Hello Okmulgee County friends and neighbors. How many of you have the love of nature in your heart? Specifically, fishing, swimming and the like.
Hello Okmulgee County friends and neighbors. How many of you have the love of nature in your heart? Specifically, fishing, swimming and the like.
By now, you’ve figured out we are a long way from the ocean. But we are blessed to have countless ponds, rivers, lakes and streams in Oklahoma to choose from for all our water fun.
Recently, we took our 10-year-old grandson, Daxton Anderson, to a new place to enjoy, admire, view and learn about aquatic life, near Okmulgee. It’s called the Oklahoma Aquarium. It’s located just 29 miles from Okmulgee in Jenks.
With 72,000 square ft. of indoor climate controlled public aquariums, the structure was built in 2002 and opened for business May 28, 2003, for your enjoyment. It is located at 300 Aquarium Drive. The phone number is 918-296-3474.
We enjoyed the exhibits such as the sea turtle island, Aquatic Oklahoma, Ozark Stream as well as so many others. The Oklahoma Aquarium, also referred to as the Jenks Aquarium, is the biggest public accessible aquarium in the 4 state region. It is home to thousands of aquatic creatures and features more than 100 exhibits.
We saw the largest number of bull sharks in a setting with nurse sharks alongside us and even overhead in a clear tunnel.
There are many hands-on exhibits for all to touch. We witnessed the feeding of the piranha of the Amazon, which was definitely not what we expected. The Aquarium offered a selection of 3D Adventures under the water, while never getting wet.
We learned that the biggest threat to sharks today, is shark fin soup, which is considered a delicacy in China. This soup is responsible for 38 million sharks killed every year, because only the fins are used in the soup, while the rest of the shark is discarded when it is caught. What a waste! We also learned that we can help frogs, salamanders and other amphibians just by reading pesticide and herbicide labels and using them appropriately. Only use the recommended amount and do not apply them right before a rain. Even better, utilize natural alternatives like lady bugs to eat pests.
We learned about our local striped bass and all kinds of fish, which we sit on the ground with our fishing poles, hoping for a bite.
There are many scheduled specialty activities at this Aquarium through the end of 2023.
Just make a phone call and ask away. What can the operator say? No, at worst!
Enjoy our outdoors and take care of it or someday we may have wished we had.
