Thousands of college students flooded the New England Aquarium on Wednesday to walk amongst swimming sea creatures and learn about marine life at the aquarium’s annual College Night.

The aquarium, which opened its doors to the public at 5:30 p.m., featured music from Jam’N 94.5 and a variety of vendor and advertiser tables, including Hubway, Zipcar, Ben and Jerry’s, Shear Madness and Improv Asylum.

Students were offered free admission and IMAX tickets. Regular admission price with a college ID is $20.95, and IMAX tickets usually cost $7.95 with a college ID.

Last year’s College Night hosted 3,600 students, according to aquarium employees. They said they expected numbers to break 4,000 this year.

Before the doors even opened, the line of students stretched from the Aquarium entrance all the way to Legal Sea Foods across the street. Students broke formation to check out the Atlantic Harbor Seals Exhibit in front of the building.

Kate McCune, a junior at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, said she had been waiting all day for the open house.
Tammy Auyeyng, also a junior at MCPHS, said she recommended the penguin exhibit.

Both girls said they were eager to see the Shark & Ray Touch Tank.

“It’s new, so I haven’t seen it yet,” McCune said.

The Touch Tank was closed for the night.

Kate Sears, a senior at Salem State University, said she lives near the Aquarium and comes all the time.

“I like the sea turtles and penguins, but I came to see the sharks and rays,” she said.

The entire main building of the aquarium, which houses over 70 exhibits, was open for students to explore. The building is designed in an upward spiral, with large tanks in the center and smaller tanks lining the sides. If visitors look down, the bottom level is dedicated to the penguin exhibit.

Many students raved about the penguin exhibit, which is a habitat that contains several different species of penguins, including African Penguins. There is no glass separating the animals from visitors, making it one of the most personal exhibits in the building.

The largest exhibit is the Giant Ocean Tank, located at the top of the Aquarium.

The tank holds 200,000 gallons of water and over 600 animals. One of the most notable is Myrtle the sea turtle, who weights more than 500 pounds, making her the heaviest animal in the aquarium.

The tank also holds several smaller turtles, multiple species of fish, stingrays and sharks, the largest of which is an 8-foot Sand Tiger Shark. Divers enter the tank to feed sharks twice a day to prevent accidents, the aquarium educator said.

“Sharks eat once a day, once a month in the wild,” the educator said. “Feeding them so often is just a precaution.”

The educator said that it is possible for students to dive into the aquarium tank as volunteers, if they have diving experience.
“You need about 100 dives,” she said. “Then you can become a volunteer with dive access.”