(upbeat music) - Hi, I'm Matt.

- And I'm Nicole.

- And today we're in Schenectady, New York to head inside the Via Aquarium where curious creatures and cool science meet.

- That's right.

Aquariums are a great classroom experience where you can see an underwater ecosystem, get some hands-on activity, learn about the fish.

- Let's head inside and meet Tom, the general manager, and learn a little bit more about this charming little reef of wonder tucked inside the old Rotterdam Mall.

- Let's go.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - So Via Aquarium is a aquarium inside the Viaport Mall.

In November, we'll be celebrating our 10 years.

The way we set up the aquarium originally was as if you're traveling around the world.

So most of our big exhibits are patterned after different locations.

So we have like an Amazon river tank, Australian tunnel tank.

So it's to experience different locations in more of an environment as opposed to just one single species of fish.

We just want people to be able to learn more about the world around them, and connect with, if not all the animals, one in particular.

'Cause when people like something, they want to know more about it, then they fall in love with it, and then they want to save it.

And that's really what we want to do.

- [Noelle] Hi, guys.

How are you today?

- [Nicole] Hi, nice to meet you.

- It's nice to meet you.

My name's Noelle.

- Hi, Noelle.

- I'm gonna show you about the stingrays today.

- Cool.

- Yay.

- Okay.

- All right.

- [Noelle] We have a couple different stingrays in here.

- Yeah.

- Three males and six females.

- [Noelle] You could pet them with a flat hand or two fingers just on their backs.

- Hi.

I'm Matt.

Oh, they're very slimy.

- Oh, very slimy.

- So we're just gonna feed the little ones.

They're called cownose rays.

And to do so, you're gonna take a piece of their food, hold in your hand like an ice cream cone, or right in between your fingers, just like so, 'cause that is their sign that, "Oh, there's food around, we wanna swim up."

- Here you go, everybody.

Yum, yum, yum.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God!

(Nicole and Matt chuckle) - Good job.

(Nicole chuckles) Yeah, you see that?

- That was weird.

It was very weird.

- Now, I did grab a good piece of shrimp for ya.

- Okay.

- There you go.

(Nicole chuckles) - Oh, okay.

(water splashes) - Oh, goodness.

- Oh.

Oh, I'm a little wet.

- It's very normal.

(chuckles) - Oh!

Wow, that was cool.

- Yeah.

You never leave here with a dry shirt.

(all laugh) (upbeat music) - Oh, that's the weirdest thing.

(Matt chuckles) That was crazy.

All right, one more.

- [Matt] I got food.

- Oh.

- Oh, yeah.

Okay, all gone.

- We're gonna feed some koi fish.

These guys are really cool.

They're kinda a combination between carp and goldfish.

They have no stomachs.

- Wow.

- Yeah.

So they have no hunger cue telling them when they're full.

- [Nicole] Same.

- So we have to monitor how many cups that they eat a day.

They eat four to eight.

And these guys are super easy.

You just put the food in your hand, and you can just sprinkle 'em all in.

They'll come over and they'll find the food.

- I'm gonna put my whole hand in.

Here I go.

Oop.

(Matt chuckles) (Nicole warbles and chuckles) - Yeah, you can pet these guys too.

- Okay, guys.

- They don't have any teeth.

- [Nicole] Oh, look at their little... (Nicole warbles) (Matt chuckles) All right, everybody open up.

- There you go.

- Oh.

- Hi, guys.

- Gulp, gulp, gulp.

(Matt trills) Say ah.

Gulp, gulp, gulp.

(Matt laughs) Gulp, gulp.

Gulp, gulp, gulp.

(fish snarfing) - Wow.

- Can you hear the noise?

(fish snarfing) - [Matt] Which ones did you like better?

The stingray or these guys?

- I may have liked the fish.

(Matt and Nicole chuckle) That was really fun.

- Yeah.

- Great.

Thank you.

- This was awesome.

Thank you so much.

- Of course.

Of course.

- All right, keep going.

More to see.

(upbeat music) - For malls to stay sustainable, they needed to look different ways.

Rotterdam is focusing on education and entertainment.

To me, if there was a child who was here today, you know, and fell in love with our horseshoe crabs, and decided they never wanted to see another horseshoe crab in captivity again because they loved them so much, we're on different sides of the same coin.

But that's a huge win for me.

- Ah!

- Cheese.

(chuckles) - Thank you for joining us on this episode of "Field Trip."

- Yeah, we had a lot of fun today exploring the Via Aquarium, but be sure to visit wmht.org/fieldtrip, and let us know where you think we should go next.

- We should go next.

(upbeat music) Ah!

(chuckles) That's right, aquariums are a great classroom experience where you can get hands-on activity, meeting fish in all tor... types of things.

- Tortoises!

- Is there room?

- Yeah.

Kind of.

(upbeat music continues) (Nicole chuckles) It's very tight in here.

(Nicole laughs) HR?

- Make your fishy face.

(lips smack)