SOME FISH STORY; L.A. AREA FINALLY GETTING AQUARIUM.Byline: Jennifer Bowles Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. When the aerospace industry went belly up and the naval station got the boot, it looked like Disney would bail the city out with an ocean-themed entertainment park. That turned into another sad story about the one that got away. ``When we realized that wasn't going to happen, we felt that with that much interest, we could do some development of our own,'' said Mayor Beverly O'Neill, who figures the city was stripped of 100,000 jobs and $1 billion as the decade took its toll. Fast-forward to 1998 and five acres at the harbor, where workers on a dusty construction site are putting finishing touches finishing touches finish npl the finishing touches → der letzte Schliff finishing touches npl → ultimi ritocchi mpl on the resulting project: the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific The Aquarium of the Pacific is located in the city of Long Beach, California at the mouth of the Los Angeles River. The aquarium features a collection of over 12,500 animals representing almost 1,000 different species. , set to open June 20. ``(The Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. area) is one of the last megalopolises that doesn't have a major aquarium,'' said Ken Yates, vice president of husbandry and facilities at the aquarium. ``We live on the coast. It made sense.'' Plus, Yates said, with an aquarium you get a ``dynamic, living thing. The animals are always doing something different. The `livingness' is what makes it different. You go to an amusement park amusement park, a commercially operated park offering various forms of entertainment, such as arcade games, carousels, roller coasters, and performers, as well as food, drink, and souvenirs. , the ride is always the same.'' Inside the aquarium, many of the tanks already are filled with colorful fish and coral, and workers in scuba gear use diapers to wipe the acrylic-lined tanks clean of algae algae (ăl`jē) [plural of Lat. alga=seaweed], a large and diverse group of primarily aquatic plantlike organisms. These organisms were previously classified as a primitive subkingdom of the plant kingdom, the thallophytes (plants that and calcium growths. Like most modern aquariums, this one has a theme, and as its name suggests, its 10,000 underwater denizens will reflect marine life in the Pacific Ocean, the largest and deepest body of water in the world. There will be three main exhibits, displaying marine life off the Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, and Baja coasts, in the icy waters of the Northern Pacific and around the lagoons and coral reefs coral reefs, limestone formations produced by living organisms, found in shallow, tropical marine waters. In most reefs, the predominant organisms are stony corals, colonial cnidarians that secrete an exoskeleton of calcium carbonate (limestone). of the tropical Pacific. The largest mammal to roam the Pacific, or rather an 88-foot replica of a blue whale, will hover above the aquarium's entrance hall to greet visitors. Inside, 47 tanks will be filled with such animals as sea otters, moon jellies, giant Japanese spider crabs and an octopus. Inhabitants
The game is based loosely on the concepts from SameGame. off the California coast will be represented by leopard sharks, bat rays, garibaldis, horned horned adj. Having a horn, horns, or a hornlike growth. Adj. 1. horned - having a horn or horns or hornlike parts or horns of a particular kind; "horned viper"; "great horned owl"; "the unicorn--a mythical horned beast"; sharks, California spiny lobsters, yellowtails, sea lions and seals, among others. One of the most dramatic tanks will be a 142,000-gallon predators exhibit, standing 24 feet high, that will house 400 creatures at the top of the food chain, such as leopard sharks, giant sea bass The giant sea bass (Stereolepis gigas), also known as the black sea bass, is a fish native to the northern Pacific Ocean.[1] With its conspicuous size and a curious nature, it is surprising that relatively little is known about its behavior and biology. , barracuda barracuda, slender, elongated fish of tropical seas. Barracudas have long snouts and projecting lower jaws armed with large, sharp-edged teeth. They are ferocious, striking at anything that gleams, and are considered excellent game fishes. and giant spined sea stars. A 9-inch-thick acrylic window separates the killer fish from spectators, while most tanks have only 3-inch-thick windows. Outside is Kid's Cove, a place where worn-out parents can get a rest and children can walk through giant whale bones and sit in a giant bird's nest, where they can pretend to hatch an egg. Upstairs is the California Terrace, where harbor seals and sea lions play in one tank and four threatened black sea turtles wade about in another. Curators went to great lengths to make the exhibits accurate: Everyone had to become a certified diver if they weren't already. Dive trips included one to the Western Pacific Palau Islands, where divers snapped 5,000 underwater photographs that they used to mold models of the tropical Pacific exhibits. The work paid off. Some visitors recently came to the aquarium to check out the progress. ``They said their oohs and aahs,'' Yates said. ``That's what I live for - the discovery of the sense of wonder. That's what got me into aquariums.'' The not-for-profit aquarium is being built with $117 million generated from the 1995 sale of private revenue bonds. It will anchor the Queensway Bay Master Plan, a $550 million redevelopment project in the harbor across from the Long Beach Convention Center and the Queen Mary. ``It's going to be a defining structure for our city,'' the mayor said. ``It's going to make a real difference.'' THE FACTS The aquarium will be open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission will be $13 for adults, $11.50 for seniors and $6.50 for children ages 3-11. CAPTION(S): 2 Photos PHOTO (1) A scuba diver uses a diaper to wipe a tank clean of algae and calcium growths at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific. (2) Construction crews build the exterior of the aquarium, set to open June 20. Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press |
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