Colorado: Dive with the Fishes
Downtown Aquarium’s “Dive with the Fishes”
https://www.a1scuba.com/programs/dive-with-the-fish/
~20’ for 43 minutes
75*
Colorado in February, cold, snowy mountain, slopes. Hot chocolate cozy by a fire pit. A sleigh ride through the trees under a blanket. These are all “normal” things to think about, and at some point, over the yearly ski trips, have all happened in some form or another. But this year, after coming down from the mountain top instead of going to the airport and heading back to Chicago, a couple day detour was added at the end of the trip. A dive adventure in the Denver Aquarium.
The Denver Aquarium offers a “Dive with the Fishes” experience at the Downtown Aquarium which includes a short behind-the-scenes adventure before jumping into the Under the Sea exhibit. The dive is in a portion of the aquarium’s main exhibit tank, a 200,000(ish)-gallon habitat measuring roughly 150 feet long, 60 feet wide, and 10 to 15 feet deep with a tunneled walk way going through the center of it. While it is not a deep dive, the scale of the tank gives it a surprisingly spacious feel, and the shallow depth makes the experience relaxed, bright, and ideal for leisurely observation rather than technical challenge.
After meeting with your guide for the day, completing paperwork, and ensuring everything is in order you are escorted behind the scenes to the locker rooms and staging area. While you walk around the top of the exhibit you’re told about the inhabitants, the dive, and then it’s time to get suited up and jump into the balmy 75* F water.
Once in the water, the highlight is the chance to share space with the animals that inhabit this specific dive tank. Moray eels, groupers, and a variety of large tropical and reef fish moving through the exhibit. The habitat contains hundreds of fish, giving the illusion that you are actually out on the reef, and not in an aquarium in the middle of winter. Because the dive is conducted in a controlled aquarium setting, visibility is usually excellent, and the close range to the animals makes the experience feel immersive from the moment you descend, but remember these are still animals and should not be harassed, bothered or touched.
If swimming around with fish isn’t your thing, remember you, are now on exhibit and can interact with the “normies” on the other side of the glass. Play rock, paper, sciossors. Make silly faces. Or just confuse small children as you swim back and forth in front of the glass pointing at them!
After the dive, you’re released to explore the rest of the aquarium, grab a snack, and prepare to step back out into the cold that is Denver, Colorado in February.
