Ocean Wise's AquaVan 150 Tour made a stop in Portage la Prairie yesterday afternoon at the Fort la Reine Museum.

Museum Media Programmer Miranda Moroz says the AquaVan received a great turnout.

"The AquaVan has gotten an amazing turnout and the museum has really benefited from having the AquaVan here. We're usually pretty busy on Sunday's anyway but I think it has definitely drawn a lot of people, who might not know about the museum, to the museum to learn about marine life. So, it's been great."

The mobile aquarium from Vancouver has been traveling across Canada since April, making a total of 150 stops to educate people on ocean science and connect communities with coastlines. Moroz adds it's wonderful the AquaVan 150 Tour picked the museum as one of their tour stops in rural Manitoba, noting having the aquarium here to educate the people of Portage about marine life is really cool.

"We don't have a lot of those native creatures here so it's very cool for people that don't typically see those creatures to be able to really get up-close and personal, and touch them, and learn about them."

Jessica Steele is with the Ocean Wise Conservation Association traveling with the AquaVan and shares what the AquaVan had to offer.

"We have mobile aquariums, so we have animals - invertebrates - that come from the BC coast that we're able to bring and we're able to talk about them and their adaptations and how people can feel connected to them. People can come and touch them and look at them. We also have tables with lots of different bones and furs and skulls that people can also look at."

Steele says the trip across Canada has been quite the adventure, noting it's been really neat to see so many communities across the country. She adds through programs like the AquaVan 150 Tour she hopes people will feel connected to their coastline and find ways to conserve the oceans.