Sea Life
Sea Life is a chain of commercial sea life-themed aquarium attractions. there are 53 Sea Life attractions (including standalone Sea Life centres, mini Sea Life features within resort theme parks, and Legoland submarine rides) around the world ...
Michigan Aquarium is the state's largest
aquarium with over 250 species and 2,000 creatures including sharks, rays, and green sea turtles. Exhibits include freshwater lakes, coral reef, shipwreck, an interactive touch pool and a 180 degree underwater ocean tunnel. Sea Life Michigan is located at
Great Lakes Crossing Outlets
Great Lakes Crossing Outlets, formerly Great Lakes Crossing, is a shopping mall in Auburn Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, United States. The site of the mall was originally to have been occupied by a different mall called Auburn M ...
in
Auburn Hills
Auburn Hills is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 21,412 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. Before incorporating as a city in 1983, the area was part of the now-defunct ...
,
Michigan
Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
, and is owned and operated by
Merlin Entertainments
Merlin Entertainments Limited is a British entertainment company based at Poole in Dorset, England. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until November 2019, when it was acquired by a consortium that includes Kirkbi A/S (the investment a ...
.
Main species
The main species are:
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Blacktip reef shark
The blacktip reef shark (''Carcharhinus melanopterus'') is a species of requiem shark, in the family Carcharhinidae, which can be easily identified by the prominent black tips on its fins (especially on the first dorsal fin and its caudal fin). ...
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Green sea turtle
The green sea turtle (''Chelonia mydas''), also known as the green turtle, black (sea) turtle or Pacific green turtle, is a species of large sea turtle of the family Cheloniidae. It is the only species in the genus ''Chelonia''. Its range ...
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Nurse shark
The nurse shark (''Ginglymostoma cirratum'') is an elasmobranch fish in the family Ginglymostomatidae. The conservation status of the nurse shark is globally assessed as Vulnerable in the IUCN List of Threatened Species. They are considered to ...
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Seahorse
A seahorse (also written ''sea-horse'' and ''sea horse'') is any of 46 species of small marine fish in the genus ''Hippocampus''. "Hippocampus" comes from the Ancient Greek (), itself from () meaning "horse" and () meaning "sea monster" or " ...
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Cownose ray
The cownose ray (''Rhinoptera bonasus'') is a species of Batoidea found throughout a large part of the western Atlantic and Caribbean, from New England, United States to southern Brazil (the East Atlantic populations are now generally considere ...
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Jellyfish
Jellyfish and sea jellies are the informal common names given to the medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals with umbrella- ...
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Clownfish
Clownfish or anemonefish are fishes from the subfamily Amphiprioninae in the family Pomacentridae. Thirty species of clownfish are recognized: one in the genus '' Premnas'', while the remaining are in the genus '' Amphiprion''. In the wild, ...
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Green moray eel
The green moray (''Gymnothorax funebris'') is a moray eel of the family Muraenidae, found in the western Atlantic Ocean from New Jersey, Bermuda, and the northern Gulf of Mexico to Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Re ...
Conservation
Sea Life Michigan is involved with a number of conservation activities. These include:
Protecting local lake sturgeon
Sea Life Michigan raises
lake sturgeon
The lake sturgeon (''Acipenser fulvescens''), also known as the rock sturgeon, is a North American temperate freshwater fish, one of about 25 species of sturgeon. Like other sturgeons, this species is a bottom feeder with evolutionarily basal ...
and re-introduces them to local habitats when they have reached maturity in efforts to re-populate local lakes and rivers.
Seahorse breeding
Sea Life Michigan actively breeds potbelly seahorses in order to reduce the stress on wild populations. In the event the species becomes critically endangered, Sea Life will be able to assist in re-populating the wild.
Re-homing
Sea Life Michigan re-homed two juvenile green sea turtles named Benson and Carr. Both were struck by boats and suffered irreparable damage to their shells and spines. They both now live in Sea Life's ocean tank which features a 180 degree underwater ocean tunnel.
Watershed clean-ups
Sea Life Michigan participates in and promotes watershed clean-ups of local rivers, streams and lakes with partners including the Clinton River Watershed Council, Friends of the Detroit River and Save Lake St. Clair.
Protection of turtles
A fundraising campaign run by Sea Life has enabled a new Sea Turtle Rescue and Wildlife Information Center to be built on the Greek island of
Zakynthos
Zakynthos (also spelled Zakinthos; el, Ζάκυνθος, Zákynthos ; it, Zacinto ) or Zante (, , ; el, Τζάντε, Tzánte ; from the Venetian form) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the third largest of the Ionian Islands. Za ...
to treat turtles which have been injured in collisions with boats or entanglement in fishing gear.
References
{{Reflist3
Aquariums In Michigan Sea Life Centres
2015 establishments in Michigan