While Jack Jewell didn’t grow up near the ocean (he was born and raised in El Paso, Texas) and for the past two decades has lived in the middle of the desert, his whole life has been a love affair with aquatic animals. “I have been in love with fish my whole life,” he says. “I was always fascinated by the sea. It’s a lifelong love, it really is.”

And that love affair has guided his career. You can find Jewell surrounded by more than 1.6 million gallons of water smack-dab in the middle of the desert at Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay, where he’s the general curator. He’s been with the aquarium—Nevada’s first and only facility accredited by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums—since it opened in 2000.

Before settling in at Shark Reef, Jewell dealt in retail wholesale aquariums and tropical fish. Then he worked at Northern California’s massive Steinhart Aquarium as a freshwater aquarist before eventually joining a shark experience attraction near San Francisco. “That was the first time really working with sharks; I cut my teeth, so to speak, on sharks and learned how to care for them,” Jewell says. By 1998, he was looking to move out of California and, as luck would have it, he saw a job opening in Las Vegas, where he was hired as the aquarium supervisor for the massive lobby aquarium at the now-defunct The Mirage. “Then I heard they were opening Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay, so I immediately applied and I’ve been here ever since.”

As the general curator, Jewell’s main job is to oversee all the subdepartments, which include animal care, life support and diving. Animal care is day-to-day tending to the animals; life support is the mechanical aspect ensuring they have everything for animals to survive; and diving includes maintaining the environment that is critical to the animals, making sure everything is operating properly, and that the aesthetics of the exhibits are taken care of.

Jewell’s favorite part of the job? “No, don’t make me choose,” he says, laughing. “There’s nothing that I don’t love about this job, so it’s so hard to choose. But I’ve said it before—there’s nothing like diving with the animals; diving in the big tank, the shipwreck where more than 28 sharks call home, including three sea turtles.” Jewell is a certified diver with more than 3,000 dives under his belt, as well as a certified dive instructor in and outside of Shark Reef.

While it’s impossible to imagine Jewell not in, near or surrounded by water, he does have another love—music. For almost the same number of years as he’s been in love with aquatics, he’s been in love with music. For the past two decades, he’s played with an R&B and soul band as the singer and drummer. “When I fall in love with something I stick with it, as you can see,” he says, smiling. 

Product: Shark Reef Aquarium Retail

At the end of exploring the Shark Reef Aquarium—from the jungle portion with one of the country’s oldest Komodo dragons (he’s 27!) to the aquarium tunnel where fish swim all around you to the shipwreck where sharks lurk around every corner—you’ll be able to take a piece of the experience home by grabbing some goodies at the retail store. Some of our favorite finds includes branded plushies, glowing globes and shark and turtle keepsakes.

Benefit: Here’s a tip from Jewell: “One thing I really like to recommend is coming to Shark Reef in the later part of the afternoon (after 5 p.m.), as not only is it less crowded, but the animal viewing is far superior!”

Mandalay Bay, 702.632.4555. mandalaybay.mgmresorts.com

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