# World's largest, 'most unique' aquarium set to open in Atlanta



## fish_doc

The whale sharks are the kings of the 6-million-gallon tank, their presence palpable even before they emerge from the murky darkness like massive star cruisers in a science fiction film.

Once visitors to the new Georgia Aquarium have seen Ralph and Norton - the only whale sharks on display outside of Asia - they'll still have at least 99,998 more fish to go.

When the aquarium, bankrolled almost exclusively by a $200 million gift from Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus, opens Nov. 23, it will officially become the world's largest by virtually all major standards.

It's expected to attract as many as 2 million visitors in its first year with what its creators say will be a one-of-a-kind take on fish tanks.

"It's going to be the most unique aquarium in the world," said Marcus, 76. "I don't want to say the best. (Status as) the best will come after people view it and decide."

The 500,000-square-foot aquarium, shaped like an abstract cruise ship looming over downtown Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park, will boast enough superlatives to give it more than a fighting chance at that designation.

It will hold 8 million gallons of water and be home to more than 100,000 fish. By comparison, Shedd Aquarium in Chicago - the nation's largest indoor aquarium for decades - has 5 million gallons and about 20,000 fish.

The Atlanta aquarium's pair of juvenile whale sharks, which could grow to more than 40 feet long, will give visitors a rare glimpse at the world's largest fish.

Also featured will be five beluga whales, two of them rescued from an amusement park in Mexico, that will take up residence in an 800,000-gallon tank.

"We're very much looking forward to it and we're expecting big things," said Kristin Vehrs, interim executive director of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association. "We know they are going to be doing state-of-the-art things at that aquarium."

The unusual fish on display, presentations that will include computer-generated images, spotlights and music, and the sheer size of the project have aquarium officials around the world buzzing - and jealous, Vehrs said.

The aquarium will include a wide array of saltwater and freshwater fish, including some from Georgia's waters. It will have a separate "education loop," with its own faculty and a curriculum crafted with state education officials.

And it will be more than just a huge aquarium. There's a 4-D movie theater, which shows movies with 3-D animation and other special effects, and a banquet hall that can serve a sit-down dinner for 1,100 people - catered by a company owned by celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck.

"Very early on, we even contemplated not calling it an aquarium," said director Jeff Swanagan, who has worked with Marcus the past four years after leaving the Florida Aquarium. "We really spent some time trying to think maybe there's a different word for what we are."

For Marcus, who made billions after co-founding Home Depot in 1979 with now-Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank Jr. and who remains the company's largest stockholder, the aquarium is a $200 million "thank you" note to the city of Atlanta and state of Georgia.

"When we came here, the people were just phenomenal," said Marcus, who was a top executive with Los Angeles-based Handy Dan Improvement Centers before being fired in 1978 after a run-in with his boss. "I have what I have today because of the people in this state."

The aquarium will be the centerpiece of a downtown Atlanta revival that is aimed at drawing millions more visitors to the Southern city each year. Already neighboring Centennial Olympic Park and across the street from CNN Center and the Georgia Dome, the aquarium will be joined in 2007 by a new World of Coca-Cola museum next door. The city also is a finalist for NASCAR's hall of fame that would be located in what is now a parking lot neighboring the other attractions.

Listed by the Chronicle of Philanthropy as one of the nation's largest charitable donors, Marcus says his Jewish faith teaches that those who have enjoyed financial fortune should give back to their community.

"This is a legacy my family can leave to the state," said Marcus, who initially planned to be the sole sponsor, but eventually took on corporate sponsors to expand the aquarium's offerings even further.

Plus, he said: "This is a lot more meaningful to me than a yacht."

Response to the aquarium has been largely positive, with more than 40,000 annual passes sold - 8,000 on the first day they were available.

But the project has been involved, at least tangentially, in some controversies.

Marcus became part of an emotional fight over an Atlanta ordinance banning panhandling in downtown's tourism district when he wrote a letter in support of the plan. Advocates for the homeless called the plan, which was approved in September, discriminatory.

A handful of animal rights groups protested the aquarium's plan to display whale sharks, saying the giant animals are more likely to die young in captivity. Aquarium officials, and some independent biologists, say those fears are based on old statistics and note that the aquarium's whale sharks were destined to become seafood when they were acquired.

And some Atlanta-area residents are complaining about the ticket prices and the aquarium's refusal, at least initially, to offer a family pass. For a family of five, the cost of individual annual passes will be nearly $250, while one-day general admission would run $137.50.

Planners say visitors will consider the price a bargain when they see what's in store for them.

Marcus, a man who knows something about successful ventures, said he knew Home Depot would take off when he learned customers were driving nearly two hours from Athens to his first store in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta.

He'll use a similar, if somewhat expanded standard, to determine whether his aquarium is a success.

"I'll know it's successful when we find out people are coming from all over the United States and groups are coming from other countries," he said. "When we see them coming here, then we'll know we were right."

***


*AT A GLANCE*

Opening date: Nov. 23
Gallons of water: About 8 million
Number of fish: About 100,000
Size of building: 500,000 square feet
Price tag: More than $200 million
Benefactors: Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus bankrolled the overwhelming majority of the project; corporate sponsors were invited late in the process and spent millions more
Location: 225 Baker St. in downtown Atlanta, beside Centennial Olympic Park and near CNN Center and, in 2007, the new World of Coca-Cola museum
Hours of operation: Sunday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-8 p.m.
General admission (includes tax): $22.75 for people ages 13 to 54, $17 for children ages 3 to 12, $19.50 for senior citizens 55 and older

***


*WHAT YOU'LL FIND*

Some of the fish and other animals that will be on display at the Georgia Aquarium (Organizers have not disclosed all the species that will be among the more than 100,000 fish in the aquarium):
Two whale sharks, the world's largest fish
Five beluga whales
Arapaima, the world's largest freshwater fish
Giant Pacific octopus
Sea otters
Giant groupers
White spotted guitarfish
Sea turtles
Stingrays
Hammerhead sharks
Seahorses
Yellow-head jawfish
Piranha
Electric eel
Asian small-clawed otters
California sea lions

http://http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/local/13154409.htm


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## Guest

any pics? i clicked the link and it said page cannot be displayed...


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## Georgia Peach

Looks like admission will be about $28 per person - give or take a few $ 

sounds great - cant wait for it to open - it will only be about a 2 hour drive for us!


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## Guest

lucky...lol


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## fish_doc

not sure why the link didnt work. It is just a link to the news story.
http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/local/13154409.htm

the aquarium website is at
http://www.georgiaaquarium.org/


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## fish_doc

> Looks like admission will be about $28 per person - give or take a few $


The website shows it as $$22.75 for each adult. It may have gone up now with the new addition.


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## fishboy

WOW..................enough said


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## fishfreaks

Wow, that sounds amazing!!! I will most definatly have to take a trip down there to see it!!


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## fishboy

i think we all should make a pilgrimage to georgia for this


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## Fishfirst

I just am wondering one thing... how are they keeping whale sharks alive in an aquarium... don't they need like 2 tons of plankton and the like a day?


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## predator

they apparently have the facilities to do it... *shrug*

sounds like a big order, but its apparently being done in asia... so it can be done


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## Dez

ye they do. al they do is eat plus they can be a very sensitive fish.


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## Fishfirst

sigh, no one asks "should it be done" although I am very excited to see it, having whale sharks in that kind of enclosure doesn't make my day... who knows though, they could be producing a lot of plankton a day...


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## mlefev

It sounds wonderful, but I have to agree on questioning people sticking fish in a man-made environment. Still, people need to see and experience how wonderful nature is to really appreciate what's out there. Maybe it will teach some valuable lessons about the sea-creatures on the planet. 

I still have to question sticking it in georgia though...hurricane territory. If the meteoroligists are correct, there are a good 10 years of nasty storms that will approach the gulf coast states. If I was to build something like this, I would seriously consider moving it into the interior of the US.


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## blixem

mlefev said:


> It sounds wonderful, but I have to agree on questioning people sticking fish in a man-made environment. Still, people need to see and experience how wonderful nature is to really appreciate what's out there. Maybe it will teach some valuable lessons about the sea-creatures on the planet.
> 
> I still have to question sticking it in georgia though...hurricane territory. If the meteoroligists are correct, there are a good 10 years of nasty storms that will approach the gulf coast states. If I was to build something like this, I would seriously consider moving it into the interior of the US.


The facility is in Atlanta, which is at least 3-4 hours inland from the closest ocean. We usually see one bad thunderstorm a year, maybe two, that winds up knocking down a few power lines and that's it. Put your mind at ease, not only are we not in hurricane territory, due to the Mountains on the NW throughout the NE side of the state, we rarely see any devestating weather here. The last "Blizzard" we had was back in '93 or '94, and the only tornados are spawned off the leading edge of powerful thunderstorms, just like anywhere else in the US.


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## fishfreaks

Ok guys!!! This morning on the today show theyre doing a special and matt laurer is at the georgia aquarium, he's going to go swimming with the fishies! They showed the whale shark, he's huge!! Anyhow that place looks amazing :-D Can't wait to see more on the "virtual tour" lol


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## fishfreaks

I hope this link works....http://us.video.netscape.com/video.index.adp?mode=2&pmmsid=1431998&guideContext=65.73 It's a short video of the aquarium


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## Chazwick

Thanks fishfreaks! I really enjoyed that, i'm in the UK and i think it's a bummer, that it'll be a while till i can visit it, Aww, man 
Can anyone direct me to a virtual tour of it, the one on the site doesn't work  lol


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## Ron the handyman

Alright I won't rub it in but I am going to it on Friday with a season pass


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## fishfreaks

Ron the handyman said:


> Alright I won't rub it in but I am going to it on Friday with a season pass


Lucky you LOL :-D You've gotta tell us all about it when you get back :wink:


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## AshleytheGreat

WAit is this the aquarium that the head/chief of Home Depot made?


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## Ron the handyman

AshleytheGreat said:


> WAit is this the aquarium that the head/chief of Home Depot made?


 Yes and I will tell all R.


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## fishboy

take pictures Ron. PLEASE!!!!!!!


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## Ron the handyman

I will see if I can and will post. R.


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## malawi4me2

I was there Wed morning when they opened the doors! It was SOOOOOOOOOOO awesome! I'm an annual pass-holder, and I already can't wait to go back! The exhibits are absolutely breath-taking! (And I even ate lunch one table over from Bernie Marcus and his family!!!) I'll post some pics! (Took 319!)


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## malawi4me2

And more...


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## malawi4me2

And even more... (Don't worry, I'm not posting all 319! LOL)


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## Guest

:shock: i want to go really bad now. lol


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## malawi4me2

..........


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## malawi4me2

Only a few more, I swear...


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## malawi4me2

Hmmmm... Have to type ten characters... LOL


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## malawi4me2

Okay... Probably the last one.. LOL


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## fishfreaks

Wow, those pics are so amazing!!! Thank you for sharing, I can't wait to go now!!


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## Ron the handyman

Baby_Baby said:


> I think u should be banned for mocking the users ;-)


Did I miss some thing??? R.


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## Chazwick

Wow, they are amazing, as somebody said, i'm not too thrilled about the whales and bigger creatures being kept.. but hey it's beautiful all the same.


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## Georgia Peach

Good Point - I am in middle Ga and the Aquarium is about 100 miles north from me. We really dont get alot of the bad stuff from hurricaines, but it is getting more and more fierce as the years tick by. 
I agree though that Atlanta wasnt the best choice even though I am very proud to live so close... :fish: 



mlefev said:


> It sounds wonderful, but I have to agree on questioning people sticking fish in a man-made environment. Still, people need to see and experience how wonderful nature is to really appreciate what's out there. Maybe it will teach some valuable lessons about the sea-creatures on the planet.
> 
> I still have to question sticking it in georgia though...hurricane territory. If the meteoroligists are correct, there are a good 10 years of nasty storms that will approach the gulf coast states. If I was to build something like this, I would seriously consider moving it into the interior of the US.


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## garfieldnfish

Well, I went there yesterday evening. It took about 1 hour and 20 minutes from the time I parked until I had my season pass in my hand. You had to have purchased your ticket already and needed to have an appointment to go there. If you just showed up without an appointment you would have been turned away. I stood in line at a quarter past 6, I had a 7 pm appointment and they closed at 9 pm. But I ran through it pretty quick and saw all the exhibits, except the movie and the tours. But you had to fight a crowd and I will definitely go back next month when the initial rush has leveled off some.
The set up is spectacular. Some of it was impressive but like everything in Atlanta made to make money. 2 gift shops, you pay extra for the movie and the behind the scene tours etc. 
While they have the whales sharks and the beluga whales and a few other really cool critters, I expected more variety. They may have 100.000 fish but you will find that the schools of fish are very large but the majority of the fish are the same kind. I am a great fan of the Tennessee aquarium and if you have seen both, the Tennessee one is more pleasing and has a much larger diversity of fish, especially since Tennessee has recently added a second building with salt water tanks.
I have the season ticket for this season but I doubt I will get it again next year as I will probably rather drive the hour to Chattanooga and actually observe fish rather then be entertained by the tourism industry and listen to soothing music instead of seeing a variety of fish. For instance, I only saw 2 royal plecos. There were a handful of freshwater fish in one aquarium that acutally sported some live plants, some fish you find at Walmart and a few otos. But to be fair I did rush through it and may have missed a lot. But my first impression is, it's larger, more expensive but I came away comparing the two aquariums and Tennessee won in my eyes.


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## Guest

poor whale sharks...................


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## Guest

Not really....
Why do you insist on posting pointless comments? EVERYWHERE?


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## mayastarocker

I think I heard it on ABC News on 13 about it. They had video and it looked awesome. I want to go sooooo bad!!!!!!!


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## bamafoev

i've been there its not as cool as you would think but still pretty awesome


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## Kyoberr

That looks so awesome. The only link that worked for me is the one that led me to the main website. That would be a ton of fun to go to sometime...


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## kuhliloach

have any pics?


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## Maximus

I heard on the news several months ago that they now have 4 whale sharks there. The other two were rescued from China or Japan (I forget which) because they were being hunted. I don't see the problem with them keeping whale sharks there, if they're in good health and all. It'll give us an opportunity to study a rarely seen animal, insight in how to further protect them in the wild, figure out how to breed them in captivity perhaps, and maybe someday help keep their population numbers healthy. I'd much rather see that being done than to see them being slaughtered into soup and sold on the black market.

I must make my way down to Atlanta soon :fish:


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