An ongoing complaint that I’ve developed after having
visited many aquariums is that they tend to be repetitive. Many have an Amazon rainforest, and a main
shark tank (almost always accompanied by sea turtles), and a coral reef, and a
touch tank or two. At the National Aquarium in Baltimore you take a ramp around the inside of the main oceanic
tank; at the New England Aquarium you take it around the outside. Tunnels have become a huge trend lately. I’m not saying that zoos don’t have an
originality problem as well – they do – but having your entire facility
confined to one building tends to promote uniform design and thinking. Sometimes, the aquariums start to blend
together to me.
There is little chance that a visitor to the Georgia
Aquarium will ever have a hard time remembering their visit.
Opened in 2005, the Georgia Aquarium, located in Atlanta, was largely funded by Home Depot founder Bernard Marcus with a donation of a quarter BILLION dollars. For almost a decade, it ranked as the world’s largest aquarium, being dethroned in 2012 by Singapore (which was later dethroned in turn by Hengqin, China). It is still the biggest in the United States; at 10 million gallons of exhibit space (more than four times that of the National Aquarium, twice as much as Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium). Built to resemble a ship breaking through the waves, the Aquarium looms alongside Atlanta’s Centennial Park, alongside the World of Coca-Cola and the National Center of Civil and Human Rights.
Opened in 2005, the Georgia Aquarium, located in Atlanta, was largely funded by Home Depot founder Bernard Marcus with a donation of a quarter BILLION dollars. For almost a decade, it ranked as the world’s largest aquarium, being dethroned in 2012 by Singapore (which was later dethroned in turn by Hengqin, China). It is still the biggest in the United States; at 10 million gallons of exhibit space (more than four times that of the National Aquarium, twice as much as Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium). Built to resemble a ship breaking through the waves, the Aquarium looms alongside Atlanta’s Centennial Park, alongside the World of Coca-Cola and the National Center of Civil and Human Rights.
Of the 10 million gallons in the aquarium’s tanks (as of
mid-2019, when I visited), half of that water is devoted to the facility’s
crown jewel and most unbelievable exhibit – Ocean
Voyager. I know of no equivalent
aquarium display that I have ever seen – when I saw it for the first time, I
found myself thinking that I was glad that I had already seen so many other
great aquariums, because if I had seen this first, I’d have been jaded and
unimpressed for the rest of my life.
Part of the awe was due to the sheer scale. Mostly it was due to the inhabitants. There are a variety of amazing animals in the
display – bowmouth guitarfish (shark rays), black-tip reef sharks, Pacific
grouper, green sea turtle, and longtooth sawfish among them. It took me several minutes to even notice
them.
That’s because Georgia Aquarium is home to two species of
marine giant that, until it opened in 2005, I never dreamed that I would see in
an aquarium. These are the giant manta
rays, spanning several yards across, sometimes called “devil rays” because of
the horn-like fins that flank their mouths.
And, of course, dwarfing even the mantas, there are the Aquarium’s
magnificent whale sharks. Four of these
giants, the world’s largest fish, each the size of a bus, cruise throughout the
tank. You can view them from a variety
of vantage points, including a tunnel, several small panels, and, as a grand
finale, through a massive panel of acrylic with theater-like seating in front
of it. It’s hypnotic to just sit and
watch. Wait long enough for the shock
that the whale sharks inspire to fade (but only a little) and you’ll start to
become attuned to the presence of the other occupants of the habitat, as they
will all eventually pass you by.
Compared to many other aquariums I’ve been to, what I also remember
about this experience was the silence.
No looping narration, no loud music, just a darkened gallery to sit and
admire some of the most unbelievable marine giants on earth.
Identification is aided by TV monitors mounted on the wall,
as well as flash cards provided at the entrance of this (and every other)
gallery. I had endless questions about
the sharks, from how the aquarium fed these plankton-eaters (despite their
bulks, the throat of a whale shark is only the size of a quarter) to how they
physically got them here (one of the transport crates in on display). Like many aquariums, Georgia Aquarium is
somewhat deficient in the signage department, though there are docents and
educators virtually everywhere, making it easy to get questions answered.
Getting into the Georgia Aquarium is not cheap, but I
probably could have just gone in at opening time, watched the whale sharks all
day, and then left, convinced that I’d gotten my money’s worth.
As it happens, there are several other
galleries radiating from the central lobby.
If any single other exhibit call can even attempt to rival Ocean Voyager, it would be Cold Water Quest. It doesn’t have the amazing grandeur of
the whale shark habitat, but it does possess a variety of the aquarium’s other
most popular animals in very attractive habitats. Focusing on the colder climes of the world,
visitors will pass displays of weedy sea dragons, Pacific giant octopus, and a
variety of other marine fish and invertebrates, spaced around the artificial
skeleton of a whale. I was especially
impressed by the display of Japanese spider crabs – I had never seen more than
one in an exhibit, so I assumed that they must be aggressive or territorial to
one another. Here, however, there were
several, politely side-stepping each other or lurking at the front of their
tank, greeting visitors eye-to-eye.
Most of the Georgia Aquarium’s warm-blooded residents are
found here, too. Southern sea otters can
be observed above and below the surface of the water, accompanied by video
narration of the Aquarium’s efforts to rehabilitate lost or orphaned sea otter
pups. Seabirds from opposite ends of the
earth can be seen in two habitats, again with above and underwater viewing. Horned and tufted puffins, along with pigeon
guillemots, occupy an Arctic habitat.
African penguins can be seen in a separate habitat, which is equipped
with small tunnels that allow children with knees in better shape than mine to
crawl under the water to watch the penguins swim, or pop up in acrylic bubbles
to view the penguins at eye level. At
the largest habitat, visitors can observe beluga whales, either from the floor
of the tank or from a catwalk near the surface of the water. Visitors who spend some time watching the
white whales cruising around their tank may notice smaller, darker shapes
periodically darting amongst them. These
are harbor seals – this is actually the first mixed-species habitat between the
two species that I’d ever seen (actually, the first mixed exhibit between any
seal or sea lion and any whale or dolphin that I’d ever seen), and I enjoyed it
very much, especially for the brief moments in which I got to see the two
species interact.
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