I wanna preface that I haven't heard any word about when the renovations will start nor what plans are in store (other than it could most likely happen within the next decade or so, since there's still some money that needs to be paid back to the city for the loan they gave to complete the Ocean Pavilion, along with the Piers being on the water which makes major construction wonky)
But this is my speculation (and hope) for what might happen:
- Most of the major construction is happening to Pier 60 (that's where all the Birds, Mammals, Dome, etc are)
- There are some projects happening to Pier 59, but nothing insane.
- The mammals are definitely getting an upgrade. I think that's priority #1 for the plans since the enclosures are very, very outdated.
- The species should be staying (Harbor Seals, Northern Fur Seals, Northern Sea Otters, and North American River Otters), I'm not sure if there are any new pinnipeds in the plans, I'd imagine if the enclosures are big enough, we could see more Harbor Seals & Sea Otters. I hope Barney makes it to his 50's to be able to have some time in the new space at least. He was born here so since Day 1, he's lived in the same space for his whole life. He deserves the new space.
- The Shorebirds are also getting new spaces. I think there's a good chance we see some new species here especially since we lost our Long Bill Curlew a while ago (that was something I wasn't sure if I could share since the Aquarium's socials didn't say anything about it for some reason, even though "Uncle P" might've been the oldest Long Bill Curlew being at least 27 years of age.)
- The Dome is tricky because of it's shape, but because of how old it is, I think it'll get a modern refresh. If they do tear it down, I would love to see what they come up with it especially after how OP turned out. Maybe larger windows and less concrete being revealed, I'm excited to see what happens.
- Puget Sound Fish & Salmon should be updated as well. I would love to see Puget Sound Fish be transformed into something similar like what they designed for 'At home in the Ocean' since PSF are a lot of stand alone tanks. Having a more "flowy" design would help.
- One thing I'm really hoping we do is expand more on the freshwater section. IMO the big freshwater stream that we have that is used to show off Salmon is kind of a waste. We have a lot more Freshwater diversity here in Washington, and I know Salmon is a big part of the history, but we already have so much salmon spread throughout the aquarium, if we're able to highlight other species that people may not recognize (even amphibians like Newts would be cool), would be amazing.
Penguins are probably not happening since we still want to keep it mainly local species, and PDZA already has Magallenic Penguins and Woodland Park Zoo already has Humboldt Penguins (unless we went with African Penguins or a different species). So we'll just stick to the Puffins and Shorebirds I'm 99% sure.
More Sharks are also probably not happening as well (especially since we have OP now where most of the Sharks are anyways). Most of the species around here either aren't houseable in aquariums (ie. Salmon Shark, Thresher, etc) or rarely kept (Broadnose Seven Gill, Bluntnose Six Gill) so it'll likely just be the Spiny Dogfish still. Broadnose Seven Gills (Notorynchus cepedianus) would be amazing to have depending on what happens to Dome, especially since we used to research on them so maybe doing a catch, display, then release thing like Monterey Bay does could work) I would love to see more Skates since those have been absent from the aquarium for a very long time.
