Den Blå Planet The Blue Planet

[condor]

I must admit I am surprised to see such a positive review from you

If you re-read my overview, you'll see that I mentioned problematic issues in 4 of the 7 aquarium sections I described in some detail. That hardly qualifies as overwhelmingly positive. In fact, it appears several of your concerns were the same I raised: rather empty main tank at this point, land part of African Great Lake section, artificial appearance of land Amazon section, sea lions (evidently designed for sea otters, sharing features with various N.American sea otter exhibits) and pillar 'cliffs' in Faroese sea. However, I'm certainly not as strongly negative about most aquarium exhibits as it appears you are, and stand by my recommendation in the final part of my earlier overview. Regardless, my favorite aquarium in N. Europe remains Nordsoen Oceanarium but this is primarily because of their large cold-water ocean tank. In my rating of aquariums worldwide, no European facility comes close to Okinawa (my favovorite in salt water) or Shedd (fresh water). Replies to some of your comments:

there seemed to be a lot of wasted space inside the building?

Definitely lots of space. In some parts they could actually place medium-small exhibits in the middle of the walkway and still have enough space for people. Elsewhere I've seen similar space used for amphibian/arthropod sections. Whether this could be done without destroying the light effects is unclear, but I guess that is irrelevant to most hardcore zoo fans.

isn't it [the coral tank] just one long square box? No immersion effect at all

Here we evidently focused on separate things. I mainly on the inhabitants and if the aquarium has the potential to make them thrive.

[the main tank] isn't that big

Whether just above 4 mio. litres is "big" can be discussed, but if it isn't there are very few big ocean tanks for sharks/rays. Worldwide I can only think of seven with 6+ mio l. (post #23; I did forget South Korea's Jeju + Valencia in that list, and the Atlantis Bahamas 3 mio l. shark lagoon shouldn't be included). Among these Georgia and Valencia are the only outside Asia.

those yellow fake corals [in the main tank] are GHASTLY.

I strongly dislike fake corals, fake gorgonians and similar, but this is something you'll find to various extent in most (but not all) larger ocean tanks around the world. I said it before in another thread:
Sure aquariums with ocean tanks can add a a bit of pseudo-reef or a sunken ship, but for the large, continuously swimming oceanic species they're just obstacles that take up valuable swimming space.
Admittedly, I have essentially given up on commenting on such fakes, as it appears to be a lost cause. I don't remember the last time I visited a big aquarium facility without them (disregarding aquariums with only fresh/cold water exhibits, of course). The only place where I feel OK about them are in coral reef tanks with corallivores. Based on the comments I've heard at several aquariums around the world, most ordinary visitors think the brightly coloured fakes are pretty

That brings up another pet peeve of mine (in general, not specifically related to Blue P): I suspect many aquarium visitors around the world think a typical deeper Amazon habitat has many aquatic plants and/or big bundles of dead tree roots all over the place. They'd be surprised if they actually visited the Amazon and saw how barren most deeper sections are in real. Even worse and done many places: Mixing Central American cichlids with Amazon species. Different water parameters, and many Central American cichlids are too aggressive/territorial/strong compared to most (but not all) similar-sized Amazon fish.

 

[aim_foliksta]

Condor, do you have any photo? The light conditions are "good" to take photos (assuming that is an aquarium and lights are usually "poor" for photography, specially using long focals)? I'm going to København in 2 weeks.

 

[condor]

I didn't take any photos. Photos taken by someone else a few days after the opening, but they mostly focus on individual animal specimens: Den Blå Planet - a set on Flickr

 

[condor]

aim_foliksta, I found a page with a few more photos showing some of the exhibits (most evidently taken before official opening):
Vanityfair.it: Il Pianeta Blu, il nuovo acquario di Copenaghen in Danimarca

 

[filipinos]

Wow, some impressive photos.

What i noticed is that the minor exhibits look better than the current central tank, where the back walls are clearly visible and it´s kinda of empty. Still, very nice!

 

[aim_foliksta]

Thanks condor!

In some photos seems that there are more light than others, specially at the tank where are the hammerheads....

 

[Bib Fortuna]

Is there already any printed Information materials of the Aquarium available-like guidebooks, Magazines, broschures or a book ?

I think, the webside of them ins't very good, not enough Information about animal inventory and the exhibits.

Any new species added to their collection within the past weeks ?

 

[Hvedekorn]

Well, there is at least a brochure. I can scan it if you want to, but it isn't that interesting as it doesn't tell more than the website and doesn't have pictures - and it's probably smarter to wait and see if someone who has actually visited replies to the thread, since they'll likely have all/the most of the available material.

 

[Bib Fortuna]

Thank you for that infomation. I wonder about the poor webside of them, which even isn't available also in english, and still no good informationmaterials of such a large and brand new Aquarium ist unusally, too.

 

[Johnny]

Yes, a VERY nice idea but very poorly done. The cliffs look like the designers took a trip to the Baboon Cave in Copenhagen Zoo and decided that the retro was the way to go. Essentially a big hole. Also, staff is unsure that the birds (when they arrive) will be able to get up onto the steep cliffs as there is no updraught in the exhibit.

I disagree. I have seen parts of the icelandic coast where puffins have their breeding ground, and those pillars there look similar, except for the colour.

But, lots of wasted space? I have been there in June, and the aquarium certainly is not designed for large visitor numbers.

The rest looks nice, not top of the bill, but nice enough. The Coral section wasn't very spectacular, but the glass and the see-through at the aquarium behind it gave it at least a touch of originality.

 

[condor]

I disagree. I have seen parts of the icelandic coast where puffins have their breeding ground, and those pillars there look similar, except for the colour.

Actually, thinking about it I do see that too (haven't been to Iceland, but I assume Svalbard is similar). Would be nice if they can change the color, but that may not be possible. The birds could go on temporary 'vacation' at Copenhagen Zoo's bird cliff. Comparably, I noticed that they used a blue background in several of their aquaria, which IMO tends to appear less natural than aquaria that use a black/gray background.

The Coral section wasn't very spectacular

There apparently was an incident with the new pump system. I don't remember the details but I think it was something with fresh water getting into the salt water system. The issue should be solved but they lost many corals from it. Starting almost from scratch it'll take some time before the corals built up to 'full bloom'. For the most part fish tend to be less sensible than corals and apparently weren't affected to the same extent.

 

[Johnny]

Actually, thinking about it I do see that too (haven't been to Iceland, but I assume Svalbard is similar). Would be nice if they can change the color, but that may not be possible. The birds could go on temporary 'vacation' at Copenhagen Zoo's bird cliff. Comparably, I noticed that they used a blue background in several of their aquaria, which IMO tends to appear less natural than aquaria that use a black/gray background.

I really don't know if the colour is unnnatural. I have seen these pillars in a grey colour, but perhaps elsewhere they look like this...... All I know is, the pillars are at least correct ( but, the same can be said about the bird cliff in Copenhagen Zoo, the pillars are no exclusive nesting ground. The rest of the Arctic Ring was very disappointing though......).

The blueish colour is not unnatural, actually, the other backgrounds are. Especially oceans are supposed to be open, so there shouldn't be a background!

There apparently was an incident with the new pump system. I don't remember the details but I think it was something with fresh water getting into the salt water system. The issue should be solved but they lost many corals from it. Starting almost from scratch it'll take some time before the corals built up to 'full bloom'. For the most part fish tend to be less sensible than corals and apparently weren't affected to the same extent.

I meant to say, I have seen more spectacular Coral display's, I wasn't referring to the living corals in the tank Display's like the one in Burgers, Lisbon, Sydney, Melbourne..... In Copenhagen it doesn't even compare to these. But it's a decent one, no doubt about it.

 

[condor]

Display's like the one in Burgers, Lisbon, Sydney, Melbourne

If you're going worldwide there's only a single living coral exhibit in Europe that deserves a mention: Burgers'. Several others in Europe are fine, but they don't quite make it when compared to the very top. Hardly surprising that Asia and Australia overall are ahead of Europe in this field (sourcing and, for most of Europe, temperature and length of day); arguably more surprising that North America is too.

The blueish colour is not unnatural, actually, the other backgrounds are. Especially oceans are supposed to be open, so there shouldn't be a background!

Yes, for tanks that are supposed to show the open ocean, but that's primarily relevant for the main, big ocean tank. Not the tank I was talking about; the norm in big ocean tanks is blue, gray or white, which works ok when the wall is quite far away. Most other smaller tanks feature coral reefs, stone reefs, muddy banks, aquatic plants and alike. In those a deep blue background is more problematic and IMO tends to be quite in-your-face (example: Aussie lungfish). It should be mentioned that some of the fresh water tanks where the background was visible had a greenish background instead and this works fairly well. Anyhow, numerous aquaria around the world use a similar blue background and in the end this is a matter of preference: Perhaps I've just visited too many aquaria when I start to notice that sort of thing
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Has anyone heard about possible developements on sea otters or alike? If I understand it right, the sea lions will return to Bergen Aquarium (where they originated) when they've finished the new facility there. Sure this may take some time, but it means that the Blue Planet exhibit will be empty. I heard they're still going for sea otter, but sourcing them is clearly not easy and I've not heard anything about this for quite some time. Still the plan or have they given up? I hope not, as the exhibit clearly was built for that species and matches its requirements better than sea lions (I'm sure the sea lions are fine, but it shows that the exhibit wasn't built for that species.)

 

[DavidBrown]

From Toddy's and condor's descriptions it sounds like this aquarium doesn't have penguins?

Isn't every major aquarium on the planet now required to have penguins? Does anyone know why this aquarium skipped them? Did they just want to be different?

 

[condor]

No penguins at BlueP. I guess they wanted to avoid overlap with nearby Copenhagen Zoo where they have Humboldt. The only clear overlap between Copenhagen Zoo and BlueP appears incidental: Sea lions (when BlueP couldn't get sea otters for opening) and seabird cliff (new in both Zoo and BlueP; perhaps they were unaware of each others plans before it was too late).

Obviously two very different collections, but I guess you can compare it to the San Diego penguin situation-Zoo vs. SeaWorld

 

[Johnny]

If you're going worldwide there's only a single living coral exhibit in Europe that deserves a mention: Burgers'. Several others in Europe are fine, but they don't quite make it when compared to the very top. Hardly surprising that Asia and Australia overall are ahead of Europe in this field (sourcing and, for most of Europe, temperature and length of day); arguably more surprising that North America is too.

Burgers certainly is top of the bill, but in Europe you also have the Oceanario in Lisbon. And their Coral exhibit also outranks Copenhagen. The entire aquarium does actually. I haven't been to Nausicaa yet, but theis also seems superior. And don't forget the formidable aquariums in Valencia.....

 

[condor]

My comment was aimed at your comparison with Australian facilities, i.e. "going worldwide". There are a handful of other nice living coral aquaria elsewhere in Europe (perhaps most unexpected including one in Schönbrunn zoo), but only Burgers' makes it when compared to the best in the world. Yes, I know Lisbon well; I used to fly to Brazil via Lisbon-Portela (now Schiphol). Nausicaa is fine. Among French aquaria I place it behind Brest overall, but I'm sure many prefer the former and as usual I struggle to make comparisons between saltwater only and salt+freshwater. A bit like comparing aquaria to general zoos. Valencia is excellent and overall my favorite in Europe (as I've mentioned elsewhere).
As usual, I've now gone quite a bit off topic! It may be a good idea to continue discussions on other aquaria in their own treads or in: http://www.zoochat.com/2/what-world-class-aquariums-world-what-275193/
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It looks like I may have a day or two in Copenhagen again in the spring. If I have the time it'll be interesting to see how things develope in BlueP. It'll also be interesting to see if the turaco has moved as someone claimed. As a forest/dense woodland bird, this was the species that really didn't belong in the barren land section at the African lakes aquaria. Other birds+hyrax are open country and should do better.
My first visit was midweek and not during any holidays; the crowds were perfectly acceptable. Based on comment by others, it's probably good that my next visit to Copenhagen also will be midweek and outside holidays.....

 

[Chlidonias]

has anyone got a link that shows the piranha tank at the Blue Planet? The gallery here on Zoochat is empty, and while I found some photos by googling they only show the cloud of piranhas -- I couldn't find any which showed the tank itself and what it looks like (e.g. the size, shape, design, furniture, etc).

 

[zoo chp89]

here is one picture on the tunnel with many fiches,rocks and sharks!
moore is coming ....

 

[MikeG]

Olive Sea-snakes (Aipysurus laevis) have arrived at Blue Planet from Australia.