Aquarium Diving

"In a sudden swoop, an eight-foot-long, 150-pound spotted eagle ray descends, flapping her wings excitedly. With a seismic crunch that carries very audibly underwater, she gobbles the clams from my hand, tailed by a motley crew of orange-banded surgeonfish, yellow tangs and various jacks, wrasse and snappers that bump up against me as they vacuum up the crumbs."

Sound like just your thing? Bonnie Tsui's article, "Diving Into the Fishbowl", from the New York Times' Travel Section exposes a curious trend still in the relatively early phases: scuba diving in tanks at aquariums.

You may have seen divers while visiting an aquarium in the past, probably a staff member feeding the fish or cleaning/maintaining the tanks. A bit startling when you're being lulled into the blue-glow aquatic world of sharks and starfish and coral to see a human glide past. "Once the exclusive - and enviable - territory of staff scuba divers and a lucky few volunteers, the underwater world behind the aquarium glass is now being opened to the public on a pay-to-dive basis..." Who's on display? You or the ray?