Every day, aquarium employees and volunteers prepare and distribute between 60 and 80 pounds of food for the 4,000 animals that call the Charleston attraction home. But while the patrons of Chez Aquarium include turtles, river otters, birds, fish and sharks, their menu surprisingly sounds a lot like something that would fetch top dollar on Market Street - with a few notable exceptions. In a place full of animals, you might expect a steady diet of smaller animals and fish, maybe even ground beef. A lot of our animals eat algae, and we can't let it build up on the tanks. It would restrict vision.
Collards fill that void nicely.
And meticulous attention is paid to how these dishes are prepared. Mistakes can easily upset the delicate balance of life in the aquarium. And spoiled or tainted food can be disastrous. These animals eat better than a lot of people I know. That doesn't count the salaries of the marine biologists, aviculturists and herpetologists who prepare the food and care for the animals.