Loveland Living Planet Aquarium Living Planet Aquarium News

Plans are moving forward to move the aquarium to a new larger, purpose-built facility.
Draper OKs plan to help The Living Planet aquarium move | The Salt Lake Tribune
Draper • Like a hermit crab, The Living Planet is outgrowing its shell and looking for a new one.

Brent Andersen, the nonprofit aquarium’s founder and chief executive, said it is planning to build a 180,000-square-foot building off Interstate 15 near 12300 South to accommodate the growing attraction.

“We started out in Salt Lake City with 10,000 square feet, and we currently have 43,000 square feet, but we have outgrown that,” Andersen said Tuesday night.

And the aquarium is getting some help from the city. The City Council unanimously voted to authorize Mayor Darrel H. Smith to sign a memorandum of understanding with the aquarium where the city will loan The Living Planet $11.7 million to build the new aquarium.

The agreement was originally drafted in December, but City Manager Layne Long said it needed some adjustments that warranted bringing it back to the council for approval.

Under the agreement, the city will take out a sales-tax revenue bond for $11.7 million to cover the city’s share of the project, as well as cover the first year of payments while the aquarium gets up and running. The original agreement only covered the $11 million construction cost.

The aquarium will get the remaining $7 million from donations and $2 million from the state.

Under the agreement, the aquarium will give the city title to the building and its exhibits. The city will hold that until the bond is paid off.
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Plans are to close the current facility in October of this year, and open the new aquarium in spring of next year.

Living Planet aquarium to double in size

There's good and bad news for the 38,000 Utah Country residents who visited the Living Planet Aquarium this year. The bad news: The aquarium is closing for six months beginning in October. The good news: When it reopens in a new location, it will be much larger, with many more animals and visitor experiences to offer.

"The Sandy location will close Oct. 31, 2012, for up to six months while we make way for the new aquarium which is scheduled to open in spring 2013," wrote aquarium officials in an email to members last week.

The new aquarium will open near the freeway in Draper, but the organization is still deciding between two pieces of property and therefore has not announced an exact location yet, director of public relations Angie Hyde said.

Visitors to the aquarium on Tuesday had heard the news and were excited.

"I think it's great, this is her thing," said Jim Watts of Salt Lake City, who was visiting with his 3-year-old granddaughter, Saylor Grace Warner, who has an annual membership.

Holly Patterson of Sandy brought her two children, ages 2 and nine months.

"We are absolutely excited," she said. "It is something different for them to do. They love to see the fish and frogs."

There is much to see here: jellyfish, eels, penguins, all kinds of bugs and frogs and fish, crocodiles, sharks, snakes, shellfish, Utah native fish and amphibians and much more.

To keep families with annual memberships happy during the move, the aquarium is offering two-year extended memberships priced at $24 for a child and $30 for an adult. Members get free unlimited admission as well as exclusive discounts, invitations and special offers.

Right now, the aquarium is 43,000 square feet. When it opens in 2013, it will be 90,000 square feet.

"Everything will be bigger and better," Hyde said. "The shark tank will be half a million gallons and will offer shark diving. We will add two more species of penguins. We are hoping to adopt another rescued sea turtle, and we ill have more species of sharks. We will have more species of jellyfish. The rain forest exhibit will be three stories high, and it will be expanded with free-flying birds and butterflies."

New admission prices have not been announced, but Hyde said that aquarium directors realize how important reasonable fees are to visitors.

"We are not even sure if the price will increase," she said. "We've tried to keep it reasonable. Membership pays for itself quickly. It's a very good deal."

To pay for the new facility, Draper is issuing $11 million in tax-exempt bonds, which will be paid for by the aquarium through entrance fees. Additionally, the aquarium has set aside $7 million toward the move.

"It will definitely be a nice economic boost for the city of Draper and the state," Hyde said. "It will put people to work."

She emphasized that the aquarium will be open as usual through October.

Read more: Living Planet aquarium to double in size
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The Living Planet Aquarium opens new River Otter exhibit in the Discover Utah gallery.
The Living Planet Aquarium Exhibiting Three New Animals and a Unique New Experience to enjoy Zoo and Aquarium Visitor News

Sandy, UT - Few animals convey a sense of joy and spontaneity like otters. Visitors to The Living Planet Aquarium this year will have three new animals and a unique new experience to enjoy. The playful river otter, native to Utah, promises new opportunities for wild discovery and fun animal observation. The North American River Otter Exhibit opens Thursday, January 12, 2012 at The Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy, Utah.

Undeniably cute, the river otter is a notoriously playful member of the weasel family. They love to swim, slip and slide, whether in the mud during summer or the snow in winter. They have even been observed playing tag and “juggling” pebbles with their front paws!! Three male river otters will be included among the Utah species featured in the Discover Utah Gallery. They come to us from the Long Island Aquarium in Riverhead, NY where they were born two years ago to wild-caught parents from Louisiana, where populations are so healthy that nuisance animals are often caught for relocation. “They need a new home because Long Island does not have room for this many adult otters, and because inbreeding will become a possibility as the youngsters grow” said Andy Allison, Curator of Animals. “Shortly after arrival to The Living Planet Aquarium the otters will be trained to enter their off-exhibit enclosures. They may rotate on and off exhibit to encourage more activity while on exhibit” said Allison. Trained aquarists will encourage the otters to demonstrate their species-typical behavior, allow them to exercise control or choice over their environment, and to enhance their well-being by offering them a variety of novel experiences. Enrichment items will comprise of different categories including olfactory (new smells), manipulative (something to play with such as food hidden inside something), habitat (new logs or rocks in the enclosure), food (like occasional treats they don’t see very often) and more.

At one time, river otters were found throughout most of Utah's waterways. Early records report regular sightings of otters. Large quantities of Otter were known to live in the streams of Utah in the 1830’s. It was soon after this that otters seemed to disappear from Utah's rivers, probably due to habitat degradation, water pollution and unregulated trapping during settlement times. Since the start of the 20th century, River Otters have not been abundant in Utah and are protected by the Utah Wildlife Code. Trapping and hunting North American River Otters is currently prohibited. The exhibit will educate visitors about river otters, otter reintroduction efforts, and release locations in Utah. Preview the otters in their new habitat here tlpaotters.MOV - YouTube. The North American River Otter Exhibit is made possible by the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation.

Aquarium members will be allowed into the facility 1 hour early at 9am Thursday, January 12 for an exclusive “Members Only Sneak Peek” of the new exhibit. Membership card must be present for Aquarium entrance.
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I just posted some pictures of the graphics which were on display at the aquarium talking about what the new aquarium will look like. Some pretty cool stuff! Hopefully they get it all done in time for the opening in summer 2013.
 
I'm working on it! If we do everything that is on the docket then our new aquarium should be a pretty impressive place.
 
I just posted the actual concept art in the gallery. Mind you this is concept art so it is just rough ideas and themes, primarily to generate interest and excitement.
 
We got in Blacktip Reef as well as Grey Reef (AKA Blacktail Reef) which there is only one other aquarium in the US that has this species. Also we got a whitespot wedgefish and a giant shovelnose ray. We're pretty excited!
In a few weeks we will be converting the stingray touchpool into a cold water touch pool with cortez rays, bat rays, urchins, seastars, sea cucumbers, etc.
 
No, the aquarium will not be bought by Landry's, Sea Life or Ripley's... The aquarium is owned by the city of Draper and is nearly complete. It looks amazing and unique (if I do say so myself). There have been delays for all the reasons listed in the article above, but in my opinion, since I'm on the site every day and have been involved with it from conception, an aquarium ain't an easy thing to build! Each one is unique and the variables involved are enormous. There really are set backs (pipes that burst, tanks poured with imperfect concrete work, delays in materials, weather(!)) that block critical paths for days and sometimes weeks.
I can tell you that the people working on it are trying to make the best aquarium that we can. It looks amazing and people are going to be blown away.
 
Ah, good to know. It looks ok from photos on their facebook. Like, a mix of Ripley's and Denver. The bridge looks fun. Shark tank has a tunnel. Penguin exhibit is small, but the reverse j-shape window is cool. Utah section looks to be the best part. Did they even put in a Orinoco Crocodile exhibit? I know they are interested in holding some according to CAG.
 
I just uploaded 50 brand-new photos of the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium into the gallery, and I reviewed the facility while on my 20 day/65 zoo summer road trip.
 
Snowleopard I am looking forward to reading your review. (Did you already post it here?)
Fantastic photos. I'm especially excited since a lot of these were empty when I left the project in January. If anyone has any questions about how this aquarium was made I will be more than happy to detail the process- which may be of use to those who are designers or find themselves building for their own zoo or aquarium. Feel free to contact me in PM as well. It was a huge project and I was directly involved with nearly every step so I can give you a unique insight into how something like this gets made.
 
chrisbarela said:
Snowleopard I am looking forward to reading your review. (Did you already post it here?)
Fantastic photos. I'm especially excited since a lot of these were empty when I left the project in January. If anyone has any questions about how this aquarium was made I will be more than happy to detail the process- which may be of use to those who are designers or find themselves building for their own zoo or aquarium. Feel free to contact me in PM as well. It was a huge project and I was directly involved with nearly every step so I can give you a unique insight into how something like this gets made.
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Hi Chris,

is there already a Guidebook of the Aquarium available, or is it planned to publish one ?
 
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