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Island Images: Sea Life Park’s Shark Trek Tank

As legend goes, Kamohoalii, the Hawaiian shark god, enjoyed relaxing in the deep waters around Maui. Mists often hovered above the ocean there, obscuring views of land and disorienting fleets of fishing canoes.

Whenever Kamohoalii spotted canoes that were lost, he would swim up to them and shake his tail. Seeing him, the fleet’s leader would order a potent awa (kava) drink to be prepared and given to Kamohoalii. After the shark god had finished the drink, he would show the fishermen the way back to shore.

Hawaiians believe aumakua (ancestral spirits) can possess the bodies of living creatures, including sharks, to provide guidance to loved ones, warn them about impending danger, comfort them when they are sad or be helpful in other ways. An entire species is not regarded as aumakua; rather, one particular shark, for example, may be possessed by an aumakua for a specific purpose. Nevertheless, families who think an aumakua can appear as a shark consider the killing or consumption of any shark to be an act of disrespect to their forebears.

Feared and revered, sharks are the focus of a new exhibit and activity at Sea Life Park, both of which will open Friday. Gone is the Hawaiian Reef Tank, which was the first glimpse visitors had of undersea life after entering the popular marine attraction.

In the giant aquarium’s place is the 280,000-gallon Hawaiian Shark Tank — the park’s first entirely new exhibit in 30 years. Major modifications were made to the Hawaiian Reef Tank to accommodate about 17 young sharks that were collected from around the islands. These sandbar sharks, white-tip sharks, black-tip sharks, black-tip reef sharks and scalloped hammerhead sharks are between 3 and 6 years old and range between 3 and 41⁄2 feet in length.

Over the past six months, crews working on the $500,000 tank renovation repaired windows, improved the quality and flow of water, and removed obstructions.

"All the sharks in the exhibit except the white-tip sharks must constantly stay in motion in order for their gills to take in oxygen from the water," said Jeff Paw­loski, Sea Life Park’s curator, who holds a bachelor’s degree in zoology and has 34 years of experience in the marine animal field. "The Hawaiian Reef Tank had a lot of nooks and crannies where fish congregated and hid from predators. We removed those impediments to eliminate the chance that the sharks could get trapped in ‘dead-end’ locations. They now have an open space for uninterrupted swimming patterns."

On the 45-minute Shark Trek, intrepid visitors will listen to a safety briefing, then don a wetsuit, reef walker shoes and headgear equipped with an air supply system. Accompanied by their guide (a certified diver), they’ll descend a ladder to a sloped platform submerged 8 to 12 feet for close-up looks at the Hawaiian Shark Tank’s toothy residents.

From this platform they can continue down another ladder to a second viewing platform that’s 17 feet below the surface of the tank. Both platforms are surrounded by large stainless-steel "cages" that, according to Paw­loski, protect the sharks as much as the visitors.

Thanks to a two-way underwater sound system, participants will be able to hear the guide’s narration about sharks, ask questions and converse with him during their 20 minutes underwater. The sharks will not be fed during the activity, so they don’t establish a correlation between humans and feeding.

Showcasing native species was key to these shark experiences. "We made that decision for two reasons," Paw­loski said. "First, we didn’t want to import non-native species and risk the potential of injury or death, which could occur with a long transport. Second, while Shark Trek is fun and exciting, we also wanted to maximize the education value for our guests. Since Sea Life Park is in Hawaii, we felt the tie-in with the islands was essential."

Enhancing the Hawaiian Shark Tank experience is customized content developed by Pass the Proj­ects, a new Hono­lulu company that specializes in interactive digital media. The Sea Life Park app it developed can be downloaded on iPads and smartphones (it will be available for $1 at the Apple App Store and the Google App Store by Friday).

Visitors turn on the camera in the app, and as they tour the Hawaiian Shark Tank, they hold their iPad or smartphone over an object, which could be a photograph, artwork or poster about sharks. The app recognizes the object and delivers supplementary information about it to the device via audio, video, animation or a Web page.

Better yet, the information also can be accessed after visitors leave the park, enabling even avowed landlubbers to dive into the amazing realm of sharks any time they want.

"The ocean is a fascinating living museum," Paw­loski said. "Most people don’t realize a complex, beautiful, incredible world exists below the waves. Sea Life Park provides a window on that world."