The Florida Aquarium in Tampa Bay, US, has opened its new interactive Ocean Commotion exhibit which mixes audio visual content with live exhibits.

Visitors to the gallery will come into contact with Raldo, an animated shark reporter, which will interview six nominees for the "Golden Gill Award" – a mandarin fish, spider crab, clown fish, octopus, rhinopias, and mantis shrimp. Each "interviewee" is a real creature in its own exhibit.

US-based Electrosonic provided the exhibit's tanks with large LCD monitors to display the animated content. The video is fed from an equipment rack using video players.

Content will also be transmitted onto specially designed walls of mist, supplied by Finland-based Fogscreen.

Visitors to use their hands to touch the animated creatures in the underwater display, triggering informational pop-ups and prompting various real-world behaviors – a dolphin comes when called then solicits a belly rub, spins and chatters. This touch technology was supplied by Georgia, US-based Playmotion.

The aquarium's director of exhibits, Pete Colangelo, said: ""Visitors get a sense of the characteristics of each creature through their animated counterparts. That's what makes the gallery unique."