The SeaQuest Interactive Aquarium in Fort Worth, Texas, has just opened: Want to swim with sharks and stingrays? A look inside the new aquarium at Ridgmar
The future Mississippi Aquarium in Gulfport has revealed the costs of the three bids to build it: Bids are in to build the $93M Mississippi Aquarium. Here’s who wants the job.
I would include Discovery Bay on the list, not because it is a great aquarium but by how tiny some of the aquariums on the original list of aquariums on the US. If those qualify as stand alone aquariums MN's I think would be included.
Here are 4 very tiny aquariums located in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States and I had never even heard of any of them. Yikes! Puget Sound Estuarium (Olympia, WA) Westport Aquarium (Westport, WA) Marine Life Center (Bellingham, WA) Charleston Marine Life Center (Charleston, OR)
A SeaQuest Interactive Aquarium has been announced to open in Colorado: SeaQuest Interactive Aquarium opening in Colorado | blooloop
A SeaQuest Interactive Aquarium has been announced to open in California too!: California to get SeaQuest Interactive Aquarium | blooloop
The USA is getting a 9th Sea Life franchise in early 2019...in San Antonio. It will open at Rivercenter Mall and interestingly enough the state of Texas has seen a 'deluge' of new aquariums open in recent years. Sea Life Grapevine (2011), Austin Aquarium (2013), San Antonio Aquarium (2014), SeaQuest Interactive Aquarium (2017) and now Sea Life San Antonio (2019). Find Information about SEA LIFE San Antonio
It is going to be a race between the Sea Life and SeaQuest franchises as in 2019 a 9th Sea Life will grace the USA while SeaQuest will open its 6th location later this year. SeaQuest Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is due to open to the public in November and here is an article about the event: Broward to get SeaQuest interactive aquarium at Galleria in Fort Lauderdale The new, 23,000 sq. ft. aquarium has already garnered the ire of animal rights activists due to the shady dealings of the owner: Animal rights activists protest plans for Galleria mall aquarium By my count, the USA will have 157 public aquariums by this time next year.
An important question: What makes something an aquarium? Is a nature center with a couple of small fish tanks an aquarium?
I don't think that a nature center with a couple of small fish tanks is an aquarium by any stretch of the imagination. If you look through the list that I provided on this thread, you'll see that most of the 150+ public aquariums in the USA charge an admission fee, have at least a dozen or more exhibits and are stand-alone facilities. There are another dozen aquariums within major zoos but those don't count as stand-alone aquariums. However, at the end of the day it is a somewhat subjective decision as to what constitutes a 'zoo' or an 'aquarium'.
Here is an article about the St. Louis Aquarium at Union Station, which is stated to open in 2019. The article is short on details of the facility but is primarily about the executive director and the mission of the aquarium: Peta Wittig | St. Louis Aquarium at Union Station | blooloop
Update on new St Louis aquarium, with a few more details https://www.stltoday.com/entertainm...tml_c05516d3-bea3-5988-b2cd-5b9b93875985.html
Not sure if you'd count this, but the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomon's Island, Maryland has an aquarium section that takes up a fair amount of the exhibit space. Estuarine Biology Gallery | Calvert Marine Museum, MD - Official Website
Here is a very in-depth article about the acrylic panels being manufactured for the St. Louis Aquarium: https://blooloop.com/acrylic-panels-st-louis-aquarium/
SeaQuest in Fort Lauderdale has still not opened, here is an article about it being approved: SeaQuest Aquarium gets approvals to open at Galleria mall | Preston Business Review SeaQuest website says it will open in Late 2019. But wait, there's more! Their website lists two other future locations: Roseville, Minnesota (which is closer to the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul than the existing SeaLife Minnesota) Trumbull, Connecticut (which is adjacent to Bridgeport)
Here is an article with details about a proposed aquarium in Branson, Missouri to be called Aquarium at the Boardwalk. It has an image of the exterior, which will be dominated by a giant simulated octopus: More details on proposed Branson Aquarium, set for 2020 | blooloop
Here is an article about a proposed aquarium in Jacksonville, Florida that would be operated by Jacksonville Zoo: AquaJax hope to open state-of-the-art aquarium in Jacksonville | blooloop
