Gulf State Park Pier Shark Week July 24-28

Gulf State Park Pier Shark Week July 24-28
Family friendly activities ranging from hands on educational seminars to children’s arts & crafts are scheduled during the July 24-28 Gulf State Park Shark Week beginning at 10 a.m. each morning. All activities are free and will be held at Gulf State Park Fishing Pier.
One of the week’s highlights is a showing of Jaws on a big screen on the beach adjacent to Gulf State Park Pier at dusk on Friday, July 28, said Lisa Laraway Atchley, Gulf State Park Superintendent.
“This is something our educational staff came up with to coincide with Disney Channel’s Shark Week,’’ Atchley said. “We won’t have any live sharks, but we will have skulls and dissections and all kinds of fun games.’’
Shark Week programs include:
• The wonderful characteristics of sharks: Explore the shark from head to tail. Learn what makes them special like the ampullae of lorezini, spiral valve, and claspers.
• Sharks of the Gulf of Mexico: See pictures, and descriptions of the animals that you will find in the Gulf.
• Shark Safety: Learn about what to do and what not to do to in order to co-exist with sharks.
• Shark Lengths: Ever wonder how long a whale shark actually is?
• Shark of Attack: From the discovery channel website sharkopedia, learn three important things to remember about shark attacks, the deadly quartet, types of attack, and ways to avoid attack.
• Shark Dissection: Learn the anatomy of a shark. Discover them inside and out.
• Ray Tank: Get up close and personal with the sharks close cousin the ray.
Shark Week games include:
• Shark Fishing: Someone sits behind the board and when the children fish they get a free prize.
• Sharks and Minnows: One shark chases on the beach and pulls the tags off the children. Last minnow standing gets a prize.
• Shark Bingo: First to yell shark, not bingo, wins.
• Shark teeth sift: Kids can sift through sand to get one fossilized tooth.
• Clothes pins:Make sharks you can wear on your clothing.
• Bracelets: Make paracord bracelets that look like shark teeth.
• Posters: Kids can collectively color large posters.
Gulf State Park Fishing Pier is located at 20115 State Highway 135. For more info, visit alapark.com/gulf-state-park.