Seattle Aquarium Seattle Aquarium $113M, 50,000sqft Expansion expected to open in 2024

Seattle Aquarium Ocean Pavilion | Seattle Aquarium

So if you haven't heard, the Seattle Aquarium is getting a New Building / Expansion as apart of Seattle's plan to restore the Waterfront. This has been in the plans since 2018 and construction started last year with the opening date presumably to be 2024 confirmed by the Aquarium. This is a massive expansion as not only will it touch up parts of the existing building, but also add another spot for rehabilitation and conservation efforts and a Brand New Aquarium Building.
The main takeaways to look forward to are:

•Coral Canyon, a new 325,000 Gallon Artificial Reef that will be the main display of the new building. It'll be home to Sharks, Ray's, and other species of Fish. Unique viewing pannels allow visitors to see it from both outside and above the Aquarium.
•New displays featuring Mangroves, Coral Reefs, Seagrass Beds, and more will be featured.
•New Interactive Displays
•The roof of the building will be a walkway/viewing point with a 16,000sqft Garden and window where you can look into the Shark Tank.
•The new Pike Place Market Front will have a walkway connected to that garden for ease of access
(Misc) •A renovation of the Pike Place Market Front, Roads, Walkways, and a new park.

The main focus of the new building is on the Coral Triangle of the Indo-Pacific which is a Hotspot for diversity. A large majority of the Animals including the Sharks and Ray's will be from that region.

Personally as a local, I'm super excited. The Seattle Aquarium was overdue for a major renovation/Expansion and now that it's only 2 years away I couldn't be happier, especially since when you walk by you can definitely see they're making progress.

Here are some designs of what it could look like, courtesy of LMN Architects

 

Also important to note that the recent 5 month Concrete Worker strike has not delayed the Aquarium, it has delayed other parts of the Waterfront though. The ocean pavilion is still set to open in 2024.

 

Visited this aquarium in 2017 and agree that expansions are much welcomed. Excited to see the renovations!

 

As a local I'd even argue that the Point Defiance Aquarium is better since they have scalloped hammerheads, eagle rays, sea turtles, Japanese giant spider crabs, etc and that's apart of a zoo so seeing the Seattle Aquarium get a well needed renovation and building is super exciting

 

Fantastic, while this was a decent aquarium, this looks like it will make it a great aquarium.

 

Not much new news, I went to the Aquarium today and it looks like they're making Good Progress!
Actually here's a piece:
•Seattle granted the Aquarium a 20 Million Dollar Loan to make sure the Ocean Pavilion opens up in 2024. Without the Loan, the project would've been delayed to 2025 like with most of the Waterfront Restoration.

 

I love the monstrous blacktip reef sharks in the concept art, lol.

 

Theres also Monstrous Zebra Sharks and Spotted Eagle Ray's in some other concept art floating around haha. That'll be interesting to see if any of those species make it into the final / are added later on.

One article mentioned "6ft Long Sharks and 6ft Long Rays" being the main attractions so maybe I'll do some research later on species from the Indo-Pacific that fit those requirements

 

Posted this already in the news thread but it should be posted here as well.

 

Wow! That offsite facility looks amazing. My hunch is that Eagle Ray may be the pup that was born back in April at PDZ.
Also the animation shows what I believe is a Southern Stingray in the Animation, along with Black Tip Reef Sharks. The Black Tips were in some of the art, but Southern Stingrays weren't mentioned until now. That'll be cool if those go on Display.

Can't wait to see how the final product looks!

 

A new article from BD+C that was published a few hours ago reveals some new info and concept art for the Ocean Pavilion: Seattle Aquarium’s new Ocean Pavilion emphasizes human connection to oceans (bdcnetwork.com)

-The Biggest Tank (aka the Shark Tank) will be called "The Reef". It is approximately 362,000 gallons and will be viewable from 5 different sides
-There will be 19 other exhibits that will be based around the "The Reef", mainly focusing on regions from the Coral Triangle
-"The Pavilion exhibition is organized into eight areas: 1) the entry/exit; 2) One Ocean Hall; 3) At Home in the Ocean; 4) The Archipelago (lower level view); 5) Window on The Reef (a dramatic, 30-foot wide domed window); 6) The Archipelago (upper level); 7) The Reef (upper level with three distinct views); and 8) Behind the Scenes (includes Jelly Nursery and Programming Area)".

The Ocean Pavilion is still set to open in 2024. In the article is a new concept art we haven't seen before showing the "Animal Care" space it talks about. It looks like this could be the "Behind the scenes" area or an interactive space.

 

I hope they bring in some real heavy hitters to the collection.

 

They've confirmed a Spotted Eagle Ray from the PDZA will be on display in "The Reef" and from my speculation:
It seems like from all the concept art and the animation that Black Tip Reef Sharks and some sort of Stingray will be on display. They're not confirmed to be on display but those 2 species have been in almost all the concept art and the animation that's been published. There is a Cownose Ray in the art that had the Spotted Eagle Ray in it so maybe that's a possibility.
Also from their socials it kind of sounds like a Zebra Shark could be a possibility. They recently announced work that is being done to help boost the population of Zebra Sharks in Indonesia so having a Zebra Shark (maybe even a pair, that'd be really cool especially for captive breeding) on display for education and conservation since "The Reef" is based off the Indo-Pacific could be a good call. I know the PDZA has one in their little tropical lagoon so I wouldn't be surprised to maybe see the one move over to Seattle as well for the Ocean Pavilion.

 

I don't think spotted eagle ray, zebra shark, or blacktip reef shark are really "heavy hitters". I meant something like ghost pipefish, cornetfish, bigfin reef squid, or maybe some rare larger animal, like a spot-tail shark. That would be interesting.

 

Ohhh I see what you're talking about, my mistake.
Yeah hopefully especially with some of the smaller tanks they do have some rare and unique species.
Ornate Ghost Pipefish fit the location, although I haven't seen anyone attempt those in a while cause of how fragile they can be. Would be really cool though.

I'm excited to see what they do with the Mangrove display. From the art it looks pretty shallow but an Archer Fish display would be pretty neat.
Hopefully more info / more species get revealed since we're almost at the end of 2022

 

Actually, I have some reasoning that might be able to back this up.

PDZA's Shark Tank in the South Pacific Aquarium is 240,000 gallons, while "The Reef" is going to be 362,000 gallons which is a 122,000-gallon increase compared to PDZA's. Another thing is the South Pacific Aquarium at PDZA is under heavy renovation until 2023 and species additions are something they talked about. I wouldn't be surprised if maybe both Aquariums are / were in talks about potentially moving the (I believe they have 2) Black Tip Reef Sharks (It's been a while since I've been so I can't remember the exact number, but I believe it was 2 Black Tips) and their Zebra Shark over to Seattle so the Sharks could live in a bigger habitat.
Especially since Seattle got that Spotted Eagle Ray juvenile from the PDZA.

Also, a spokesperson for the Seattle Aquarium did say that for a lot of the bigger fish like the Sharks and Rays, they want to try their best and source only Captive Bred Animals or Animals that have been in captivity for a long time for "The Reef" so having a some of the Sharks that are only 30min-40min away from the Aquarium could be pretty incentivizing, so it causes a lot less stress on the animals than if they had to travel over state / overnight especially since PDZA isn't under pressure to do it in a day since that part of the Aquarium is under renovation.
Just some speculation but I'm kind of interested to see if it comes true.

 

I really doubt Point Defiance would give up their valuable sharks

 

Extensive news article about the new Ocean Pavilion

Seattle Aquarium’s Ocean Pavilion will transform its focus and the waterfront

 

This is amazing! So much information confirmed

Opening Date: Ocean Pavillion is expected to open sometime in Mid 2024

For those that want a Summary of some information on the species:
• 26 Sharks and Ray's who's origin is from the Indo-Pacific
• 25 of the 26 will all be coming from Breeding Programs by other Aquariums which is a good thing
• The only 1 out of the 26 will be coming from a Reputable Distributor in Indonesia that has the proper CITES permits

Species that were confirmed in the Article:
•A Trio of 1 M / 2 F Zebra Sharks will be on Display in the Ocean Pavillion (im assuming in "The Reef") (called it)
•A Bowmouth Guitar Fish will also be on Display in "The Reef". This is the only 1 out of the 26 that will be coming from the Wild.
•A Blue Spotted Stingray is in Quarantine and will be apart of the Mangrove Exhibit
• Giant Mangrove Trees are arriving soon for the Mangrove Exhibit

This info + the Juvenile Spotted Eagle Ray from the PDZA make up 6 of the 26 Sharks and Ray's. The article does mention they had 3 Ray's at the Facility when they visited, 2 I'm guessing we're the Spotted Eagle and Blue Spotted so im curious to hear what the 3rd was. Very excited about this news especially since 25 of the 26 will be Captive Bred it sounds like.

The Bowmouth Guitar Fish is certainly a Heavy Hitter imo. They're rarely displayed, I think Georgia is one of the only to display them. Even though they're Critically Endangered by ICUN, they're not on Indonesia's protection list. Hopefully this species will also be apart of a breeding program in the near future.

 

Newport Aquarium in Kentucky have a trio of Bowmouth guitarfish as well.