw-dropping experience for the whole family, don’t miss this exclusive, never-before-seen-by-the-public Gator Feeding at 12:10 p.m.

Call that penguin Picasso!
Enjoy a one-of-a-kind activity at 1:10 p.m.: Penguin Art. An activity known as animal enrichment, watch as one of our Magellanic penguins creates its own artwork with paint on canvas!

Gator and Penguin and Otter, Oh My!
Join in as Aquarium staff, volunteers, the four Aquarium mascots, and one of our Magellanic penguins come together for a Birthday Mascot Parade through the Great Hall at 2:10 p.m. Afterwards, get your picture taken with the mascots and watch as the penguins of Penguin Planet are fed their afternoon snack.
It’s our party and we will put cake in the tank if we want to! Join educators and staff for a very special Interactive Dive Show, ‘Hang Ten with the Divers,’ at 3:10 p.m., where guests will participate in a 10-year game show and watch what happens when you put Cake in the Tank!
It’s been ten turtle-rific years! Join us at 4:10 p.m. for an exclusive Sea Turtle Rescue Program show with a live turtle. Learn more about the treatments and therapies used to rehabilitate the sick and injured sea turtles and how you can help all endangered sea turtle species.

Birthday bliss and festive activities abound for guests of all ages with a weekend focused on celebrating our guests, members and community. Swim on over to the Aquarium for some fun May 14 – May 16, 2010. For more information, visit scaquarium.org or call (843) 577-FISH (3474).

Treehill Nature Center Video – Jacksonville, Florida

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Have you ever visited beautiful Treehill Nature Center in Jacksonville? This place is located right in the middle of the city, yet it feels like a visit to undisturbed nature. Treehill is probably most known for its annual Butterfly festival, and the Butterfly garden. Here you can learn about what plants you need to attract butterflies and a lot more. But there’s more to Treehill than butterflies. It’s an educational center, a perfect place for the young ones to visit to learn more about our environment.

For more information about Treehill Nature Center, For more info call Treehill Nature Center at (904) 724-4646 or for directions, click here.

Experience the Okefenokee Swamp by Kayak

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Okefenokee Swamp near Waycross, Georgia, is just fascinating. The landscape itself is fascinating with the black water and the reflections of the trees in the surface. You can see  birds everywhere; herons, egrets, ibis, and more depending on the time of year.

You can  paddled through the canals, and there are trails meandering through prairies filled with aquatic plants and bordered by islands of grasses, shrubs and trees. The swamp is basically a large basin filled almost entirely by rainwater. The still water retards

Okeefenokee Swamp
Tom Monahan, Up The Creek Trips

organic decay and creates a peat layer on the bottom supposedly several feet thick. This peat layer has accumulated over thousands of years. When the peat dislodges, rises to the surface and forms floating islands. Grasses come  first , then shrubs and then eventually trees such as the Cypress. “Okefenokee” is an indian word that means “Land of the Trembling Earth”.

Suwanee canal
Long canals in the swamp

Periodic fires rage the landscape and return areas to prairies, but the swamp always bounces back. It’s the never-ending circle of life for the swamp.
It’s very still, and very quiet, except for the occasional splash in the water from a fish, turtle or maybe alligator, or the birds. This landscape has looked the same for a very long time. You can’t hear traffic, it’s just peaceful and quiet. But then of course, a plane will fly by and remind you that you’re actually living in the 21th century after all.

Our favorite outfitter is Up the Creek Xpeditions from St Marys. They run a guided kayak tour through the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, and sometimes they even go out at night. For more information visit www.upthecreektrips.com or call 912.882.0911

Alligator babies are hatching in August, and fall migration starts in September. So make your plans to visit this beautiful area!









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Click here to view the brochure for the Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge, it has some beautiful photos in it!

Photo: Georgia Department of Economic Development
Photo: Georgia Department of Economic Development