Divers at the Vancouver Aquarium will be carving pumpkins underwater again this fall, which is a harder trick than it sounds and a very good reason to stand in front of a window and watch.
The Fin-tastic Fall Festival runs from September 26 through October 31. Underwater Pumpkin Carving happens on the weekends of September 26 and 27, October 3 and 4, and October 10 and 11, then goes daily from October 17 through October 31, with shows at 11:30 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon.
As we head into fall, we’re pleased to offer families opportunities to spend time together while learning more about the animals and ecosystems in our care. The seasonal programming provides another way for visitors to connect with the ocean and the animals that call it home.
Clint Wright, Executive Director, Vancouver Aquarium
What else is on
Bat grooming sessions. Over in the Amazon Gallery, the animal care team grooms the aquarium’s fruit bats in front of visitors, and explains why an animal with that reputation is a great deal more useful than it is frightening. Fruit bats are pollinators and seed dispersers, and a rainforest without them is a rainforest in trouble.
Spookley’s 4D Jamboree. A new film premiering this season, built around Spookley the Square Pumpkin, aimed squarely at younger visitors and the adults who came with them.
Creature Feature at the Dragons exhibit. The limited-run Dragons exhibit hosts close encounters with lizards, snakes and spiders, which is to say the animals that get cast as villains every October and deserve better.
The Kelp Maze. A small-scale maze built to feel like a kelp forest, designed for young children, now sitting in Underwater Stellers Bay.
The Wet Lab. Hands-on, sleeves up, where you get to feel the textures and adaptations of marine animals rather than read about them.
A scavenger hunt that runs through each Bat House, with clues to find along the way.
Worth knowing before you go
Underwater pumpkin carving is a genuine piece of skill. A diver is neutrally buoyant, working with a tool in a medium that pushes back, on a floating object that does not want to stay still, while breathing on a regulator and staying in one place. It looks like a gag and it is really a demonstration of dive control.
The show times are fixed and the aquarium gets busy in the last two weeks of October, so the weekday sessions in the daily run from October 17 are the calmer bet if you are bringing small children.
Details and tickets are at VancouverAquarium.com.
