ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – The St. Augustine Aquarium celebrated its grand opening over Memorial Day weekend.
The aquarium, which is located off State Road 16 just east of Interstate 95, opened its doors in December, but held special grand opening events Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The weekend-long celebration also included the opening of the new ZIPStream Castaway Canopy Adventure.
The aquarium takes visitors under the sea and houses more than 250 sea creatures, including horseshoe crabs, seahorses and sharks. All the sea creatures are native to Florida, and the aquarium's owners said they're using the exhibit as an educational tool, and their goal is to show that Florida's marine life can be brought ashore for the entire family to enjoy.
At the grand opening Monday, one mother told News4Jax that she enjoyed watching her daughter see marine life that can't be found in their home state of New York.
"We got to see the stingrays and the sharks and we saw the sharks get fed. So that was fun," Katelyn Slawkawski said.
PHOTOS: A look inside the St. Augustine Aquarium
Another parent said that as soon as he found out about the aquarium, he had to take his son there.
“It’s pretty good. We are originally from California and we saw an aquarium to get our son out to,” said Gotham Kumar, who was visiting Florida with his family. "So we thought it’s a nice place to start off with here.”
The St. Augustine Aquarium gives visitors a hands-on experience by allowing them to feed nurse sharks. News4Jax tried it on Monday.
"This is Bruiser. He is our largest male. So he just sucks (the food) out (of the water) just like that," one of the aquarium's marine biologists told News4Jax.
The outdoor venue also includes an 80,000-gallon snorkel tank that gets visitors up close and personal with the sea life.
For more information about the St. Augustine Aquarium, go to http://www.saaquarium.com.