Tourists sink teeth into shark exhibit in Myrtle Beach

A cluster of sharks lurked in a dark corner of Ripley's Aquarium earlier this week, but don't be mistaken, these hunters have become the hunted.

Seven-year-old Alex Hannah crept up in the middle of a tank of reef sharks, protected by a Plexiglas bubble.

"It was cool because I didn't get wet," Hannah, who was on vacation from Houghton Lake, Mich., with his parents, said Monday.

Thousands of tourists have hunted out the "Sharks: Perfect Predators" exhibit since it opened Saturday at Ripley's in the changing exhibit space, said Jessica Mula, Ripley's marketing assistant. The exhibit has the most interactives of any recent exhibits, Mula said.

One models a shark with half of its skin removed to show the muscles pulling away from the bone as it simulates a shark bite. That interactive was so large, they had to take the front doors off of the aquarium to get it inside, General Manager Peter MacIntyre said. Another shows how sharks spit out their stomachs if they have eaten something irritating.

Live aquariums include bamboo shark egg sacks, dogfish sharks and shark relatives, such as skates.

It took about a month to tear out the last special exhibit and install "Sharks." The exhibit will remain in place until next tourist season.

"It is what we bring to the market every year is a new exhibit so we will get repeat business," MacIntyre said in an interview last week.