Note: I’m debating on whether or not this should be in my blog or my library. For now, it’s a blog piece. 

Over fifteen years ago, my grandparents took me snorkeling at the Denver Aquarium for the very first time. It was for my seventh birthday, and at the time, I was obsessed with everything that had to do with the ocean. I loved fish. I loved sharks. I even loved eels. And I was so fascinated by the stories my grandma Connie told me about her adventures scuba-diving in places like the Red Sea and the Bahamas. 

Unfortunately, scuba-diving wasn’t something I’d ever be able to do, so I couldn’t dive with the big sharks at the aquarium. However, snorkeling with the smaller sharks and the eels was just as immersive and fun. 

Once I proved to everyone that I could snorkel safely both in the pool and at the aquarium, I began to snorkel in the warm oceans off the coasts of Florida and Baja California, seeing creatures of all kinds very few people ever get to see, up close and personal. During those adventures, I’ve seen everything from tiny, colorful reef fish, to large, wild sea turtles. I was even “charged” by a giant Gulf Sturgeon once, although it meant no harm. 

Sadly, after my various run-ins with a freshwater-borne bacteria known as Pseudomonas, as well as a very unpleasant heat-stroke experience after I snorkeled in Florida in 2019, I lost interest in swimming almost entirely. It took me years to garner up the strength, health, and courage to get back into the water. Even then, however, swimming just wasn’t my thing anymore. 

But then, for my Christmas present this year (2025/2026), my grandma Connie wanted to take me snorkeling at the aquarium again, along with my little brother, my little cousin, and my aunt’s husband. I agreed to go, especially since I was bored and wanted to do something a little different than usual. 

As a child, I thoroughly enjoyed my experiences snorkeling both at the aquarium and in the ocean. However, going back into the water as a healthy adult with a bit more knowledge about the world around me just… hit different this time. I first realized that I would get so much more out of my time at the Denver aquarium as an adult as soon as our snorkeling guide took us behind the scenes, showing us a glimpse of the huge filtration systems used to perfectly maintain 1.5 million gallons of water. 

“I could definitely see myself working here…” I remember thinking to myself as I watched a scientist in a hoodie and jeans walk out of the saltwater filtration room with a handful of bioreactor samples. 

“We test the bioreactors every hour or so to ensure that there are no contaminants in any of our water systems.” our guide explained, “We have year-round internships for that kind of thing if any of you guys are interested.”

We were then led to the guest locker rooms to get into our swimsuits. As soon as I walked into the locker room- which hadn’t been renovated at all since I was a little girl- I was hit with a flood of good, nostalgic memories from my previous two adventures at the aquarium. 

As quickly as I could, I got into my swimsuit and tied my hair back. Then, wrapped in my green beach towel, I stepped out into the hallway to wait for everyone else to finish. There, we met our second guide- the one who would be taking us into the water. 

We got into an industrial elevator that took us to the third floor of the aquarium. On the walls of the elevator were posters of various sharks scientists at the Denver aquarium had tagged to monitor their movements. Most notably, there was a tiger shark off the east coast that was pregnant. This was great news to conservationists, especially since Tiger sharks don’t live as long as other shark species, and also have a long gestation period. 

“You guys won’t be swimming with the tiger sharks today,” our guide assured us, “But, you will be hanging out with a nurse shark and a couple of shovelnose sharks, all of which have tiny mouths used to feed on very small organisms.”

“Damn it.” I smirked to myself, “I want to swim with the Tiger sharks.”

With a huge rumble, the industrial elevator doors opened to a huge, concrete room that smelled strongly of salt water. My glasses immediately fogged up upon stepping out onto the diving deck. To my right I could hear the sound of a roaring waterfall. To my left there was a door opening up into one of the tropical exhibits, where an aquarium keeper was busy putting food into a tank. 

Our guide led us to the edge of the tank we’d be swimming in that day to give us a briefing. To be honest, I did not hear a word she said. Hundreds of gallons of water were rushing out of several huge pipes very close to me, and I was entranced by what I could see on the surface of the tank. For the ten minute briefing, I watched cownose rays, tarpons, an eel, and even a shark fin breach the water. 

“Wow!” the guide shouted loud enough for me to hear, “The nurse shark is out and about! That never happens!”

As soon as the briefing was over, I was sized up for a wetsuit while another guide cleaned and disinfected my mask for the tank. Putting on the wetsuit was much easier than I remember it being. I was also given a pair of thick gloves and a hood to keep my ears and chin warm in the 68 degree water. 

Finally, I stepped onto a rocky platform and down a flight of stairs into the salty, cold water, where I was given a pair of blue rubber fins to try on. Once I showed my guide that they fit, I was instructed to put my head underwater to ensure my mask did not leak. Amazingly, while I couldn’t see much detail outside of the water without my glasses, underwater, my vision was almost perfect. I watched tropical fish of all kinds swimming around in the tank below me until my guide gave me the go-ahead to swim out on my own. 

Immediately, I swam towards the other end of the tank as fast as I could to put some distance between myself and everyone else. After all, I wanted to enjoy the sealife in peaceful silence. To drown out the noise of the waterfall and filtration machines, I dunked my head into the water until my ears were filled. At that moment, a small fleet of cownose rays swam just beneath me. My mouth filled with a little saltwater as I smiled. 

Cownose rays do not have barbs on their tails. In fact, none of the rays I was swimming with had barbs on their tails. Instead, Cownose rays have a pair of fins towards the front of their bodies that they use to feel their way around. These fins make the rays look like they have square-shaped noses, hence the name, Cownose.

In the wild, Cownose rays can be found in large numbers in both the Chesapeake Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, depending on the time of year. While I wasn’t surrounded by hundreds of Cownose rays in the aquarium, the rays that were in the aquarium swam together just like they would in the wild, often getting very close to me out of curiosity. 

Towards the back of the tank, away from the prying eyes of visitors and snorkelers alike, a Green Moray eel hung out between two narrow rocks. Like the Cownose Rays, Green Moray eels can also be found in the Atlantic ocean as far north as Nova Scotia, or as far south and warm as the Gulf of Mexico. I heard it hiss as I floated just above it, but there wasn’t anything to be afraid of, so long as I didn’t try to pet it.

Much like in the wild, petting animals at the aquarium isn’t ethical. Petting the Green Moray Eel was especially a big no-no, because what makes Green Moray Eels green is a layer of protective mucus. 

The animals, however, could pet me as much as they wanted. 

About five minutes after entering the water, a huge, pink Red Snapper brushed up against my shoulder, giving me one hell of a side-eye as it did so. Once again, I tasted saltwater as I smiled. But then, the Cownose rays came racing back, and the Red Snapper dove down to avoid being “run over” by them. 

During my time in the water, I was frequently swarmed by schools of Horse-Eye Jacks, which are medium-sized fish with silver bodies and yellow tails. There were also Blue Runners that swam in a different school, looking a lot like the Horse-Eye Jacks but were just a bit smaller and slimmer. 

Near the main “Coral Reef” of the exhibit, I saw a handful of beautiful Parrotfish, Barred Flagtails, Graybar Grunts, Creolefish, and Passer Angelfish. They were among the smallest fish species in the tank, and either swam in schools or stayed close to corals in the rocks to stay safe from predators. Fortunately for them, there were no predators in the tank. Not even the eels wanted to eat them. 

Speaking of eels, while the Green Moray Eels were shyly hiding in the rocks, hissing every time I paused to watch them, there was a very active Undulated Moray Eel swimming around. At first, the yellow spotted eel was curled up in a clamshell at the bottom of the tank. But, at some point, it must’ve decided that none of us were a threat, and began to swim laps around the tank. 

I didn’t realize the Undulated Moray Eel had left the safety of the clamshell until I came face-to-face with it. Literally! Near the largest viewing area of the tank, in front of a dozen or so people watching us from the outside, the Undulated Moray Eel ran right into my mask, its mouth open to show off rows of sharp, curved-back teeth, then banked towards my right where it ran its long, slimy body along mine.

I. Was. Elated. 

Unlike most of the other creatures that were in the tank with me, Undulated Moray Eels are not found in the warm waters of the Atlantic ocean. Instead, they’re found in coral reefs between the coasts of Indonesia and Japan, as well as off the coast of Hawaii. But, much like Green Moray Eels, Undulated Moray Eels also have a thin layer of protective mucus covering their body, which was why I was so surprised that the Undulated Moray Eel brushed up right against me, not once, but twice. 

Shortly after my second close-encounter with the eel, I had another close encounter with a large Yellowtail Snapper, who brushed up against my left hand as I drifted above a rock formation. Within that same rock formation was the Green Moray Eel from earlier, still hissing at everything and everyone who dared to swim by. But, much like what happened during my encounter with the Red Snapper, the Cownose rays returned to scare away the Yellowtail Snapper. 

I followed the Cownose rays with my eyes as they glided over the tunnel portion of the tank, where a huge Shovelnose shark was hanging out, draped over the tunnel like a blanket. While the shark was about twenty feet long, it was completely harmless to me.

Shovelnose sharks do not have huge, wide jaws like other types of sharks do. Instead, they have mouths similar to those of rays, which they use to eat small creatures off the seabed. They’re also very rare and elusive in the wild, with a limited range off the coast of Southern California down to the Baja Peninsula. Seeing one so large and so up-close- while it was merely at the aquarium- was absolutely stunning! 

In fact, everything I saw in the water at the aquarium was amazing! Sure, it wasn’t quite as impressive as snorkeling in the ocean somewhere. But, my 45 minutes drifting around a 250,000-gallon saltwater tank with hundreds of different species was more than enough to reawaken my love for snorkeling. 

To be continued…