A school of 20 sleek, fast-moving blacktip reef sharks may elicit a few frights all year-round, but even the marine life of Baltimore’s National Aquarium’s new Blacktip Reef Exhibit deserve a special treat this Halloween.
An under-water pumpkin carving for “Hallowmarine” on Thursday, October 31, will give the 700+ animals of Blacktip Reef — which opened this summer — a Halloween show of their own with delicious pumpkins carved into the likeness of some of the 65 species in the $12.5 million aquarium.
Visitors will judge the best underwater pumpkin carvings of sharks, fish, and the exhibit’s resident matriarch, the 500+ pound sea turtle Calypso, as part of the aquarium’s Halloween celebrations. The pumpkins themselves will be quickly devoured by the exhibit’s marine life, which also includes 5-foot wide whiprays, camouflaged ornate wobbegong sharks, and the aquarium’s beloved zebra sharks Zeke and Zoe.
The underwater Jack-o-Lanterns will be viewable from a 27-foot viewing window that curves four feet into the underwater reef itself.
Jessica Festa is the editor of the travel sites Jessie on a Journey (http://jessieonajourney.com) and Epicure & Culture (http://epicureandculture.com). Along with blogging at We Blog The World, her byline has appeared in publications like Huffington Post, Gadling, Fodor’s, Travel + Escape, Matador, Viator, The Culture-Ist and many others. After getting her BA/MA in Communication from the State University of New York at Albany, she realized she wasn’t really to stop backpacking and made travel her full time job. Some of her most memorable experiences include studying abroad in Sydney, teaching English in Thailand, doing orphanage work in Ghana, hiking her way through South America and traveling solo through Europe. She has a passion for backpacking, adventure, hiking, wine and getting off the beaten path.
