A public aquarium ( pl. aquaria ) or public water zoo is the aquatic counterpart of a zoo , which houses living aquatic animal and plant specimens for public viewing. Most public aquariums feature tanks larger than those kept by home aquarists, as well as smaller tanks.
25-639: Exploris is a public aquarium situated in Portaferry , Northern Ireland . The facility is the only public aquarium in Northern Ireland and it is located on the shores of the Marine Nature reserve of Strangford Lough , which is an important winter migration destination for many wading and sea birds . The lough is home to almost 75% of the marine species found in Northern Ireland, including common seals , basking sharks and brent geese . Three quarters of
50-558: A day, but gave greater emphasis to groundbreaking scientific research . The aquarium also captured other orcas, belugas , narwhals and dolphins . The Monterey Bay Aquarium was the first public aquarium to display a great white shark . Beginning in September 2004, the Outer Bay exhibit (now the Open Sea galleries) was the home to the first in a series of great white sharks. The shark was at
75-572: A multiple-story Atlantic Coral Reef. The Monterey Bay Aquarium has a shallow tank filled with common types of rays which visitors are encouraged to touch. The South Carolina Aquarium lets visitors feed the rays in their Saltmarsh Aviary exhibit. The largest public aquarium is the Chimelong Ocean Kingdom theme park, opened in 2014 in Hengqin , Zhuhai , with a total of 48.75 million litres (12.87 million US gal) of water. The second largest
100-491: Is the Marine Life Park in southern Singapore with a total of 45 million litres (12 million US gal) of water for more than 100,000 marine animals of over 800 species. Most public aquariums are located close to the ocean , for a steady supply of natural seawater. An inland pioneer was Chicago's Shedd Aquarium that received seawater shipped by rail in special tank cars. The early (1911) Philadelphia Aquarium , built in
125-599: The Florida Aquarium , have aquatic aviaries . Modern aquariums also include land animals and plants that spend time in or near the water. For marketing purposes, many aquariums promote special exhibits, in addition to their permanent collections. Some have aquatic versions of a petting zoo . The National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland houses several exhibits including the Upland Tropical Rain Forest and
150-489: The Hamburg Zoo from 1863 to 1866, served until 1874. With its emphasis on education , the public aquarium was designed like a grotto, part of it made of natural rock. The Geologische Grotte depicted "the strata of the earth 's crust ". The grotto also featured birds and pools for seals . The Aquarium Unter den Linden was a three-story building. Machinery and water tanks were on the ground floor, and aquarium basins for
175-963: The Jardin d'Acclimatation in Paris and the Viennese Aquarium Salon (both founded 1860), the Marine Aquarium Temple as part of the Zoological Garden of Hamburg in Hamburg (1864), as well as aquariums in Berlin (1869) and Brighton (1872). The old Berlin Aquarium opened in 1869. The building site was to be Unter den Linden (along a major avenue), in the centre of town, not at the Berlin Zoo . The aquarium's first director, Alfred Brehm , former director of
200-642: The Mission District of San Francisco, California. The Gardens covered two city blocks, bounded by Mission , Valencia, 13th, and 15th Streets in San Francisco. The site currently has a brick building at 1700 Mission Street, built after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake , which features a California Historical Site plaque, and the Crafty Fox Alehouse on the ground floor (formerly a restaurant named Woodward's Garden). The former Gardens site also features
225-633: The Vancouver Aquarium in Vancouver , British Columbia , is a centre for marine research, conservation, and marine animal rehabilitation, particularly for the ecosystem of the Pacific Northwest. In 1964, the Vancouver Aquarium became the second aquarium to capture an orca , Moby Doll . He survived in captivity for just under three months, and the aquarium put him on display to the public for
250-458: The fish on the first floor. Because of Brehm's special interest in birds, a huge aviary , with cages for mammals placed around it, was located on the second floor. The facility closed in 1910. The Artis aquarium at Amsterdam Zoo was constructed inside a Victorian building in 1882, and was renovated in 1997. At the end of the 19th century the Artis aquarium was considered state-of-the-art, as it
275-628: The Charleston harbour. In January 1985, Kelly Tarlton began construction of the first aquarium to include a large transparent acrylic tunnel, Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World in Auckland , New Zealand. Construction took 10 months and cost NZ$ 3 million. The 110-metre (360 ft) tunnel was built from one- tonne (2,200-lb) slabs of German sheet plastic that were shaped locally in an oven. A moving walkway now transports visitors through, and groups of school children occasionally hold sleepovers there beneath
SECTION 10
#1733085747472300-485: The Environment. This article on a zoo , aquarium , safari park , dolphinarium , or aviary is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Public aquarium Since the first public aquariums were built in the mid-19th century, they have become popular and their numbers have increased. Most modern accredited aquariums stress conservation issues and educating the public. The first public aquarium
325-486: The Gardens. Woodward had bought the property from U.S. Senator John C. Fremont . Woodward's Gardens opened on May 1, 1866. In 1871, there was a series of "haunted windows" in San Francisco that made the news and were collected by Woodward and displayed in the museum. The first "haunted window" was reported on 2119 Mason Street in San Francisco, which brought crowds of spectators. An unexplained sad male face with baggy eyes
350-852: The Shedd Aquarium was the largest in the United States until the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta opened in 2005. Entertainment and aquatic circus exhibits were combined as themes in Philadelphia's Aquarama Aquarium Theater of the Sea (1962–1969) and Camden 's re-invented Adventure Aquarium 2005, formerly the New Jersey State Aquarium (1992). The first Japanese public aquarium, a small freshwater aquarium called " Uonozoki " (now Tokyo Sea Life Park),
375-454: The aquarium for 198 days (the previous record was 16 days). The shark was released on 31 March 2005. The Adventure Aquarium in New Jersey has hippos . The Aquarium du Québec houses polar bears . Woodward%27s Gardens Woodward's Gardens , commonly referred to as The Gardens , was a combination amusement park, museum, art gallery, zoo, and aquarium operating from 1866 to 1891 in
400-430: The city's disused water works , had to switch to treated city water when the nearby river became too contaminated. Similarly, the recently opened Georgia Aquarium filled its tanks with fresh water from the city water system and salinated its saltwater exhibits using the same commercial salt and mineral additives available to home aquarists. The South Carolina Aquarium pulls the salt water for their exhibits right out of
425-721: The current location of the San Francisco Armory , completed in 1914. Woodward's Gardens was owned and operated by Robert B. Woodward (1824–1879), who became wealthy during the Gold Rush of 1849 and through his ownership of the What Cheer House , a hotel and inn at 527-531 Sacramento Street at Leidesdorff Alley in San Francisco. Woodward opened the Gardens on the site of his four-acre estate after moving to Napa, California with his wife and four children. Early in his career, photographer Eadweard Muybridge took many photographs of
450-584: The day in rambling among shady groves, verdant lawns, flowery bosquets , lakes, streams and waterfalls, conservatories, ferneries, using the swings, the trapezes, the merry-go-rounds at will". In 1885, two balloonists participated in a race from Woodward's Gardens that ended in the East Bay - Alvarado and Mt. Eden. The Daily Alta California reported on the "Lively Ending to the Airship Race of Sunday". In November 1889, Woodward's Gardens housed Monarch . Monarch
475-507: The swimming sharks and rays. According to Samantha Muka, creating new public aquariums is an expensive process, that can become so expensive as to render the project economically unsustainable, due to the logistical demands of creating environments in which aquatic animals can survive. Public aquariums are often affiliated with oceanographic research institutions or conduct their research programs, and sometimes specialise in species and ecosystems that can be found in local waters. For example,
500-625: The world population of pale bellied brent geese spend winter in the lough area. Exploris illustrates and exhibits the large variety of animals that live in Strangford Lough. Exploris was closed in late 2014 for refurbishment. It reopened in August 2016 following an investment of close to £1.5m in refurbishment works by the operators, Crumlin Road Gaol Ltd., but also with the help of the Department of
525-782: Was again at the end of the 20th century. Before its closing on 30 September 2013, the oldest American aquarium was the National Aquarium in Washington, D.C. , founded in 1873. This was followed by the opening of other public aquariums: San Francisco ( Woodward's Gardens , 1873–1890), Woods Hole ( Woods Hole Science Aquarium , 1885), New York City ( New York Aquarium , 1896–present), San Diego ( Scripps , 1903), Honolulu ( Waikiki Aquarium , 1904–present), Detroit ( Belle Isle Aquarium , 1904–2005, 2012–Present), Philadelphia ( Philadelphia Aquarium , 1911–1962), San Francisco ( Steinhart Aquarium , 1923), Chicago ( Shedd Aquarium , 1929). For many years,
SECTION 20
#1733085747472550-405: Was appearing for more than five days in the window, and rumors spread that it was the ghost of the home owners deceased husband. Days later, nearby on 708 Lombard Street, another house had an older male ghost in profile in the window, which also drew a crowd of onlookers. In 1877, Miriam Leslie described Woodward's Gardens as "open to the public, who, for twenty-five cents each soul, may spend
575-602: Was one of the last known wild grizzly bears captured in California and more than 20,000 people attended the opening day on November 10, 1889. The venue attracted up to 10,000 people on major holidays such as May Day . The facility lost popularity after Woodward's death in 1879 and closed in 1891. When the Woodward family auctioned the 75,000 objects in the collection in 1894, much of it was purchased by San Francisco philanthropist and politician Adolph Sutro . Sutro displayed some of
600-519: Was opened at the Ueno Zoo in 1882. Modern aquarium tanks can hold millions of litres of water and can house large species, including dolphins , sharks or beluga whales . This is accomplished through thick, clear acrylic glass windows. Aquatic and semiaquatic mammals, including otters and seals are often cared for at aquariums. Some establishments, such as the Oregon Coast Aquarium or
625-798: Was opened in London Zoo in May 1853; the Fish House , as it came to be known, was constructed much like a greenhouse . P.T. Barnum quickly followed in 1856 with the first American aquarium as part of his established Barnum's American Museum , which was located on Broadway in New York City before it burned down. In 1859, the Aquarial Gardens were founded in Boston . A number of aquariums then opened in Europe, such as
#471528