Hey kids - put down your electronic devices on Saturday, July 11, from 10 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., as SHARKFEST! returns to the Calvert Marine Museum. This year’s event will be bigger and better than ever.

Back by popular demand will be the new and expanded SharkPoole with Doug Poole, sponsored by The Poole Foundation and Mercury Marine. The SharkPoole is a hands-on experience that allows children and parents to be up close and personal with members of the shark family. Doug Poole and staff will work in wet suits inside the 12 foot tank with the SHARKS allowing for four stations of visitors. A $3 fee is additional for the Sharkpoole experience. The additional fee goes to supporting the animals, keeping them safer and healthier.

The SharkPoole is the brain child of Mercury Marine Saltwater Pro-Staff Douglas Poole of Solomons. According to Poole, “SharkPoole is a way to teach children the facts about sharks – not the myths of man-eaters devouring every human they encounter – and that they need our help and respect.” As an avid fisherman and outdoorsman, Poole believes that hands-on experiences with his exotic pets are the most impressive way to reach and teach kids to be passionate about the outdoors and to be better stewards for the planet. Poole carefully monitors the children at the SharkPoole and shows them how to properly touch and hold the animals so as not to injure or harass them.

During SHARKFEST!, visitors will be able to touch the rough hide of a shark in the shark touch tank, have their photo taken in the jaws of a Giant Megalodon shark skeleton, and watch a slideshow on monitors to learn amazing facts about shark habits and habitats. The day will include fish face painting, a hands-on fossil exploration area on the boardwalk, shark crafts in the Discovery Room Loft, amazing fossil displays by the Fossil Club, and shark mural painting with the Color and Light Society. Enjoy hunting for a 20-million-year-old shark’s tooth in the Discovery Room and learn about the history of the whole world in our paleontology hall. All activities free with museum admission; Sharkpoole is an additional $3 fee.

Admission to SHARKFEST! and the Sharkpoole experience are free to Calvert Marine Museum members. For more information on SHARKFEST!, please contact Melissa McCormick at mccormmj@co.cal.md.us, or visit the museum’s website at www.calvertmarinemuseum.com.