| Blue Reef Aquarium | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | England |
| Owner | Aspro Parks (2008-present) |
| Website | www |
Blue Reef is a national chain of public aquariums [1] in England owned by Aspro Parks.
| Blue Reef Aquarium | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Location | England |
| Owner | Aspro Parks (2008-present) |
| Website | www |
Blue Reef is a national chain of public aquariums [1] in England owned by Aspro Parks.
Blue Reef was formed as Newquay Leisure Limited in January 2000. [2] In July 2001, Blue Reef acquired the Sea Life Centers in Portsmouth and Tynemouth and announced their intent in November 2001 to refurbish them under the Blue Reef name for an opening in 2002. [3]
In November 2007, Blue Reef announced they had acquired the Hastings-based attraction Underwater World from Hastings Heritage and would refurbish it as a Blue Reef Aquarium in time for 2008. On the same day, they also announced that they would also begin to operate Smugglers Adventure attraction nearby. [4]
On 7 April 2008, Aspro Parks announced the purchase of Blue Reef Leisure for an undisclosed amount. The purchase was for Aspro to expand its UK offerings. [5] On the same day, it was announced that Blue Reef would open a branch at At-Bristol in Bristol for 2009 at the former Wildwalk and IMAX Cinema sites under a 65-year lease. [6]
The Newquay branch is located in Newquay, England. This is the original branch that formed as part of the chain.
It is home to over 40 living displays, from tropical sharks and lobsters, to seahorses and tropical fish. [7] At the Aquarium’s heart is a large ocean tank, where an underwater walkthrough tunnel allows visitors a closer view of the tropical coral reef fish. Other displays are home to giant Pacific octopus, triggerfish, nautilus, cuttlefish, turtles, and terrapins.
In 2008 the aquarium opened "Tropical Shark Lagoon". Themed as a mangrove lagoon, the display is home to a variety of tropical shark and ray species. The display allows for close-up views, both above and below the waterline, of stingrays, zebra sharks, blue spotted rays, and exotic fish. The display is also home to a variety of juvenile species, which use the mangrove as a nursery before moving on to the open ocean.
In 2009, a four-foot polychaete worm, nicknamed Barry, [8] was eventually captured after months of trap laying. The polychaete worm had been damaging the coral reefs in a tank in the aquarium, in some cases ripping the coral in half. It also injured a Tang fish [ citation needed ]. As contact with the venomous bristles at the mouth of the worm can cause permanent numbness [ citation needed ], the worm was moved into its own tank.
The Portsmouth branch is located in Clarence Esplanade, Southsea, Portsmouth, England, which opened on 25 March 2002. [9]
The aquarium has over 40 living displays, home to various species including tropical sharks, lobsters, seahorses, and tropical fish. [10] There is a large ocean tank, where an underwater walkthrough tunnel offers close views of reef fish.
In 2007, the aquarium opened the Blue Reef Beach Club, a new outdoor activity area incorporating a wet play zone for children with fountains and giant showers.
These locations remain under Aspro Parks ownership but are now branded under more generic names.
The Tynemouth branch is located in Tynemouth, England, and opened on February 9, 2002. [11] It was formerly home to the Tynemouth Sea Life Aquarium.
It is home to many aquatic species, such as tropical sharks, lobsters, seahorses, and tropical fish. [12] At the Aquarium’s heart is a large ocean tank, where an underwater walkthrough tunnel offers close encounters with the tropical coral reef fish. Other displays are home to poison dart frogs, nautilus, toxic toads, turtles, terrapins, and otters.
At Easter 2007, the aquarium opened "Seal Cove". The naturally themed 500,000-litre pool includes rocky haul-out areas, underwater caves, and other environmental enrichment features, to ensure the seals are kept in near natural conditions.
In July 2019, the aquarium was renamed the Tynemouth Aquarium. [13] [14]
The Hastings branch is located in Hastings, England, and opened on 21 March 2008.
It was formerly home to Underwater World. [15]
The centerpiece of the aquarium is the coral reef, housed within a large ocean display, with an underwater walkthrough tunnel.
In January 2021, the Aquarium went under a 12-week remodeling and reopened in the spring of 2021 as the Hastings Aquarium.
The Bristol branch is located in Bristol, England, and opened in November 2009. It is located at the We the Curious science complex, in the former Wildwalk and IMAX Cinema buildings, which had closed in 2007 due to poor attendance. [16]
The aquarium is home to over 40 living displays which include tropical sharks, lobsters, seahorses and tropical fish. [17] At the Aquarium’s heart is a large ocean tank, where an underwater walkthrough tunnel offers close encounters with the tropical coral reef fish. Other displays are home to octopuses, puffer fish, electric eels, tropical sharks, terrapins, and giant Amazon river fish. It is the only aquarium in the UK to feature a giant botanical house, home to hundreds of species of plants and flowers from around the world.
The former IMAX space was retained as a cinema, which showcased various wildlife and nature films. However, in November 2011, the aquarium announced they would stop showcasing movies, although the space is still used for venue hire events. [18]
The venue was later renamed the Bristol Aquarium.
Shedd Aquarium is an indoor public aquarium in Chicago. Opened on May 30, 1930, the 5 million US gal aquarium holds about 32,000 animals and is the third largest aquarium in the Western Hemisphere, after the Georgia Aquarium and Monterey Bay Aquarium.
The National Sea Life Centre is an aquarium with over 60 displays of freshwater and marine life in Brindleyplace, Birmingham, England. Its ocean tank has a capacity of 1,000,000 litres (220,000 imp gal) of water and houses giant green sea turtles, blacktip reef sharks and tropical reef fish, with the only fully transparent 360-degree underwater tunnel in the United Kingdom. The building was designed by Sir Norman Foster.
The Seattle Aquarium is a public aquarium in Seattle, Washington, United States, located on Pier 59 on the Elliott Bay waterfront. The aquarium opened in 1977 and is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).
The New England Aquarium is a nonprofit organization located in Boston, Massachusetts. The species exhibited include harbor and northern fur seals, California sea lions, African and southern rockhopper penguins, giant Pacific octopuses, weedy seadragons, and thousands of saltwater and freshwater fishes. In addition to the main aquarium building, attractions at Central Wharf include the Simons Theatre and the New England Aquarium Whale Watch. More than 1.3 million guests visited the aquarium each year prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The National Marine Aquarium, which opened in May 1998, is situated in Plymouth in south-west England. It is the largest aquarium in the UK and houses over 5,000 animals.
The Seas with Nemo & Friends is a pavilion and aquarium located in the World Nature section of Epcot, a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. The pavilion is themed as an oceanic exploration base called SeaBase Alpha, with several exhibits devoted to oceanic study. The building includes an aquarium and its attached dark ride attraction, a talk show-type attraction called Turtle Talk with Crush, and the Coral Reef Restaurant. With 5.7 million US gallons of tank volume, the pavilion is also the second-largest aquarium in the U.S. and the sixth-largest in the world.
Sea Life at Mall of America is a public aquarium located in the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, United States. The 1.3 million-US-gallon aquarium contains thousands of aquatic creatures, including sea turtles, sharks, sawfish, stingrays, jellyfish and seahorses. There are eleven exhibits featured at the aquarium. The aquarium is highlighted by a 300-foot (91 m) 360° clear acrylic tunnel, which consists of four different areas housing both freshwater and salt water creatures.
John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park is a Florida State Park located on Key Largo in Florida. It includes approximately 70 nautical square miles (240 km2) of adjacent Atlantic Ocean waters. The park is approximately 25 miles in length and extends 3 miles into the Atlantic Ocean along the prominent Hawk Channel passage. It was the first underwater park in the United States. The park was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 14, 1972. The primary attractions of the park are the coral reefs and their associated marine life.
Kelly Tarlton's Sea Life Aquarium is a public aquarium opened in 1985 in Auckland, New Zealand. Located at 23 Tamaki Drive, it was the brainchild of New Zealand marine archaeologist and diver Kelly Tarlton (1937–1985).
The ABQ BioPark Aquarium, located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States is a facility of the Albuquerque Biological Park and is located next door to the ABQ BioPark Botanic Garden. The ABQ BioPark Aquarium exhibits Gulf of Mexico and South Pacific saltwater species from a variety of habitats, including surf zone, shallow waters, coral reefs, open ocean and deep ocean. The highlight of the aquarium is a 285,000 U.S. gal (1,080,000 L) shark tank with a 38-foot (12 m)-wide, 9-foot (2.7 m)-high, 8-inch (200 mm)-thick acrylic viewing window.
The Aquarium of Western Australia (AQWA) is a privately owned aquarium in Hillarys, Western Australia. Located approximately 20 km (12 mi) north-west of Perth City, it is a popular attraction for tourists and locals alike.
SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium is a public aquarium in Sydney, Australia. Opened in 1988, it features a large variety of Australian aquatic life, displaying more than 700 species comprising more than 13,000 individual fish and other sea and water creatures from most of Australia's water habitats.
Birch Aquarium is a public aquarium in La Jolla, a community of San Diego, California. It serves as the public outreach center for Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, with over half a million people visiting the aquarium each year.
Reef HQ is the world's largest living coral reef aquarium. It is located in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. The aquarium was built as a Bicentennial Commemorative project and is a part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA). The Coral Reef Exhibit has 130 coral species and 120 fish species along with hundreds of species of sea stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, brittle stars, feather stars, snails, worms and sponges.
UnderWater World Guam is one of the longest tunnel-aquariums in the world and the only oceanarium in the United States territory of Guam.
Coral reef fish are fish which live amongst or in close relation to coral reefs. Coral reefs form complex ecosystems with tremendous biodiversity. Among the myriad inhabitants, the fish stand out as colourful and interesting to watch. Hundreds of species can exist in a small area of a healthy reef, many of them hidden or well camouflaged. Reef fish have developed many ingenious specialisations adapted to survival on the reefs.
The Greater Cleveland Aquarium is an aquarium in Cleveland, Ohio. Occupying the historic FirstEnergy Powerhouse building located on the west bank of the Cuyahoga River in the city's Flats district, the aquarium, which opened in January 2012, consists of approximately 70,000 square feet (6,500 m2) of exhibition space and features 55 exhibits over 9 thematic concentrations representing both local and exotic species of fish. The facility is the only independent, free-standing aquarium in the state of Ohio and ended a 26-year period that the city lacked a public aquarium.
Palma Aquarium is a commercial aquarium and park that first opened in 2007 in Palma, Mallorca, Spain. The aquarium is the property of Coral World International. The aquarium is 500 m (1,600 ft) from Playa de Palma beach, and includes 55 tanks which are home to over 700 different species from the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. One tank, "Big Blue" is 8.5 m (28 ft) deep, the deepest shark tank in Europe, and it also contains the largest collection of live coral in Europe The park was awarded "Best Business Initiative in the Balearics 2007", awarded by Actualidad Económica magazine, and was awarded the "2007 Accessibility Prize" by the Consell de Mallorca.
Eilat's Coral World Underwater Observatory is a public aquarium, park and conservation center located in Eilat, Israel. It is the biggest public aquarium in Israel, and it hosts over 800 species. It was founded in 1974 and was the first of its kind. The park and aquarium is located to the south of Eilat's Coral Beach nature reserve.
Welcome to Tynemouth Aquarium – the new name for Blue Reef Tynemouth.
