On Saturday, February 7th, on the eve of Russian Science Day, enthusiasts from across the city gathered in the cozy hall of the Trium (=Mess Room) cafe for a battle of minds. The event organizers decided to host it as a pub quiz– a team trivia competition with rapidly growing popularity in Russia. Nine teams participated in the quiz, including the three ones representing the institutes of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (FEB RAS). Two teams were fielded by the parents of the children who are members of the “Growing Up at the Aquarium” project clubs and two ones represented the subscribers of the Primorksy Aquarium’s Telegram channel. There was also one team from the Institute of the World Ocean at the Far Eastern Federal University (IMO FEFU) and the one from the N.N. Dubinin School for Gifted Children. The team names showed that their members were not only well-versed in biology (“Ciliates”, “Curious Spotted Seals”, and “Tardigrades”), but also possessed a good sense of humor (“Evolution Laughed”, “Give Back My Mesozoic”).
Ocean Quiz consisted of six rounds, each featuring questions from different fields of knowledge. The first round focused on the Primorsky Aquarium, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2026. The teams had for example to identify the shell of which mollusk inspired the architectural concept of the Main Building, or to guess whose portrait helped the sculptor to create the statue of a majestic and wrathful sea god Neptune in the Sea of Japan/East Sea exhibit. The second round was Science, the third one was Culture and Entertainments, and the fourth one had questions on the numerous mysteries of seas and oceans. The final fifth and sixth rounds made the participants literally break a sweat. They could venture to choose the difficulty level of a question and even engage in an auction.
All teams fought fiercely for victory. An extra tie breaker round was used to determine the winner. In the end, the top spot went to the Far East Geological Institute (FEGI FEB RAS) team called “Give Back My Mesozoic”, the second to “Tardigrades” from the National Scientific Center of Marine Biology (NSCMB FEB RAS), and the third to “Curious Spotted Seals”, the team of the parents of children from “Growing Up at the Aquarium” project. All the top teams got prizes from the Primorsky Aquarium.
“Winning the quiz was a real surprise for us,” said Valeriia Gusarova, Leonid Utiupin, and Miron Kiselev, team members from “Give Back My Mesozoic”. “We were worried that we would compete with experts in ocean sciences and knew that we were out of their league. But all turned out for the best. The science round was the most interesting. It had a variety of questions from different fields of knowledge enabling us to learn something new in a game format.”
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We extend our special congratulations to the winners of Ocean Quiz: the FEGI FEB RAS has been cooperating with the Primorsky Aquarium since 2024. One of the ongoing joint projects is the opening of a new paleo café on the grounds of the Aquarium. Stay tuned for updates!
