NANFA-- Great Lake Aquarium in Duluth Minnesota

Mark Otnes (markotnes_at_email.msn.com)
Sun, 13 May 2001 10:42:02 -0500

My girl friend and I took a three day get-away to Duluth Minnesota and we
visited the Great Lakes Aquarium. I thought it was really nice. I had
heard complaints from a couple of people who had been there saying that it
"just" had freshwater fishes and nothing else. I found the exhibit
wonderful in that it really went into detail in explaining and the origins,
current state, and possible future of Lake Superior. The geological
exhibits were excellent as where the fishes in the aquariums. There were
species that would be almost impossible to see in the field such as
Deepwater Sculpin, Spoonhead Sculpin, Pygmy Whitefish, Round Whitefish, and
Ciscowet (a deep bodied subspecies of the Lake Trout endemic to Lake
Superior). There were numerous Coregonids and northern minnows on display.
Larger and more spectacular fish such as Lake Sturgeon and large salmons and
trout were also present.

There were also exhibits comparing Lake Superior to other great lakes in the
world such as Lake Nicaragua, Lake Victoria, and Lake Baikal that I found
very informative.

One exhibit claimed that Lake Victoria was only 12500 years old and had
about 400 endemic fishes. Can anyone confirm this age for the lake for me?
I thought the lake was a part of Africa's Rift Valley and would thus be very
old. I also thought it would take longer than 12500 years for species to
evolve (even after taking into account year-around spawning).

Mark Otnes
Fargo ND

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