Vancouver Aquarium’s $45 million expansion is quite superb and it truly elevates the facility into the upper realm of North American aquariums. As someone who visits the establishment at least 6 times or more each year I see both the treasures and the flaws that are on show. One thing that is vital is that since the aquarium has broken its all-time attendance record for the past couple of years (now one million annual visitors) the expansion creates space for the crowds to thin out. With a 55,000 sq. ft. (5,100 sq. meters) expansion the packed throngs can now be dispersed a little more easily throughout the facility. It might not meet the approval of all zoo nerds who wish to see nothing but animal exhibits, but creating 3 new sets of washrooms, a large outdoor plaza that serves as a meeting area, an indoor restaurant, a locker storage zone, an Ocean Courtyard, a massive new gift shop, a guest services booth, a new ticketing corridor and an entirely new entrance is where the bulk of the money has been spent. The Teck Connections Gallery is a central hub with a 14-foot upside-down globe and 185-foot digital screens that offer up aquatic images for visitors and it is a gateway into the various galleries.
There are a number of new animal exhibits and they are all rather impressive. A trio of tanks in the Tropics section (Rio Amazonas, Western Ghat Rivers and Congo River Basin) are simple remodels of previous tanks. A couple of great new additions that include acrylic bubbles for visitors to pop their heads into have four-eyed fish and mudskippers, two species that I’m not sure the aquarium has ever showcased before. A new cave has been constructed for Jamaican fruit bats in the Amazon Gallery and a couple of tanks called Stanley Park’s Shores include species such as threespine stickleback and Pacific spiny lumpsucker. There is a lot of new signage in several different galleries, the aquarium map has been updated and redesigned, and the iconic “Chief of the Undersea World” orca statue (carved by Haida artist Bill Reid) is back in front of the aquarium exactly 30 years after it was first unveiled. It had been set aside for the past 2 years as the establishment had been under construction but to see it back in its former glory harkens the heart.
The real surprise was seeing 5 large new tanks as none of the early schematic drawings or news releases had specifics about fish in this first phase of expansion. Near the entrance and the Teck Connections Gallery there is a Coho salmon exhibit and a Lake Malawi tank with 5 species of cichlid. Both of these new exhibits are perhaps 20 feet long and 10 feet high and thus they are a welcome sight as one navigates through the opening hallway. A Coral Reef of the Red Sea exhibit highlights the entrance to the Tropics gallery and a B.C. Gulf Islands tank is near the entrance to the Pacific Canada gallery. The 5th and final huge new tank is called Tropical New Guinea and it focuses on the Fly River zone of that biome. Rainbow fish are in the spacious exhibit and pig-nosed turtles will be added shortly. A brand-new children’s zone has been built (Clownfish Cove) that features an Animal Hospital and this fairly small area is geared towards very young children. Perhaps best of all is a Changing Exhibits room that is currently closed to the public but has 4,250 sq. ft. of space that will feature rotating exhibits as years go by. Many aquariums have a rotating gallery section and Vancouver has not yet announced what the first temporary exhibition will be or when it will open.
The next step for Vancouver Aquarium is to begin construction on Phase 2 of the expansion, which will see the outdoor pools undergo a vast transformation. A doubling in size of the beluga whale and Pacific white-sided dolphin pools will allow for a flex habitat and many other alterations in a vastly expensive project. Current plans are for construction to begin in fall 2015 and a year-and-a-half later the new cetacean pools will make their debut in 2017. After that there is yet another phase of expansion that involves the revamping of the Treasures of the B.C. Coast, which is surprising as that is already a top-notch part of the establishment. However, with 100 protesters attending the opening night party of Phase 1 and several high-profile politicians creating waves in the press things aren’t all rosy for B.C.’s most popular attraction. Even though Vancouver Aquarium has not captured any whales or dolphins from the wild in almost 20 years (many of their marine mammals are rescue creatures) there has been a strong and active movement to urge the aquarium to phase out the whales and dolphins forever. Plans are still due to go ahead in terms of the doubling in size of the cetacean pools but it will be interesting to see if they occur as several facilities are rethinking their approach to maintaining cetaceans in captivity.
Where do all of the changes leave the Vancouver Aquarium in terms of its overall ranking amongst the great aquariums of North America? I’ve visited approximately 50 different aquariums in my lifetime and I think that with the new expansion I’d slot Vancouver into the #4 position. My top 3 of Shedd, Georgia and Monterey Bay are without equal in North America, but after that it is a tough call and Baltimore, Tennessee, Aquarium of the Pacific and Mystic would round out a top 7 in the United States that is all superb and truly world-class. Vancouver has marine mammals galore (beluga whales, dolphins, sea otters, harbour seals, northern fur seals, Steller’s sea lions) plus many other favourites (penguins, crocodilians, 25 amphibian species, mini walk-through rainforest, shark tank) that place the animal collection at the forefront. There is a lack of a truly knockout exhibit similar to what can be found at other great aquariums but the overall excellence is consistent. The attendance of 1 million per year; the conservation work and innumerable rescued animals; and the countless visitor amenities in the 55,000 sq. ft. expansion all contribute to an average visitor time of 3 hours and 30 minutes in the facility. If not already there then with a complete restructuring of the outdoor area by 2017 I believe that calling Vancouver Aquarium the #4 best aquarium on the continent is not an exaggeration.
There are a number of new animal exhibits and they are all rather impressive. A trio of tanks in the Tropics section (Rio Amazonas, Western Ghat Rivers and Congo River Basin) are simple remodels of previous tanks. A couple of great new additions that include acrylic bubbles for visitors to pop their heads into have four-eyed fish and mudskippers, two species that I’m not sure the aquarium has ever showcased before. A new cave has been constructed for Jamaican fruit bats in the Amazon Gallery and a couple of tanks called Stanley Park’s Shores include species such as threespine stickleback and Pacific spiny lumpsucker. There is a lot of new signage in several different galleries, the aquarium map has been updated and redesigned, and the iconic “Chief of the Undersea World” orca statue (carved by Haida artist Bill Reid) is back in front of the aquarium exactly 30 years after it was first unveiled. It had been set aside for the past 2 years as the establishment had been under construction but to see it back in its former glory harkens the heart.
The real surprise was seeing 5 large new tanks as none of the early schematic drawings or news releases had specifics about fish in this first phase of expansion. Near the entrance and the Teck Connections Gallery there is a Coho salmon exhibit and a Lake Malawi tank with 5 species of cichlid. Both of these new exhibits are perhaps 20 feet long and 10 feet high and thus they are a welcome sight as one navigates through the opening hallway. A Coral Reef of the Red Sea exhibit highlights the entrance to the Tropics gallery and a B.C. Gulf Islands tank is near the entrance to the Pacific Canada gallery. The 5th and final huge new tank is called Tropical New Guinea and it focuses on the Fly River zone of that biome. Rainbow fish are in the spacious exhibit and pig-nosed turtles will be added shortly. A brand-new children’s zone has been built (Clownfish Cove) that features an Animal Hospital and this fairly small area is geared towards very young children. Perhaps best of all is a Changing Exhibits room that is currently closed to the public but has 4,250 sq. ft. of space that will feature rotating exhibits as years go by. Many aquariums have a rotating gallery section and Vancouver has not yet announced what the first temporary exhibition will be or when it will open.
The next step for Vancouver Aquarium is to begin construction on Phase 2 of the expansion, which will see the outdoor pools undergo a vast transformation. A doubling in size of the beluga whale and Pacific white-sided dolphin pools will allow for a flex habitat and many other alterations in a vastly expensive project. Current plans are for construction to begin in fall 2015 and a year-and-a-half later the new cetacean pools will make their debut in 2017. After that there is yet another phase of expansion that involves the revamping of the Treasures of the B.C. Coast, which is surprising as that is already a top-notch part of the establishment. However, with 100 protesters attending the opening night party of Phase 1 and several high-profile politicians creating waves in the press things aren’t all rosy for B.C.’s most popular attraction. Even though Vancouver Aquarium has not captured any whales or dolphins from the wild in almost 20 years (many of their marine mammals are rescue creatures) there has been a strong and active movement to urge the aquarium to phase out the whales and dolphins forever. Plans are still due to go ahead in terms of the doubling in size of the cetacean pools but it will be interesting to see if they occur as several facilities are rethinking their approach to maintaining cetaceans in captivity.
Where do all of the changes leave the Vancouver Aquarium in terms of its overall ranking amongst the great aquariums of North America? I’ve visited approximately 50 different aquariums in my lifetime and I think that with the new expansion I’d slot Vancouver into the #4 position. My top 3 of Shedd, Georgia and Monterey Bay are without equal in North America, but after that it is a tough call and Baltimore, Tennessee, Aquarium of the Pacific and Mystic would round out a top 7 in the United States that is all superb and truly world-class. Vancouver has marine mammals galore (beluga whales, dolphins, sea otters, harbour seals, northern fur seals, Steller’s sea lions) plus many other favourites (penguins, crocodilians, 25 amphibian species, mini walk-through rainforest, shark tank) that place the animal collection at the forefront. There is a lack of a truly knockout exhibit similar to what can be found at other great aquariums but the overall excellence is consistent. The attendance of 1 million per year; the conservation work and innumerable rescued animals; and the countless visitor amenities in the 55,000 sq. ft. expansion all contribute to an average visitor time of 3 hours and 30 minutes in the facility. If not already there then with a complete restructuring of the outdoor area by 2017 I believe that calling Vancouver Aquarium the #4 best aquarium on the continent is not an exaggeration.
