Behind the Scenes at Ocean Park

On Friday I joined the AWA for a behind the scenes tour of Ocean Park. Located on the south side of HK Island, Ocean Park is an aquarium, zoo and amusement park rolled into one.  Known for its large crowds of mainland Chinese visitors, many of my friends have avoided visiting Ocean Park. This b.t.s. tour was an awesome way to visit, granting us access to employee only areas, including the Ocean Park animal hospital, the dolphin training facilities and the lab where they breed their own jelly fish!

Our day started at 9:45 where we were met by Ocean Park’s Executive Director Zoological Operations and Education, Suzanne Gendron.  Suzanne spent the majority of the day with us, walking us through the big exhibits in the zoo and aquarium and pumping us full of facts about the species and the specific ways in which OP cares for them. It was some pretty amazing access.

Our first stop was the aquarium, where we saw hammerhead sharks, bluefin tuna, mackerel (all pictured below) along with turtles, rays, parrot fish, unicorn fish and more! The fish are fed thawed frozen fish multiple times a day. To ensure that the sharks are happy and full (and avoid any tank disasters!) they are hand-fed 3 times a day. 

Next stop: pandas! There are two pandas at Ocean Park and they are kept happy by the park's home grown bamboo. OP grows 3 types of bamboo to ensure that they are able to offer the panda's a variety in their diet! This guy was taking a nap in the shade and pooping simultaneously.  Nice life!

Then the penguins! The penguin exhibit isn't up and running yet but our guide was able to bring us to the area where they are housing them until the exhibit is ready. Pictured at left is our group entering the employee only penguin area through a back alley. We peered through a small window to check out the penguins, who were busy swimming and waddling around. 

After a lunch break, we took a train to the other side of the park (you can also take a cable car, seen below). On the other side we saw the rainforest exhibit, where the below kinkajou (also known as a honey bear) was showing off his tricks and the two-toed sloth (above) very slowly made his way across the branches.

....And then the vet hospital where they even preform surgeries on fish! To do a fish surgery, they put the fish on a sponge and use a device that pours waters over the gills of the fish only. Next to the animal hospital are the indoor pools for dolphins. This is used for dolphins that need special attention - pregnant, newborns, sick etc.

And our final stop of the day was a lab where they are breeding jellyfish for the Sea Jelly Spectacular. To the left, one of our guides explains the process and stages of the jellyfish life cycle.  Jellyfish are kept in round tanks, otherwise they would get caught in the corners of a square tank. Notice how small they are behind her  and then how large they can become (right)!  

After the lab we checked out the show, where the tanks were adorned with colored lights and jellyfish danced to a concerto playing throughout the exhibit. 

Sadly, my day was cut short at 5pm when a crazy rain storm caused the roller coasters to shut down for the day! Clearly I'll need to make a second trip back to Ocean Park to check out the rides!