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How do you feed a captive giant Pacific octopus or pick up an electric eel without getting zapped?

The Vancouver Aquarium aims to explain with a new series of shows it is dubbing Up Close.

The aquarium is home to the octopus, the eel and 50,000 other aquatic creatures. Staff are betting the routine jobs they perform every day as they tend to the facility's 150 species – from the dolphins and sea otters to the crabs and sea cucumbers – will give visitors chances they have never had before.

The program will allow randomly selected visitors into the animal care areas usually accessible only to staff and during the mammal shows. As well, aquatic experts and conservationists will be on hand to answer questions.

The shows run until April 30.

Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press