♪♪ -People will often ask me, am I afraid of the sharks when we're diving?

I say, No, I am not afraid of the sharks because the sharks have never bitten me.

The turtles, however, have.

♪♪ -My name is Jack Jewell, and I'm General Curator for Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay.

Shark Reef has approximately 3,500 animals in our collection, and I love all the animals in our exhibit.

There's no question about it.

So I have been with Shark Reef now going for almost 26 years.

Pretty amazing journey, I have to say.

Ever since I was a small boy, like most kids, I loved animals.

But for me, the thing was, is I really loved fish.

I find them fascinating, and the variety of fish that there are is just incredible on this planet.

Engagement with the animals is what we do as animal caretakers, and I truly enjoy it every single day.

And as you can see by looking behind me in this beautiful exhibit, we have a lot of big and beautiful sharks.

-Hi.

My name is Michel Tomlinson.

I'm one of the divers on the Mandalay Bay Shark Reef Aquarium dive team.

We're here in the dive shack area where we would gear up to go out and do a dive.

To give you a quick overview of what it's like to get ready to go into one of the tanks, I'll show you some of the equipment we use here.

This is a what we call our BCD.

It's a buoyancy compensator device.

This is where we would keep our weights, and then we attach our regulator to the air cylinder so that we can breathe underwater.

We also have our wetsuits that we'll put on when we're going in with the big sharks.

We also wear a chainmail suit.

We also have our masks and our fins, and that's just some of the equipment that we have to use when we're here.

So we do take safety very seriously here at the Shark Reef Aquarium.

I started diving when I was 50 years old.

I'm now 62.

I don't know, I'd seen all those shows, SeaQuest and Jacques Cousteau, when I was a young kid.

When I got to be 50, my kids were grown, didn't need me as much, and I thought I need something new to do.

So I went down to my local dive shop, got dive certified and started diving at that point.

(Jack Jewell) So we have a dive team that goes in every day, and what they do is they pressure wash the corals to make sure they look clean and shiny.

They vacuum the gravel to remove any detritus, debris on the bottom.

(Michel Tomlinson) We're looking to get rid of a lot of the brown algae that's growing.

We also keep an eye on the fish, make sure that they're swimming properly, that they're behaving normally, as we've come to know them.

We do a lot of scrubbing in there.

We'll take out things that are rotting or are not going to contribute well to the health of the fish and the aquarium in general.

-The fact of the matter is, keeping a clean substrate and keeping the algae down also helps to keep the water quality up.

This enables to have the best possible environment for the animals.

-Do the animals ever bother us?

Yes.

Some of them do.

-Years ago, we had to make a decision about what we would do to ensure the safety of our dive team.

Now, to be clear, sharks do not have interest in the divers, but we had to make a decision.

So at the time, I reached out to people in the field and found chainmail.

But it was not used commonly in aquariums.

And I said, this is the answer.

We're able to cover our body with a stainless steel mesh suit that protects you against shark bites.

Again, the sharks do not bite.

But the great news for us is, if anything ever happened, you would not be injured.

-People will often ask me am I afraid of the sharks when diving?

I say, No, I am not afraid of the sharks because the sharks have never bitten me.

The turtles, however, have.

So the turtles are very intrusive when we're in there.

They're very curious.

They love seeing what we're doing, and they like to get right in our faces.

♪♪ (Shelby Jent) Hi.

My name is Shelby.

We are in the food prep kitchen down here at Shark Reef.

I am the dietary aquarist.

So our bigger sharks do get mackerel today, so this is gonna be a piece for our bowmouth or our sawfish.

They can eat this, usually cut in half.

So we are also gonna be feeding our Galapagos sharks, some Humboldt today, so we do have to de-pen and de-beak this because they are pretty crunchy.

We don't want them to hurt themselves.

And then we've also got a gel for our turtles as well.

We go through roughly about 500 pounds of fish every week.

And so what I have to do is I have to de-pen and de-beak it, and you pull out the whole pen.

So I will just kind of pop this out, and then you pull out the whole thing.

It helps me to think of it as just food prep, because we do have to deal with fish and squid and worms and all sorts of kind of slimy stuff.

So it definitely helps to think of it as, well, this is what they like to eat.

This is what they would eat out in the wild.

So we're just kind of helping them eat their-- eat their lunch.

So we also have vitamins for all of our sharks here.

It's usually one tab per half pound, and you just kind of push it way down into the squid.

That way they don't accidentally spit it out.

Kind of like hiding a piece of medicine for your dog in a piece of cheese, you gotta make sure it's really hidden in there or else they will spit it out.

Fresh fish out in the wild has a lot more nutrients.

Once you freeze it and then thaw it, it kind of loses some of those nutrients, and so that's why we have to fight every single piece, because we don't want them missing out on their vitamins and minerals.

♪♪ -I'm Erik Abby.

I'm a lead aquarist here at the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada.

I've been here 26 years.

Making sure that each animal is getting enough food is a difficult process, so you will have to separate them into stations, especially community feed this large.

And some animals are so curious, in fact, like the turtles, for example, you're going to have to have an isolation pool so you can close the door on them.

To alert the sharks that it's time to eat at their station, we can use specific targets, even put a little bit of food in the water, get the blood going, get the scent going.

The sharks will get interested, and they'll be reinforced with the food at that target.

You're really watching all the sharks.

I'm typically watching some shark swimming away from me to see if they drop the food and expecting a couple of notorious sharks to take their place.

So you'll even talk it out with your team members to say, Hey, here comes Number 54.

He needs a little extra, but here comes 891.

She might steal something.

Typically, our large sharks are eating Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

If they don't feel like eating, that's fine.

We do track, however, how much they're eating.

That way, if we are noticing a trend, say, a shark has not been eating for three or four feeds in a row, we'll keep an eye on it, note it if there's a detail about that animal that could be a clue about something we need to watch for in the future.

And a lot of times, sharks just don't feel like eating.

It goes against what people expect from sharks.

They take breaks all the time.

-Here we are in the Shark Reef jungle, and we're approaching our desert pupfish exhibit.

The Devils Hole pupfish is an extremely famous endangered species.

This animal has the most restricted habitat of any vertebrate species on the planet Earth.

That's saying a lot, right?

So they're in one single aquifer in Death Valley where they have been for approximately 10,000 years it's estimated.

Currently, there's only about 40 or 50 fish in that hole.

So it's an extremely endangered species, and we had the opportunity to work with all the agencies--U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, Nevada Division of Wildlife--in an effort to breed these animals in our care and to breed a hybrid species in our care as well.

Now, these are not true Devils Hole pupfish.

They're, in fact, a hybrid species that we've been very fortunate to display here for many years.

However, they are incredibly iconic in the state and really connect the people of Nevada to a special animal.

It hopefully connects people overall to how perilous the existence of animals are in the wild.

♪♪ -My name is Adrienne Rowland.

I'm the Director of Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay.

I have been at Shark Reef Aquarium since 2002.

Shark Reef Aquarium was an integral part of the beginnings of Mandalay Bay.

They partnered with Vancouver Marine Science Center in British Columbia.

Nothing had been done like this in Las Vegas, so they really wanted to make sure that they did it right.

And we were envisioned to always be not just a public aquarium, but also accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which we're very proud of the fact that we're the first and only facility in the state of Nevada to ever achieve that distinction and have continuously been accredited since 2003.

Shark Reef Aquarium was designed to bring in a full sense of wonder, including the physical aspects and the theming of the building.

So when you come in, you are in a rain forest jungle surrounded by palm trees and Monsteras and mist up in the air, and you see things like Komodo dragons.

And then you work your way and you come around, and you're in our temple, which is designed as a Southeast Asian temple, such as Angkor Wat, which has been taken over by these amazing creatures.

And from there, you work your way into our shipwreck exhibit.

I've visited tons of zoos and aquariums in my fortunate career, and this is still my favorite exhibit.

You look like you're in a shipwreck on the bottom of the ocean, completely surrounded by these amazing creatures: sharks, sawfish, and of course, our sea turtles.

-The only sea turtle we have that has a name is OD.

As it turns out, many, many years ago, in 1999, OD was rescued and then treated at a sea turtle hospital in North Carolina.

He was then released, and then several years later, he popped up again, this time with, apparently, a collapsed lung.

On that day, there was a group of divers out diving called ocean divers, and they helped to rescue OD and get him onto the boat.

"Ocean Divers" is what his name really means.

OD is a very large sea turtle.

He's over 300 pounds, but he does have that collapsed lung.

So for several years, he was at the Marathon Sea Turtle Hospital, and he was treated there.

-It was recommended that OD come live here.

And in order to do that, he had to move from Marathon, Florida, in the Keys, all the way to Las Vegas.

To be able to go down on the tarmac at what was then McCarran Airport in order to meet a FedEx plane and see OD be, you know, brought in and lifted off and this green sea turtle arrive in Las Vegas was really special.

-He is, in fact, quite a bull.

And now we're able to provide him a permanent home in perpetuity.

So the giant Pacific octopus, of course, is one of the greatest attractions at all aquariums.

They are charismatic animals, extremely intelligent animals.

They can actually change the texture of their skin.

They can go from having horns and having all kinds of warts all over their skin to being perfectly smooth and white.

Who would not be fascinated by an animal that possesses so many different amazing abilities.

The Komodo dragon is in another class entirely, an endangered species and an incredibly intelligent animal.

Our Komodo is trained to go into the crate for transport, for feeding, and also for medical care.

We do his nails in there.

He'll go into the crate, we'll pull his toes out carefully and give him a mani-pedi.

If you walk up to the exhibit and you look at the Komodo, he will look back at you.

And he clearly recognizes you.

He's a beautiful animal.

-We are very fortunate to have zebra sharks at Shark Reef Aquarium.

In the U.S., we call them zebra sharks.

In other areas, they call them leopard sharks.

But zebra sharks lay eggs, and right here in this exhibit behind me, our divers can collect them.

And because of this, we are a part of a consortium called ReShark, or the STAR program.

-So STAR is an acronym.

It stands for Stegostoma, Tigrinum, Augmentation, and Reintroduction program.

Whoo!

That's a mouthful.

-And what that is, is it's a consortium of aquariums, international conservation partners, as well as the Indonesian government.

And what happens is, we can collect these eggs here at the Aquarium, see if they're viable or not or is there an embryo inside, and then those eggs are shipped from here-- -And reintroduce them back to Raja Ampat in Indonesia in areas where they've been completely wiped out by shark fishing.

-There, the partners have set up a couple of hatcheries where they have teams there that are caring for the eggs, because eventually these sharks will be released into a marine preserve where they'll be protected and hopefully reproduce.

-Just today, I received news that one of our eggs in Raja Ampat hatched.

-That was one of our more recent eggs, was just born.

They just sent us a note with a very cute picture of a zebra shark.

If you've never seen a zebra shark pup, that's what a baby shark is called.

And so Shark Reef has sent over 30 eggs to this program.

And so these animals have been released into this area.

They're now swimming out in the ocean and outside of Indonesia near Raja Ampat, but their parents live here.

They were born here, so they have this connection, whether they know it or not, that we will always have with those sharks out in the wild.

We are surrounded at the aquarium by 1.6 million gallons of water.

And living in the desert, we realize that that is a precious resource, and so Shark Reef was designed to recycle and refilter a majority of its water.

(David Laxton) Every three hours, we recycle 1.3 million gallons of seawater and put it back to exhibit.

Hello.

My name is Dave Laxton.

I am the Shark Reef Life Support Manager here at Mandalay Bay.

I've been here for 25 years, and this is our system.

So our water enters through the main drain in our skimmer to our pumps.

It's our 50-horsepower motor that run 1,500 gallons a minute and can turn the whole exhibit over in three hours.

It goes to our sand filter, which drains down.

Then it goes to the protein skimmer.

We use mechanical filtration to lift the organic material to the top and then overflow to the drain.

This is our ozone generator, 800 millivolts, and it kills just about anything in the water.

Then to our trickle filters.

These trickle filters is where the biological filtration happens with the ammonias and nitrates, and then back to the tank.

♪♪ (Adrienne Rowland) Education is built into what we do every day.

We see upwards of 60 kids every single day.

The last count, we were over 300,000 school kids that have gone through our free programs.

-I have kids walk through.

Had an experience one time.

A kid was walking through, and he looked up and he goes, Wow, it's just like 3D.

And I'm going, No, no, it's real D. There is nothing that will replace the interaction of a human being this close to an animal in real life.

-We have this opportunity to, you know, inspire people to want to care for animals that may not be in their backyard, and that's really important.

-So Shark Reef Aquarium has always had a touch pool, and it's a critical part of education that engages people with animals.

Here we are, guys, in front of our touch pool, and our rays are receiving a feast of seafood.

Absolutely delicious.

Some prawns and some purple krill.

You can see that we have targets in the water, and the animals come to these specific targets.

That helps us to get them to a local place where we can feed them individually.

This is also where our guests can touch, one finger touch, gently, only on their body.

And that is what we hope will completely, totally engage our guests and connect them to these animals so then they will step up and take care of them in the wild as well.

-Jack Jewell has been here, of course, since Day 1, and he has been a partner for me since I arrived.

And so Jack is a teacher by nature.

He is constantly trying to ensure that we are providing the best in care for these animals and that he brings people along, that they understand why this very small, what seems like minutia, why is it so important?

Because it makes a difference in those animals' lives.

-I love working with our team.

I call them my boys because I'm the only, currently the only female on the team.

So I'm always looking out for my boys, making sure their bubble trails are coming up.

But I think we melded ourselves together into a really nice, comprehensive team.

(Erik Abby) The teamwork here has helped me feel very confident with the quality they bring, taking care of these animals.

And it's just constant adjustments.

You're just learning forever.

Who doesn't want to come here and see these sharks swimming around, you know?

-And it's been really rewarding, honestly, to just, you know, especially with the conservation efforts that we're doing, making sure the animals are healthy and happy here.

And we can confidently say, you know, I take care of this animal to the best of my ability, and they're doing really well.

-Each person here at Shark Reef has their own specialty and their unique ability to deal with certain situations.

We all work together as a family, and it's a wonderful place to be.

-So in the nearly 25 years that Shark Reef has been open, we've seen over 21 million guests, and that's 21 million opportunities to really inspire.

And so to have a cultural institution in Las Vegas is really important.

We do fun events like our Halloween event or Santa and the Shipwreck.

And same thing, there are kids that come every single year.

I can't think of anything to be, you know, more proud of than to be a part of that core memory of these families and kids who have spent time with us here over the years.

-Shark Reef is truly loved by the people in Las Vegas, I will say.

And I think that that's the incredible part about Shark Reef in Las Vegas.

It brings a special peace to the Las Vegas Strip, something different, something that surprises people in a completely unique way, because that's what we're here for, is to make that connection.

♪♪ ♪♪ -My name is Claire Gentile, and I'm a Las Vegas mermaid.

I grew up in a small town in Apulia called Taranto, very old maritime seaside city.

The lore and the mythology is based around mermaids and sirens.

My childhood in Italy, I don't have the greatest memory of.

But I do know that I was swimming in the ocean before I could walk.

I loved Ariel and The Little Mermaid.

Definitely a big influence on my decision to get involved in mermaiding.

The opportunity to be here at the Silverton started when I started doing mermaid gigs with a few other friends I have from dance.

The audition process was brutal.

When I went down there, it felt like the tank was closing in on me.

It was very disorienting, and it's tough.

And it's easy to become disoriented and kind of lose yourself in the tank.

So it takes time to build confidence in the tank.

And the first time I was in there, I was completely like disheveled.

The first performance was rough.

It took me several times and several weeks of being very uncomfortable and just staying consistent with it.

And then getting comfortable, that comes with time.

There's definitely a sense of peace in the aquarium.

It's magical, actually.

It really is.

It's just such a privilege to be here.

I get to watch little children developing these core memories, I mean, just being cemented into their brain that they'll never forget.

And I get to be part of that, and that's huge for me.

The esthetic of just the ethereal beauty, but mermaids have this special thing, too, where they exist somewhere that we can't.

Even as a newer mermaid, I don't know that I ever really envisioned this for myself, that I could actually be here now doing what I get to do all the time.

It was more like a dream before, and in the last year or so, I was able to make it a reality.

Just very suddenly, I just went for it and it happened.

And I've never been happier with a career choice, just because it's one of the most gratifying jobs I've ever had.

♪♪ (Tommy Caprio) You know, tell my parents that I'm sorry because they've warned me about trying to do stupid things for, for television.

-Who's ready to go swimming?

-I'm okay.

-You scared?

-No.

I love the water.

-Well, I think you'd make a great merman.

-Fine.

Let's do it.

-We're gonna grab you one of these Linden monofins.

They've got the big adjustable feet part.

-So your feet are stuck together?

-Yes, your feet are fixed.

-That's probably the only thing different about the way I swim.

I'm used to my legs moving.

Not this time?

-No people swimming today, only mermaid swimming.

-Okay.

-This is gonna be your powerhouse, right here.

-Let's pick me a tail.

I want something that goes with my eyes.

-Probably this one.

-All right, let's do it.

-It's got some bend in it so that you can do that.

-They say it's really lucky if you see a mermaid, you get luck all day.

Today's your lucky day.

I really don't know how I get myself into these things.

I just wanted to do a piece on mermaids; now I'm gonna be in a tank.

I'm gonna be a mermaid-- merman?

I'm gonna be merman.

I'm rinsed off and ready to go.

Is there sharks in there?

-None of them are great whites.

-I know.

-And you're gonna tighten it as tight as you can, and then you're gonna pull it up like a pair of pants.

-Oh, it's very slimming.

Put it this way, I feel more like a Flounder than an Ariel, I can tell you that.

I feel beautiful.

Oh, yeah, that's great.

There's no water getting in my nose.

That's actually cool.

-Not bad.

-That's not bad.

-Not bad.

-Is that a rock?

-It's fake coral.

You can stand on it if you want.

♪♪ -Oh, there's people watching us?

Oh, God!

[laughter] ♪♪ -That's the show.

Watch more Vegas All In stories and moments whenever you want to.

Go online and search Vegas All In PBS, and we'll see you there.

♪♪ -I'm all in.

-You know, we're talking about Las Vegas, so, yeah, yeah, I'm all in.