(Al Hartmann | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Children watch as a Gentoo Penguin streaks by underwater at the Living
Planet Aquarium in Sandy. The Loveland Living Planet Aquarium announced
its new expanded, state-of-the-art building in Draper will open March
25. New aquarium is triple the size of the old one; it will be 9th-biggest in U.S.
By Scott D. Pierce
The Salt Lake Tribune
It’s taken a bit longer than they’d hoped, but
the folks at Loveland Living Planet Aquarium finally have an opening
date for their new facility: March 25.
They closed the doors at their Sandy building in September
and hoped to have the construction completed in December, but building a
136,000-square-foot aquarium that will feature 74 exhibitions and house
thousands of animals in 600,000 gallons of water is no easy task. "With construction and with the animals,
there’s all kind of variables," said Living Planet Aquarium spokeswoman
Suzy Broadbent. "We’re excited that we’re finally close enough to
announce that March 25 date."
There’s much more involved than just moving
from the old site to the new home at 12033 S. Lone Peak Parkway in
Draper. The new aquarium is three times the size of the
44,000-square-foot Sandy facility — it will be the ninth-largest
aquarium in America — and patrons will immediately see big changes. The old shark tank was 15,000 gallons; the new
one is 300,000 gallons. It includes a 40-foot walk-through tunnel and
will eventually be home to 2,000 animals. The new penguin habitat is nearly 90,000
gallons, almost 10 times the penguin habitat in Sandy. It will
eventually be home to as many as 50 birds from three speciesThere was one touch pool in the Sandy aquarium; there are three in the new Draper building.
The Loveland Living Planet Aquarium will also
feature a 4-D theater. (That’s 3-D plus "additional sensory effects"
like "wind, mist, scents, leg and back ticklers and seat
vibration/movement.")
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