Levelling Up the Aquarium

The building works for the aquarium refurbishment and upgrade have really been progressing rapidly on site in the last few weeks and the new building is starting to take shape. The aquarium’s memorable entrance has changed, with the glass frontage and roof removed from the old reception area. The rear of the building is also being transformed; the external walls have been removed around the theatre corridor and touch pool area to allow for the expansion of the aquarium’s footprint. The extra floor space will incorporate a new lobster hatchery and a lab area for our husbandry team. As quickly as the walls have been removed, new ones have gone up and it’s great to walk through the new spaces, not just look at them on the plans!

The fish are remaining on site for the duration of the refurbishment works and the contractors are liaising with our team to do work around the display tanks with the animals largely remaining in their homes. So far construction has gone swimmingly, and the fish have been coping well with changes they have witnessed. We have been keeping a close eye on them for signs of stress or illness and are happy to report that they seem oblivious to the fact the construction is going on around them. Our animals continue to feed normally, and we have seen no indicators that anything is amiss in any of the displays.

The divers continue to dive a few times a week in the main Kelp Reef habitat, to feed the fish and clean the tank. We are still regularly retrieving mermaids’ purses from our breeding populations of sharks and skates which we take as another good sign. The eggs are removed and incubated in our shark hatchery, keeping the eggs safely away from greedy cod!

Changes are happening fast - check out our Beyond the Build Vlogs on YouTube to see some great footage of all that has been happening on site and what it looks like for now.