National Aquarium of New Zealand
Encyclopedia
The National Aquarium of New Zealand, also known as Napier Aquarium is a public aquarium
in Napier
, New Zealand
.
The aquarium originally opened in its current location in 1976. In its first year of operation it attracted 230,000 visitors at a time when the population of Napier was about 50,000. In its first 5 years of operation over 750,000 people visited.
In 2002 the aquarium underwent a NZD $8 million dollar extension and renovation which included the addition of a 1,500,000L oceanarium with a 50m acrylic tunnel and the replacement of all the original tanks with newly constructed ones.
Aquarium
An aquarium is a vivarium consisting of at least one transparent side in which water-dwelling plants or animals are kept. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, marine mammals, turtles, and aquatic plants...
in Napier
Napier, New Zealand
Napier is a New Zealand city with a seaport, located in Hawke's Bay on the eastern coast of the North Island. The population of Napier is about About 18 kilometres south of Napier is the inland city of Hastings. These two neighboring cities are often called "The Twin Cities" or "The Bay Cities"...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
.
History
In 2002 the aquarium underwent a NZD $8 million dollar extension and renovation which included the addition of a 1,500,000L oceanarium with a 50m acrylic tunnel and the replacement of all the original tanks with newly constructed ones.
Exhibits
The aquarium boasts the following exhibits:- African Cichlids
- Asian Tropical
- Asian Paddyfield
- Discovery Centre
- Asian Water Garden
- Australian Out Back
- Water Dragons/Snake Necked Terrapins
- WaterfallWaterfallA waterfall is a place where flowing water rapidly drops in elevation as it flows over a steep region or a cliff.-Formation:Waterfalls are commonly formed when a river is young. At these times the channel is often narrow and deep. When the river courses over resistant bedrock, erosion happens...
- Coral ReefCoral reefCoral reefs are underwater structures made from calcium carbonate secreted by corals. Coral reefs are colonies of tiny living animals found in marine waters that contain few nutrients. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, which in turn consist of polyps that cluster in groups. The polyps...
- Fish Theatre
- TuataraTuataraThe tuatara is a reptile endemic to New Zealand which, though it resembles most lizards, is actually part of a distinct lineage, order Sphenodontia. The two species of tuatara are the only surviving members of its order, which flourished around 200 million years ago. Their most recent common...
- New Zealand Stream
- KiwiKiwiKiwi are flightless birds endemic to New Zealand, in the genus Apteryx and family Apterygidae.At around the size of a domestic chicken, kiwi are by far the smallest living ratites and lay the largest egg in relation to their body size of any species of bird in the world...
Enclosure - New Zealand Fresh Water
- New Zealand GeckosGeckOSGeckOS is an experimental operating system for MOS 6502 and compatible processors. It offers some Unix-like functionality including preemptive multitasking, multithreading, semaphores, signals, binary relocation, TCP/IP networking via SLIP and a 6502 standard library.GeckOS includes native support...
- Eels
- Hawke-Billed TurtleTurtleTurtles are reptiles of the order Testudines , characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield...
- Rocky Shore
- SeahorseSeahorseSeahorses compose the fish genus Hippocampus within the family Syngnathidae, in order Syngnathiformes. Syngnathidae also includes the pipefishes. "Hippocampus" comes from the Ancient Greek hippos meaning "horse" and kampos meaning “sea monster”.There are nearly 50 species of seahorse...
- OceanariumOceanariumAn oceanarium can be either a marine mammal park, such as Marineland of Florida, or a large-scale aquarium, such as the Lisbon Oceanarium, presenting an ocean habitat with marine animals, especially large ocean dwellers such as sharks.- Marine mammal parks :...
- Exhibition Hall