Kids give back to the ocean at Point Pleasant Park in Halifax

Kids were able to get a hands-on ocean conservation experience as part of Back to the SeaSociety's annual animal release party on Saturday.

The organization uses community aquariums as a way to teachyoung people about life in the oceans and to inspire them to protect it.

Magali Grgoire,the society's founder and executive director, said the animals were collected from ocean areas around Halifax earlier this year and placed in a community aquariumat the Alderney Landing Park in Dartmouth.

"People get to come in and get to learn about a bunch of local marine animals like sea stars, urchins, crabs," Grgoire said.

"Then, at the end of this season, these all get to go back to the sea."

Grgoire said many people walk through the park every day without realizing the diversity of life that exists just below the surface near the shore.