N.C. aquarium, now with more teeth

ROANOKE ISLAND, N.C. 

Snaggle-toothed, graceful and sleek, the 300-pound sand tiger shark is the star of the "Graveyard of the Atlantic" exhibit at the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island.

It's not just because the powerful predator is the biggest resident of the 285,000-gallon tank. It' s because it's a shark.

Now the shark has a few more companions. And more are on the way.

This summer, visitors at the Roanoke Island facility will be seeing a lot more of the feared masters of the sea, with the opening of $75,000 worth of new shark exhibits.

Three new sharks have already been added to the big tank, and more are expected in the coming months. Sharks will also replace the audio-visual display about storms that had been in the changing exhibit room.

Small sharks called chain dogfish will be displayed in a saltwater gallery tank, and interactive games, photo opportunities and a touch tank are also being discussed as possibilities. Tropical fish that are commonly called sharks but are not - for instance, rainbow sharks, red tail sharks, and bala sharks - will be displayed in the freshwater gallery.

Ten years after the renovated and enlarged aquarium reopened, the sharks remain the most popular of its exhibits.

"Wow! Wow!" Derek DeVault, 2, exclaimed as he toddled toward the tank during a visit last week with his grandparents, Peggy and Gerald DeVault of Kill Devil Hills.

Derek, who lives in Roanoke, Va., squashed his face against the glass and stared for a few minutes as his grandparents pointed to the sharks. Nearby, his cousin, Chance Gosney, 3, of Portsmouth, watched intently as the menacing-looking sand tiger shark glided past.

"We're still trying to develop the blueprint for all of this," said Frank Hudgins, the aquarium's director of operations and husbandry. "We're making incredible progress."

Over the years, he said, some of the original sharks have been removed because they either grew too big, had health issues or were aggressive.

Animals that outgrow tanks or have issues are typically traded to other aquariums or, less often, released after being checked by a veterinarian.

The five sandbar sharks, three sand tiger sharks and one nurse shark in residence now get along well. Three other 4-foot sandbar youngsters, collected by the state aquarium at Fort Fisher, are still being observed in a holding tank on the premises.

"We don't want to put sharks in there that have bad habits," Hudgins said. "It's much better for our resident population to have young animals instead of older, larger animals."

Sea turtles that had originally shared the tank with the sharks and numerous fish are noticeably absent.

"They seemed to want to eat the exhibit," Hudgins said, "so they had to be removed."

Hudgins said the aquarium plans to put bonnethead and blacknose sharks in the new exhibit's 10,000-gallon tank and is looking into acquiring some Indo-Pacific sharks. But there will never be enough room at Roanoke Island, he said, to house any monster sharks such as great whites.

Although the aquarium always has new exhibits, it's hoped that the new shark exhibits will attract more visitors, said Jennifer Gamiel, the aquarium's coordinator of visitors services.

Annual visitation at the aquarium peaked in 2000 at about 364,000, she said, and has averaged about 300,000 visitors annually since.

If the two shark weeks held in the summer - featuring shark-focused activities, programs and displays - are any prediction, she said, the new theme will be a hit.

"The response from the public was great," Gamiel said. "They love it."

Catherine Kozak, (252) 441-1711, cate.kozak@pilotonline.com