Underwater Adventures Aquarium
Encyclopedia
SEA LIFE Minnesota Aquarium is a public aquarium
located in the Mall of America
in Bloomington, Minnesota
, USA. It is home to more than 10,000 aquatic creatures, including a large collection of shark
s, sea turtles, stingrays and freshwater fish. The 1200000 gal aquarium also features sea turtles, octopuses, and lobsters. Freshwater exhibits include game fish from the northern region of the United States, several giant catfish
and a 180 pounds (81.6 kg) alligator gar
from the southern United States.
The aquarium includes a 300 feet (91.4 m) clear acrylic tunnel that lets visitors explore the underwater world while remaining dry. The aquarium also claims to have the "world's largest jellyfish collection" and the "world's largest shark exhibit".
-based Merlin Entertainments
group of attractions, and was rebranded as a Sea Life Centres
in March 2011.
In the summer of 2009, the aquarium debuted a brand new exhibit, Seahorse Kingdom, as well as a brand new touchpool for guests to interact more with sea life. This touch pool will be replaced with two new ones following the renaming.
In March 2010, Jellyfish Discovery was opened as the largest jellyfish exhibit worldwide.
Ray Lagoon is the first exhibit, and features stingrays, a walk-over deck, and special viewing bubbles, after which they proceed to the Rock Pool, a touch pool that was opened in 2009.
Jellyfish Discovery features different kinds of jellyfish
including pacific sea nettles, lagoon jellyfish, spotted jellyfish, blue blubber jellyfish, moon jellyfish, and cone jellyfish.
Seahorse Kingdom features six species of seahorse
, including pregnant seahorse fathers and baby seahorses, and was added in 2009 along with the touch pool.
The Coral Caves is home to tanks of live coral and fish such as Clownfish
and regal blue tang, which are popular with children due to the film Finding Nemo
.
After Coral caves, visitors enter The Tunnel, a 300 feet (91.4 m) acrylic tunnel that goes through four tanks: Rainbow Reef, Atlantis, Wild Amazon, and Sturgeon Lake.
Touch of the Wild Woods is the final exhibit in the aquarium, and features koi
and red-eared sliders, a live gopher snake, and a 60 year old, 180 pounds (81.6 kg) alligator snapping turtle
named Brutus.
The aquarium has several additional adventures for a fee, such as snorkeling or diving in the tanks, behind the scenes tours, educational outreaches, birthday parties, and sleepovers in the Shark Cove section of the tunnel.
In the summer of 2007, the aquarium celebrated the release of Prince's new album by wearing purple shirts, having an impersonator perform in the aquarium, and naming a guitarfish after the musician.
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...
located in the Mall of America
Mall of America
The Mall of America, also called MOA and the Megamall, is a shopping mall located in Bloomington, Minnesota, a suburb of the Twin Cities, in the United States. It is located southeast of the junction of Interstate 494 and Minnesota State Highway 77, north of the Minnesota River and is across the...
in Bloomington, Minnesota
Bloomington, Minnesota
Bloomington is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota in Hennepin County. Located on the north bank of the Minnesota River above its confluence with the Mississippi River, Bloomington lies at the heart of the southern...
, USA. It is home to more than 10,000 aquatic creatures, including a large collection of shark
Shark
Sharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago....
s, sea turtles, stingrays and freshwater fish. The 1200000 gal aquarium also features sea turtles, octopuses, and lobsters. Freshwater exhibits include game fish from the northern region of the United States, several giant catfish
Catfish
Catfishes are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the heaviest and longest, the Mekong giant catfish from Southeast Asia and the second longest, the wels catfish of Eurasia, to detritivores...
and a 180 pounds (81.6 kg) alligator gar
Alligator gar
The Alligator Gar , Atractosteus spatula, is a primitive ray-finned fish. Unlike other Gars, the mature Alligator Gar possesses a dual row of large teeth in the upper jaw. Its name derives from the alligator-like appearance of these teeth along with the fish's elongated snout...
from the southern United States.
The aquarium includes a 300 feet (91.4 m) clear acrylic tunnel that lets visitors explore the underwater world while remaining dry. The aquarium also claims to have the "world's largest jellyfish collection" and the "world's largest shark exhibit".
History
The aquarium at the Mall of America was opened in 1996 under the name Underwater World. The aquarium took 18 months to build. In 2000, the re-opening of the aquarium changed its name to Underwater Adventures Aquarium. In 2008, the aquarium became a part of BritishUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
-based Merlin Entertainments
Merlin Entertainments
Merlin Entertainments Group Ltd is a British operator of amusement parks and other attractions. It is the largest such company in Europe, and globally the second largest after Walt Disney Parks and Resorts....
group of attractions, and was rebranded as a Sea Life Centres
Sea Life Centres
Sea Life Centres are a chain of commercial sealife-themed attractions. There are twenty-six centres located in Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom , and the United States...
in March 2011.
In the summer of 2009, the aquarium debuted a brand new exhibit, Seahorse Kingdom, as well as a brand new touchpool for guests to interact more with sea life. This touch pool will be replaced with two new ones following the renaming.
In March 2010, Jellyfish Discovery was opened as the largest jellyfish exhibit worldwide.
Exhibits
When the aquarium reopened in 2011 as SEA LIFE Minnesota Aquarium, the visitor flow through the aquarium was reversed.Ray Lagoon is the first exhibit, and features stingrays, a walk-over deck, and special viewing bubbles, after which they proceed to the Rock Pool, a touch pool that was opened in 2009.
Jellyfish Discovery features different kinds of jellyfish
Jellyfish
Jellyfish are free-swimming members of the phylum Cnidaria. Medusa is another word for jellyfish, and refers to any free-swimming jellyfish stages in the phylum Cnidaria...
including pacific sea nettles, lagoon jellyfish, spotted jellyfish, blue blubber jellyfish, moon jellyfish, and cone jellyfish.
Seahorse Kingdom features six species of seahorse
Seahorse
Seahorses 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...
, including pregnant seahorse fathers and baby seahorses, and was added in 2009 along with the touch pool.
The Coral Caves is home to tanks of live coral and fish such as Clownfish
Clownfish
Clownfish or anemonefish are fishes from the subfamily Amphiprioninae in the family Pomacentridae. Twenty-eight species are recognized, one in the genus Premnas, while the remaining are in the genus Amphiprion. In the wild they all form symbiotic mutualisms with sea anemones...
and regal blue tang, which are popular with children due to the film Finding Nemo
Finding Nemo
Finding Nemo is a 2003 American comi-drama animated film written by Andrew Stanton, directed by Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich and produced by Pixar. It tells the story of the overly protective clownfish Marlin who, along with a regal tang called Dory , searches for his abducted son Nemo...
.
After Coral caves, visitors enter The Tunnel, a 300 feet (91.4 m) acrylic tunnel that goes through four tanks: Rainbow Reef, Atlantis, Wild Amazon, and Sturgeon Lake.
- Rainbow Reef resembles coral reefs, and is home to schooling stingrayStingrayThe stingrays are a group of rays, which are cartilaginous fishes related to sharks. They are classified in the suborder Myliobatoidei of the order Myliobatiformes, and consist of eight families: Hexatrygonidae , Plesiobatidae , Urolophidae , Urotrygonidae , Dasyatidae , Potamotrygonidae The...
s, puffer fish, and many others.
- Atlantis is themed to look like an Atlantis Temple, and with a volume of 500000 gal it is the largest tank in the aquarium. Atlantis is home to seven shark species: sand tiger sharks, nurse sharks, brown shark, wobbegongWobbegongWobbegong is the common name given to the 12 species of carpet sharks in the family Orectolobidae. They are found in shallow temperate and tropical waters of the western Pacific Ocean and eastern Indian Ocean, chiefly around Australia and Indonesia, although one species occurs as far north as Japan...
sharks, white tip reef sharks, black tip reef sharks, and zebra sharks. It also contains southern stingrays, giant shovelnosed guitarfish, and green sawfish. Atlantis is also home to several sea turtles – two loggerhead sea turtles, two kemp's riddley sea turtles, and two Giant Green Sea Turtles which were added in March 2011. In addition, it has groupers, red snappers, red drums, pork fish, jacks, permits, and many more species. Visitors can go SCUBA diving in Atlantis and take home all the shark teeth they can find.
- Wild Amazon consists of an arapaima, arowanas, black pacu, midas cichlids, fossil catfish, pictus catfish, leopard catfish, tiger shovel nose catfish, leopard plocostamus, flagtails, silver dollars, and freshwater stingrays. This is meant to simulate the Amazon River, which has more freshwater species of fish than any other body of water in the world.
- Sturgeon Lake is a fresh water exhibit designed to simulate a Minnesotan lake or northern river. That is, with the exception of the alligator gars, which cannot be found naturally in Minnesota. The other species exhibited in this tank include turtles, gar, bass, lake and shovel-nosed sturgeon, common carp, small mouth buffalo, tiger muskie, channel catfish, and paddlefish, among others. This tank you can go SCUBA Diving in and hand feed the sturgeon fish.
Touch of the Wild Woods is the final exhibit in the aquarium, and features koi
Koi
or more specifically , are ornamental varieties of domesticated common carp that are kept for decorative purposes in outdoor koi ponds or water gardens....
and red-eared sliders, a live gopher snake, and a 60 year old, 180 pounds (81.6 kg) alligator snapping turtle
Alligator Snapping Turtle
The alligator snapping turtle is one of the largest freshwater turtles in the world. It is not closely related to, but is often associated with the common snapping turtle. They are the sole living member of the genus Macrochelys--while common snappers are in the genus Chelydra...
named Brutus.
Promotions
A person wearing a Sharky costume roams the Mall almost daily, shaking hands with shoppers and posing for photos, accompanied by aquarium employees with discount coupons for the aquarium, and/or stickers for children. Sharky can also be found at many offsite events. Like many mascots, Sharky never speaks, though he clearly understands English and replies by pantomime. The aquarium offers a discounted special attractions pass with the Mall of America's other main attraction, Nickelodeon Universe. "Shark cages" placed in the mall offer photo opportunities for visitors.The aquarium has several additional adventures for a fee, such as snorkeling or diving in the tanks, behind the scenes tours, educational outreaches, birthday parties, and sleepovers in the Shark Cove section of the tunnel.
Events
In February 2002, the aquarium hosted Minnesota's first ever caviar tasting, which featured an American caviar connoisseur, was the kick off for the 8th annual Twin Cities Food and Wine Experience, and gave all money raised by the event to Minnesota Public Radio.In the summer of 2007, the aquarium celebrated the release of Prince's new album by wearing purple shirts, having an impersonator perform in the aquarium, and naming a guitarfish after the musician.