Bay Soundings l The Pier Aquarium Prepares For its Grand, Grand, Grand Reopening

The Pier Aquarium Prepares For its Grand, Grand, Grand Reopening

How does an aquarium get ready for a grand reopening, the first in eight years?

In the case of The Pier Aquarium, it schedules a Grand, Grand, Grand Reopening, actually three days of celebration of its new look, new programming, new habitats and new ocean animals.

Photos courtesy The Pier Aquarium

The three-day event is scheduled Friday through Sunday, May 11-13, with activities focusing on the aquarium’s ramped-up educational program featuring the new aquarium “residents” and habitats. Hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday – which is also Mother’s Day so all moms will be admitted for free.

“We had been planning to revamp the rest of the original 1988 Pier Aquarium for some time,” said E. Howard Rutherford, executive director. “In 1999, we added a coral tank and a smaller touch tank; we’ve updated and added a lot more in preparation for our 20th anniversary that we’ll be celebrating next year. Let’s say we’ve started early!”

Equipment and tanks that weren’t operating as efficiently or effectively as possible and the need to update and add live animals led to a decision for a total facelift of the aquarium, located on the second floor at The Pier.

Clown fish, featured in the aquarium’s Pacific coral reef tank, and puffer fish (bottom left) in the new touch tank are the latest attractions at The Pier Aquarium. Ongoing activities also include hands-on programming like Manatee Adventures (lower right).

“Our market surveys confirmed the No. 1 reason why people visited The Pier Aquarium,” Rutherford explained. “They enjoyed watching the fish! Changing and adding live exhibits and providing more information about them generates excitement, and we’re all about generating excitement when it comes to learning about marine science.

“Our educational programming was created to promote the knowledge and understanding of the ocean, marine life, oceanic research, exploration and technology around the globe and in our backyard of Tampa Bay,” he said.

The new, expanded programming is the “Fresh Fish Theater” concept of providing an entertaining presentation about fish and their habitats. Scheduled daily from 1 to 4 p.m. are aquarium talks for groups of visitors or one-on-one with an individual. Fish feeding takes place at 3 p.m., and guest helpers receive an “Official Fish Feeder Certificate” attesting to their status.

Photo courtesy Tampa Hillsborough CVB

The Pier Aquarium occupies 2,000 square feet and has been providing community marine education since it was founded in 1988 in a cooperative effort led by Peter Betzer, dean of the College of Marine Science at the University of South Florida, and city officials. The aquarium is comprised of five locations at The Pier with static and live exhibits on the first and second floors, administrative offices and a classroom on the third floor, an outdoor exhibit called Water Walk along The Pier approach and the Education Station, a fully functional outdoor marine lab located a quarter mile away on Spa Beach.

The facelift and renovation feature a new four-section 860-gallon acrylic touch tank, a three-section Atlantic Ocean aquarium and new Pacific tanks featuring both coral reef inhabitants and invertebrate species. The cost of the aquarium upgrades, including physical facility improvements such as new carpeting and repairs to fixtures in the museum store, was estimated at $100,000.

Curator of Exhibits Kevin Kowzan developed the integrated plan and incorporated new and improved technology in designing the new tanks and their operating systems. All of the new aquariums were built by Suncoast Aquarium Inc. of St. Petersburg.

“What’s so exciting is that we now have state-of-the-art technology, the best that is on the market for fish, water and temperature control and safety,” said Kowzan. “We used existing components (lights, UV sterilizers that we had from previous tank upgrades) whenever possible in the redesign.”

The mission of The Pier Aquarium is to enhance the public’s understanding of the value and fragility of the local and global marine environment through research, education and personal experience.

The true “touch tank,” up front and center, features small mangrove animals such as whiting, banded tulip snails, arrow crabs, spider crabs, hermit crabs, pufferfish, hog choker, flounder, king crown conch, sheepshead, sea stars and three species of sea urchins in two aquariums.

A large tank for a shoreline habitat displays spiny lobsters and horseshoe crabs as well as red drum, toadfish and lightning whelk. The near shore display features five coral cat sharks, one three-foot bamboo shark, plus a spiny lobster and a horse conch.

The other aquariums include:

A three-tank 483-gallon Atlantic Ocean grouping: Jawfish, Atlantic and Moray Eel aquariums. The jawfish tank animals include yellowhead jawfish, pygmy angelfish, neon goby, convict goby and angular sea whip. The Atlantic display features queen angelfish, black bar soldierfish, balloonfish, scorpionfish, porkfish, cuban hogfish. No one will be surprised to see that the moray eel tank has only one resident.
A 448-gallon invertebrates aquarium holds animals without backbones and corals. Coral reef fish include bar goby, fire goby, various anthias species, skunk cleaner shrimp, blood shrimp, lawnmower blenny, blue green chromis, blue regal kole and yellow tang. Coral species include Montipora, Acropora and sun coral.
A 443-gallon Pacific Ocean Aquarium with residents including black lionfish, red lionfish, vlamingi tang, niger triggerfish, dogface puffer, zebra moray eel, blue regal tang, snowflake moray, Diana’s hogfish, Picasso triggerfish, foxface, bird wrasse, panther grouper and tomini tang.
A 382-gallon Pacific Coral Reef Aquarium (home of the “Nemo” ™ gang) with yellow tang, lipstick tang, Moorish idol, grey angelfish, false percula clownfish and coral beauty angelfish as well as invertebrates such as carpet anemone, frogspawn coral, sea whip, and blue linckia sea star.

Along with the new aquariums and displays, ongoing exhibits include:

A Sea of Sound
Into the Eye: Hurricanes!
Oceans: The Big Picture
Tampa Bay: Species of Concern
Florida Wetlands, the Highwaymen’s Legacy
Florida Red Tide
The Celebration of Water, a three-month observance featuring photography and craft displays, poetry and play presentations, hands-on science experiments, music activities and concerts
Walk for Water, also continues. This program is created in partnership with cultural arts and science organizations.

For a complete schedule of the grand opening events, visit www.pieraquarium.org or call 727-895-7437.

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