SAN ANTONIO – Families can now get a close-up look at ocean life without leaving town thanks to a new touch tank exhibit at the San Antonio Zoo.
Touch tank visitors can interact with marine invertebrates while learning about coral conservation and the threats facing reef systems at the Brewer Ocean Conservation Lab.
The touch tank is open from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Wednesdays through Mondays.
Inside, visitors can see animals such as cleaner shrimp, a chocolate chip sea star, a horseshoe crab and Halloween hermit crabs.
“There’s a stigma around a lot of these animals, that they don’t look like animals like we think of like dogs and cats, but they do still have really big personalities,” San Antonio Zoo senior aquarist Samantha Mehr said.
Through viewing windows, visitors can also look at the zoo’s coral conservation work.
“It’s simply to educate that there’s another part of the ocean that we desperately have to take care of,” Robert Brewer, a donor for the Brewer Ocean Conservation Lab, said.
One of the world’s healthiest coral reef systems, the Flower Garden Banks, calls the Texas coastline home.
Zoo officials warn it could decline rapidly over the next 20 years due to climate change. Their plan is to grow the coral for research to help it withstand warmer waters with the goal of one day restoring it back to the gulf.
“I think it’s important that people understand that, around the globe, coral reefs are so important for so many countries and so many people for living,” Brewer said. “For sustaining their lives.”
The coral exhibit is included with regular zoo admission.