THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 29, 1996 TAG: 9605290039
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Virginia Marine Science Museum: Expansion Countdown: 17 days to go
SOURCE: BY PAUL CLANCY
LENGTH: 105 lines
Virginia is for shark lovers. Also jellyfish lovers, sea turtle lovers, whale lovers, otter lovers, harbor seal lovers...
And lovers of hundreds of other wiggly, scaly, slippery creatures that inhabit its waters.
Cradling the Chesapeake Bay and shouldering the rich mid-Atlantic coastline gives Virginia a unique geography. Because of this, the state has a marine environment that rivals many of the world's greatest ocean centers.
That is the principal that drives the massive expansion of the Virginia Marine Science Museum as the days count down to its June 15 opening.
And that is what motivates the man in charge of its exhibits.
``One of the things I like about our mission is that we have enough material right here that we can focus on Virginia's marine environment,'' says curator Maylon White, who has been on the museum staff for 12 years.
``With the expansion, we feel the museum will move from the state level of recognition to the national level of recognition,'' he adds.
It's hard to tell now. Dust covers everything. The smell of epoxy is enough to drop you to your knees. Tanks are filled with cloudy water, not marine life.
And yet the latest phase is on schedule and some exhibits that were expected to be delayed are now on track to open on time.
White makes his way through a mock canyon, then ducks his lanky frame into what looks like the control room of a submersible research vessel. Portals on the walls and ceiling look out into a world that should be a thousand feet below the surface: the Norfolk Canyon.
The museum's version of the canyon is a 300,000-gallon tank designed to look like the steep fissure that falls off the Virginia coast just beyond the continental shelf.
There's nothing to see now, but by opening day or soon after, visitors will be able to see sharks restlessly cruising past canyon walls, feigning indifference as they brush by the windows. Visitors will also be able to control remote cameras to zoom in on smaller forms of life hiding in rocky crevasses.
``I've never been bothered by sharks,'' says White, an avid diver and diving instructor. ``I've swum very close to them. They're so graceful. If you're underwater with them, your breathing rate goes up, there's no question about that. But if you leave them alone, they'll leave you alone.''
White, 42, got his training in oceanography at Old Dominion University. He took scuba diving lessons at an early age and, as he says, ``just got captivated by the underwater world.''
He hopes that's what the expanded museum will do for visitors.
From the harbor seals that greet visitors outside the expanded main building to the sea turtles, sharks, jellyfish, eels and octopuses that inhabit the tanks and aquariums, these are all natives or visitors to Virginia waters.
So , of course, are the millions of creatures that inhabit the real Owls Creek. The salt marsh environment spreads out in a grassy, mushy tableau along a walkway that connects the new pavilion to the expanded older building.
Some creatures are relatively new to the area. Just a few years ago, humpback whales made a sudden appearance just off Virginia Beach. Now the museum runs whale-watching tours in January out of Rudee Inlet.
``The timing has just been incredible,'' White says. ``We started getting calls from people who have lived here for 30 years and haven't seen anything like it. That started us thinking about summer and dolphin watching tours. They really put on a great show.''
Then there are sea turtles, again Virginia's own. Virginia Beach is the northernmost nesting ground for the loggerhead turtle. The state's waters are also feeding grounds for juvenile Kemp's ridley turtles, members of an endangered species.
White stoops to look into a smoky window. Inside, what appears to be a sea turtle is looking out. If you touch a button, the turtle is slowly transformed from a fleshy animal into a skeleton.
A virtual reality sportsfishing exhibit will let visitors sit in a chair with a fishing pole and watch on a video screen while a sailfish takes the line. As it begins to struggle, the visitor will feel the fish fighting the line. A computer will grade the angler on how he or she does, letting the line out or reeling it in at the right times. The fish, of course, is thrown back after being landed.
White doesn't seem to have ever met a marine animal he isn't fascinated by. Even jellyfish. ``Most people only see them in a pile on the beach. When you see them in full three dimensions, they're just gorgeous,'' he says.
And even the grotesque goose fish. ``He's so ugly, he's neat to look at,'' he says.
The Virginia Marine Science Museum will take its place beside some of the other great aquariums on the East Coast like the National Aquarium in Baltimore and the New England Aquarium in Boston.
Not only will it be uniquely Virginian, but perhaps more than other facilities, the museum will be more committed to education than to show business.
One reason it will not have captive dolphins is that visitors often expect them to be trained. The sharks, seals and otters will need a certain amount of training to be able to get along with other museum creatures.
``But that doesn't mean you have to make them hit a baseball and run around bases,'' White says. ``People will learn without making the animals look silly.
``If we can educate people in an interesting way, that is a form of entertainment.
``The best reward,'' he says, ``is when people tell us they didn't know t hat, and they're smiling.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by D. Kevin Elliott
Marine Science Museum curator Maylon White inspects the bottom of
the empty Norfolk Canyon Aquarium, which will hold 300,000 gallons
of sea water. by CNB