Georgia Aquarium flips for a new exhibit — dolphins

Mark Davis, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 6 May 08;

The Georgia Aquarium, never a small place, is about to get bigger.

Starting this summer, and for the next two years, crews will be at the downtown fishtank, adding a salt-water wing where its newest residents will splash and roll.

Those residents? Dolphins. Aquarium officials say they will build a $110 million dolphin exhibit where people can watch the creatures — swim with them, too.

The addition should open in November 2010, five years after the world's largest aquarium debuted to standing-room-only crowds.

"This has always been in our plans," said aquarium founder Bernie Marcus, who announced the expansion Tuesday amid a shower of silver confetti. "Keeping the aquarium fresh is very, very important to us."

The aquarium also announced a $1.5 million gift to help build a marine animal rescue, care and research facility near Marineland, outside St. Augustine. Marcus held up a surfboard-sized check to underscore the donation.

The dolphin exhibit will add two football fields' worth of space to the aquarium, which already encompasses more than a half-million square feet. The unnamed exhibit will comprise 84,000 square feet — a 30-home subdivision, more or less.

The wing will contain 1.3 million gallons of water. Artist depictions show a multi-storied building dotted with skylights, following Luckie Street's curve near the western edge of Centennial Olympic Park. Coca-Cola donated the land, officials said.

That should be enough space for a dozen or more Tursiops truncatus, the bottlenose dolphin. The exhibit will open with four, coming from the Dolphin Conservation Center at Marineland. The Florida facility will be a partner in dolphin research and breeding, according to officials from both facilities.

"The dolphins are all excited, especially the lucky ones going to Atlanta," said Marineland owner Jim Jacoby, who spoke from the Florida park in a simulcast appearance. In a holding pen behind him, a dorsal fin rose in a long, leisurely arc. It looked like a gray knife slicing blue paper.

The dolphins' arrival signals the departure of another warm-blooded species. A handful of sea lions, whose yelps echo outside the aquarium, will be sent to other facilities, officials said. The dolphin exhibit will be built on the site where the sea lions now bask and dive.

The dolphins also will be joining other cetaceans at the aquarium. The fishtank is home to Cold Water Quest, where three beluga whales twist in chilled waters.

Adding dolphins to the aquarium's mix of creatures — they range from whale sharks the size of speedboats to sea urchins that could ride in toy boats— is part of a long-range "wow" plan, Marcus said.

"This is the largest ... and best aquarium in the world," he said. "We think this will be a great addition to the aquarium."

Courtney Vail, a U.S. campaign officer for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, disagreed.

"I'm very disappointed with the Georgia Aquarium, but I can't say I'm surprised, said Vail, a biologist. "Dolphins are money-makers."

'Wonderful show'

Dolphins, according to a 2005 poll, are a hit. Four in 10 adult aquarium-goers named them their favorite swimming display, said Marilee Menard, executive director of the Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums. The association's members, whose ranks include the Georgia Aquarium, account for nearly all the dolphins in captivity in America — almost 400, from Florida to California. More than 25 U.S. facilities have them on display.

"They are very charismatic animals,:" said Menard. "People love them."

They're also protected by federal law. The Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 statute forbids their capture from national waters without a permit.

Worldwide, some species of dolphin are in trouble. The Red List, an international inventory of how well some creatures are faring, considers the Ganges River dolphin endangered, for example. The list does not address bottlenose dolphins' status in the wild.

Bottlenose dolphins should not be put on display, nor should people be allowed to swim with them, said former dolphin trainer Russ Rector. A resident of Fort Lauderdale, he is a fierce, frequent critic of marine mammal displays.

"If God had wanted dolphins in Atlanta, they'd be there, dude," said Rector. "They'll [aquarium] kill an animal quickly."

The aquarium has cetacean experts, and will add more to tend to the dolphin display, said Jeff Swanagan, the aquarium's president and executive director.

The display also will add to the appeal of downtown, said Spurgeon Richardson, president of the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"It will give people a major, huge reason to come back to the Georgia Aquarium," said Richardson, on hand for the announcement. "This is not a small thing."

Nothing about the aquarium is small, said Marcus, a cofounder of Home Depot. He bankrolled a quarter-billion dollars on the aquarium, transforming an under-used tract near Marietta Street into a display that has hosted more than 7 million visitors. The dolphins, he said, should continue bolstering attendance figures.

The aquarium will let people swim with the cetaceans, just as it does with Swim With the Gentle Giants, a program in which people can paddle alongside whale sharks. That initiative debuted earlier this year.

"I think it will be exciting," said Marcus. "I think it will be a wonderful show."

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By the numbers:

Square footage: 84,000

Cost: $110 million

Volume:1.3 million gallons. This raise the aquarium total to 9.5 million gallons.

Location: Luckie Street

Estimated opening: November 2010

Cost: General admission ($xx, currently) allows you to see the dolphins. A dolphin show, for which the price has not been set, would be extra through an all-aquarium pass.

Dolphin encounters: The aquarium also will offer a swim-with-the-dolphins program; the price has not been set.

Number of visitors to date: 7.25 million