Manila Oceanarium opening moved to February
By Margaux Ortiz
Inquirer
First Posted 03:36:00 12/15/2007
MANILA, Philippines – The country’s first oceanarium has delayed its opening to the first week of February to finish the construction of additional attractions like a glass-bottom boat ride.
“We want to finish all our new attractions before opening the ocean park to the public,” said park marketing manager Tina Santos.
Among the new activities, according to Santos, would be the glass-bottom boat ride on top of the Buhay na Karagatan section, which has a 25-meter walkway with curved acrylic walls to show corals, small fishes, sharks and rays.
“With the glass-bottom boat, visitors could observe the interactions among marine species from a different point of view,” Santos said.
The boat that could accommodate 10 people would be manually pulled from one end of the aquarium to the other so as not to disturb the fishes.
“Patrons could interact with resident biologists and ask questions about the ecosystem during the boat ride,” Santos said.
As to accusations by animal rights groups such as the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals that the ocean park “only keeps animals in captivity and away from their homes,” Santos said they were serving as custodians of the Philippines’ vast marine resource.
“It is a largely unknown fact that the Philippines forms 70 percent of the global epicenter of marine biodiversity, known as the Coral Triangle,” she said.
“Apart from giving Filipinos the opportunity to learn more about its own riches, the Manila Ocean Park also sends a strong message to the public to help protect and conserve this heritage that the country has been blessed with, ” she added.
The park will integrate sustainability factors in its initiatives, such as information, education and communications campaign; science research programs, resource management programs, and day-to-day operations.
Manila Ocean Park also embarked on a science research program on the development of a technology for coral propagation and reef rehabilitation in cooperation with Professor Benjamin Vallejo of the University of the Philippines.
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