SEA LIFE Minnesota Aquarium

SEA LIFE Minnesota Aquarium

Date opened	1996
Location	Mall Of America, Bloomington, Minnesota, USA
Land area	70,000 square feet (6,500 m2)
Coordinates	44°51′15″N 93°14′32″W
Number of animals	10,000
Volume of largest tank	500,000 US gallons (1,900,000 l)
Total volume of tanks	1,200,000 US gallons (4,500,000 l)
Website	www.visitsealife.com/Minnesota

SEA LIFE Minnesota Aquarium is a public aquarium located in the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, USA. It is home to more than 10,000 aquatic creatures, including a large collection of sharks, sea turtles, stingrays and freshwater fish. The 1,200,000-US-gallon (4,500,000 l) aquarium also features sea turtles, octopuses, and lobsters. Freshwater exhibits include game fish from the northern region of the United States, several giant catfish and a 180-pound (82 kg) alligator gar from the southern United States.

The aquarium includes a 300-foot (91 m) clear acrylic tunnel that lets visitors explore the underwater world while remaining dry. The aquarium also claims to have the "world's largest jellyfish collection" and the "world's largest underground shark exhibit".

History

The aquarium at the Mall of America was opened in 1996 under the name Underwater World. The aquarium took 18 months to build. In 2000, the re-opening of the aquarium changed its name to Underwater Adventures Aquarium. In 2008, the aquarium became a part of British-based Merlin Entertainments group of attractions, and was rebranded as a Sea Life Centres in March 2011.

In the summer of 2009, the aquarium debuted a brand new exhibit, Seahorse Kingdom, as well as a brand new touchpool for guests to interact more with sea life. This touch pool will be replaced with two new ones following the renaming.

In March 2010, Jellyfish Discovery was opened as the largest jellyfish exhibit worldwide.

Exhibits

When the aquarium reopened in 2011 as SEA LIFE Minnesota Aquarium, the visitor flow through the aquarium was reversed.

Ray Lagoon is the first exhibit, and features stingrays, a walk-over deck, and special viewing bubbles, after which they proceed to the Rock Pool, a touch pool that was opened in 2009.

Jellyfish Discovery features different kinds of jellyfish including pacific sea nettles, lagoon jellyfish, spotted jellyfish, blue blubber jellyfish, moon jellyfish, and cone jellyfish.

Seahorse Kingdom features six species of seahorse, including pregnant seahorse fathers and baby seahorses, and was added in 2009 along with the touch pool.

The Coral Caves is home to tanks of live coral and fish such as Clownfish and regal blue tang, which are popular with children due to the film Finding Nemo.

The Tunnel

After Coral caves, visitors enter The Tunnel, a 300-foot (91 m) acrylic tunnel that goes through four tanks: Rainbow Reef, Atlantis, Wild Amazon, and Sturgeon Lake.

• Rainbow Reef resembles coral reefs, and is home to schooling stingrays, puffer fish, and many others.

• Atlantis is themed to look like an Atlantis Temple, and with a volume of 500,000 US gallons (1,900,000 l) it is the largest tank in the aquarium. Atlantis is home to seven shark species: sand tiger sharks, nurse sharks, brown shark, wobbegong sharks, white tip reef sharks, black tip reef sharks, and zebra sharks. It also contains southern stingrays, giant shovel-nosed guitarfish, and green sawfish. Atlantis is also home to several sea turtles – two loggerhead sea turtles, two kemp's riddley sea turtles, and a Giant Green Sea Turtles which was added in March 2011. In addition, it has groupers, red snappers, red drums, pork fish, jacks, permits, and many more species. Visitors can go SCUBA diving in Atlantis and take home all the shark teeth they can find.

• Wild Amazon consists of an arapaima, arowanas, black pacu, midas cichlids, fossil catfish, pictus catfish, leopard catfish, tiger shovel nose catfish, leopard plocostamus, flagtails, silver dollars, and freshwater stingrays. This is meant to simulate the Amazon River, which has more freshwater species of fish than any other body of water in the world.

• Sturgeon Lake is a fresh water exhibit designed to simulate a Minnesotan lake or northern river. That is, with the exception of the alligator gars, which cannot be found naturally in Minnesota. The other species exhibited in this tank include turtles, gar, bass, lake and shovel-nosed sturgeon, common carp, small mouth buffalo, tiger muskie, channel catfish, and paddlefish, among others. This tank you can go SCUBA Diving in and hand feed the sturgeon fish.

Touch of the Wild Woods is the final exhibit in the aquarium, and features koi and red-eared sliders, a live gopher snake, and a 60 year old, 180-pound (82 kg) alligator snapping turtle named Brutus.

Promotions

A person wearing a Sharky costume roams the Mall almost daily, shaking hands with shoppers and posing for photos, accompanied by aquarium employees with discount coupons for the aquarium, and/or stickers for children. Sharky can also be found at many offsite events. Like many mascots, Sharky never speaks, though he clearly understands English and replies by pantomime. The aquarium offers a discounted special attractions pass with the Mall of America's other main attraction, Nickelodeon Universe. "Shark cages" placed in the mall offer photo opportunities for visitors.

The aquarium has several additional adventures for a fee, such as snorkeling or diving in the tanks, behind the scenes tours, educational outreaches, birthday parties, and sleepovers in the Shark Cove section of the tunnel.

Events

In February 2002, the aquarium hosted Minnesota's first ever caviar tasting, which featured an American caviar connoisseur, was the kick off for the 8th annual Twin Cities Food and Wine Experience, and gave all money raised by the event to Minnesota Public Radio.

In the summer of 2007, the aquarium celebrated the release of Prince's new album by wearing purple shirts, having an impersonator perform in the aquarium, and naming a guitarfish after the musician.

Incidents

On February 1, 2008, a young female white tip reef shark was attacked by a larger sandtiger shark named Jesse, in full view of the public. The young shark survived the attack and made a full recovery. The attack prompted her to be named Fishstick. This event was one of the most covered stories in the media at the time.

External links

Media related to Mall of America aquarium at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website