The Minnow has been wrapped up for the year. What did we learn?
It is more than a mobile attraction, it is a proof of concept.
The Minnow's final outing of the year was the Smoky Lake Pumpkin Fair. Nestled amongst a petting zoo, the little trailer attracted nearly a hundred visitors an hour over the course of the event. Visitors were thrilled with the art and the live aquatic insects locally sampled (and safely returned).
Fall season does have limited offerings in terms of aquatic species. We displayed leeches and snails, bioindicators that tell of the season's change and the change in the food web of our fresh waters as the air cools and the leaves turn.
Launched at the Edmonton Boat and Sportsmen Show in March, 2024 The Minnow has gone on to event like the Alberta Conservation Association's Kids Can Catch in Fort Saskatchewan, and the Fort Saskatchewan Canada Day festivities. Here, families marveled at the facility. The displays featured more exotic aquatic invertebrates, including daphnia, dragonfly larvae, and water tigers, highlighting differences in the spring versus the fall.
The big takeaway with projects like The Minnow is the power of the Story of Water. From the micro scale to the macro scale, interactive exhibits like this make for great vehicles to deliver important messaging around water and its conservation. A larger public attraction and a fleet of Minnows would be a boon for the province, allowing communities to showcase their waters through a decentralized model of public-facing attraction.
The features of The Minnow would also serve well in a main public-facing eco-tourism facility, leveraging a strong and growing tourism market to promote education and conservation around Alberta's waters. With interactive displays utilizing fantastic technologies to view the micro-scale and the macro-scale. After all, when we think of the Story of Water - from the ice-capped glaciers to the oceans and back again - Alberta is where the story starts.
The Aquatic Biosphere Project stands by its mission: 'To educate, inspire, and empower people to play an active role in the conservation of our aquatic ecosystems.' This mission, we learned, has the power to attract and invigorate an audience into important conversations on our water, and to attract visitors to peer into the water's edge. Watching people's faces light up with an understanding of this story, to see that inspiration means our mission is a success.
We are thrilled at the success of The Minnow, and the evolving Explore Water programming. Keep an eye out at an event near you for this exciting attraction.
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