Guam’s Inner Sea

This is a dream dive. You enter and are immediately surrounded by tropical fish of all sorts. The bottom is littered with coral, a shipwreck and even a World War II fighter plane.

It is shallow but clear and warm. It is hard to decide where to look first. A school of batfish swims by. Then a big marbled ray. Next you see sharks. There are blacktips, gray reef sharks and beautiful leopard sharks. They come close but don't threaten. And another odd fish, a guitar ray, swims overhead so close divers can see it's strange mouth and pointy nose.

Then a big green sea turtle swims right up. Off in the distance, a reef giant looms from its cave. A huge grouper big enough to swallow Jonah coasts menacingly into sight.

One of the best dive sites on Guam is located on Tumon Bay. The beauty of this site is that it doesn't require any gear. Visitors don't need to know how to swim. And they don't even have to go as far as the beach to make the dive.

Nestled in among the night hotspots at the north end of Guam's Tumon Bay is a place called Underwater World. Not a true dive site, but an amazing aquarium, part of the larger "Paradise Island" shopping and restaurant attraction.

This is the world’s longest walk-through aquarium. It’s made of 7 foot wide, 7 foot tall see-through acrylic under 10 feet of water.

This relatively new venue in Guam's tourism scene brings the reef to all ages. It holds one of those "world's largest" designations as the world's longest walk-through aquarium. This amazing complex made of 7 foot wide; 7-foot tall, see-through acrylic is a tunnel under more than 10 feet of water.

Divers can stroll at leisure using an audio guide that explains the various sections of the aquarium. Along the way visitors come nose to nose with sharks, rays, groupers, wrasse and other sea life, separated only by 3 inches of acrylic.

The aquarium is quick to point out that it has created underwater vistas normally reserved for only the most accomplished divers-a shark dive, a shipwreck visit or the discovery of a sunken war aircraft. Without getting wet or fearing the diver's bends, visitors can live the dream. The tunnel dive takes ocean lovers through various habitats, as they are found near-coast and offshore in the depths of the Pacific Ocean.

The highlight of most days is the shark feed. Underwater World divemasters and biologists enter the aquarium waters and set up between the shipwreck and the walkway to give a show for the visitors. Sharks, rays, turtles and even pufferfish gather around for a handout and it gets pretty crazy.

The wildest looking fish in the whole place is the shovelnose guitarfish. It looks like both shark and a ray, and has some of the characteristics of both. It has a long, thick body like a shark. It gives birth to its young, fully formed, like both the shark and the ray. It doesn't have a shark's pointed head and sharp teeth, but it does have the spread-out head, small mouth and flattened teeth of a ray.

The aquarium also has other tanks and displays and an educational area for children. At the end of the tunnel, visitors ascend through the water via an escalator onto the second floor. Here there are rare, deepwater nautilus, the quiet realm of a tank of large jellyfish and seemingly scary spider crabs that, according to legend, are known to feast on the remains of drowned sailors in the cold depths of the Pacific.

This portion of the exhibit is also home to the beautiful and exotic. Look for aquatic species such as living sea anemones, giant clams, coral, octopus, big moray eels, clownfish, potbelly sea horses and lionfish. And there's a kids "petting reef" of sorts where they can touch small marine creatures.

Jeffrey Mahon is the informative and enthusiastic general curator of the aquarium. A University of Hawaii Ph.D., he is particularly proud of the development of captive breeding of leopard sharks within the facility. Guests can see various stages of development. Pregnant females swim in the main chamber and drop egg casings. Biologists retrieve them and put them in a smaller tank. Other tanks hold various sized juveniles.

Education is a key to the programs here. The summer programs are packed with kids from all school levels. Underwater World's education programs are designed to increase public awareness and knowledge of coral reefs, oceans and the animals that depend on them. Through this, it promotes individual responsibility and stewardship for the environment.

In 1999, USAT (U.S. Aquarium Team, Inc.), an aquarium development company, completed construction at the Comete Guam Building next to the Outrigger Guam Resort and part of Gameworks and Sam Choy's. Underwater World opened July 4, 1999, and has seen many visitors come through the runways. People have even had parties, fine dining experiences and overnight stays.

A typical visit to the aquarium is a highly interactive 45 minutes to one-and-a-half hours. Guided tours are available in several languages.

New additions planned are the introduction of more mollusks such as giant clams, brought in from a clam farm in the Marshall Islands. Mahon also hopes to ship in the rare and unusual leafy sea dragons to share the tank with the seahorses. They also hope to offer a shark dive where people can actually come inside the tank with the shark feeders.

Guam's inland sea, the Underwater World, is a great place to visit and enjoy the beauty of the coral reef. Underwater World has a Web site at: www.underwaterworldguam.com.