You usually waste no time running away from them. No one ever considers running to them.
Jellyfish, those stinging creatures that are avoided at all costs, now will have their own exhibit at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. Staffers are hoping the public will run to see them.
"Jellies: Phantoms of the Deep" opens Saturday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony by Frances Hughes Glendening, wife of the governor, and it will remain at the aquarium for two years.
"Jellyfish are just amazing animals," says Mark Donovan, senior director of exhibits and design.
"People have an image of them, especially in this region, such as you can't go swimming because of the jellyfish. But underwater, they are just beautiful. These animals are so captivating to watch."
The phrase made famous by Muhammad Ali, "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee," did not refer to jellyfish, but the phrase sums up the knowledge that most people have of them, Mr. Donovan says.
"After seeing a dozen mesmerizing displays, viewers will never again dismiss jellyfish as merely stinging nuisances in the Chesapeake Bay," he says.
The 2,700-gallon exhibit includes 11 tanks ranging in size from 50 to 450 gallons. The exhibit will showcase seven species of jellyfish in a 1,600-square-foot area. That area will be "pulsating, glowing and shimmering in special-effects lighting," Mr. Donovan says.
"This was especially fun for the design team," he says. "We've used lighting like in a theater. It will be like entering an entire water world."
The aquarium commissioned new music specifically for the exhibit, which is sponsored by NationsBank, and there will be computer screens and other educational information in the aquarium's Discovery Center.
Visitors will learn that not every fish they think is a jellyfish actually is.
For instance, some animals familiarly called jellyfish, like the Portuguese man-of-war, are not true jellyfish.
The exhibit will include East and West Coast sea nettles, known to swimmers because they sting; lion's mane jellies, which can have tentacles longer than a blue whale; moon jellies; plankton-feeding elegant jellies; small umbrella jellyfish; and lacy and delicate upside-down jellyfish.
Some species of jellyfish cannot be exhibited because of their size, danger or fragility, says Bruce Hecker, curator of fishes and life support. But visitors will be able to look at these jellyfish via video "portholes."
