The Sharks Are Coming!
By Chris Lowry
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This massive state-of-the-art facility right under the CN Tower will showcase a number of world firsts. The Jelly Gallery will feature the largest jellyfish “kreisel” tank in the world. A kreisel slowly circulates water in a circular pattern to keep the jellyfish suspended at all levels of the tank. “We’re the first ones to ever do jellies in the floor, that you can walk over, and jellies in the ceiling tank as well,” says Dehart.
The Canadian Waters gallery includes a kelp forest and delicate sea anemones with a surge machine that simulates wave action off the B.C. coast. In the Arctic Waters exhibit, you will see greyling, which have iridescent dorsal fins like miniature sailfish. There will be a Great Lakes Basin exhibit, including the prehistoric-looking burbot, massive muskies and all kinds of fish that we usually see on the end of a fish hook.
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Toronto’s aquarium will be an important regional education facility, giving students access to a real marine environment in Ontario for the first time. “We are talking to U of T and Guelph, and we are already working with Dalhousie, they are holding our turtles and lobsters,” says general manager Peter Doyle. “We would also like the aquarium to be linked to local research issues in the Great Lakes and rivers of Canada.”
On a recent visit to Chicago, the great Shedd Aquarium seemed underwhelming to me. They appear to be dumbed down to a very juvenile level, with not much to offer for the more inquiring mind. Crowds of schoolchildren make it difficult to see the exhibits in the nested U-shaped corridors, an old design flaw. There are stuffed toy animals everywhere and no knowledgeable staff to be found. Will our gorgeous new aquarium be one more reason for Toronto to claim superiority over its rival to the south? Let’s hope so.
Looks really good.
