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Yeosu aquarium now open

Discussion in 'South Korea' started by devilfish, 6 May 2012.

  1. devilfish

    devilfish Well-Known Member

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    Yeosu aquarium opened to the public this week, as one of the main pavilions of Expo 2012. It is Korea's largest aquarium. Collection highlights include belugas, Baikal seals, seadragons and fur seals. The aquarium is supposed to have several interesting features, including an underwater glass dome in the main tank and an area showcasing robot fish.

    [The artist's impression includes 50-foot sandtiger and tiger sharks, and giant manta rays - which would be nice, but they're not mentioned in the press releases :p.]

    Exhibition Facilities - Sub-Theme Pavilions
    http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20120504000686
     
  2. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    wow those are some monstrous sharks in there! But it looks like a great aquarium. Baikal seal is certainly an enticing inhabitant.
     
  3. Jihoon Lee

    Jihoon Lee Member

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    It was quite surprising that it was the first time that belugas and Baikal seals came to Korea. I heard these species were came from Russia to Korea for breeding and research.
     
  4. condor

    condor Well-Known Member

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    - Homepage in Korean (google translate is decent at Korean): AquaPlanet JEJU
    - Exhibits subsection on their homepage (to get each floor, click 2F [yellow], 1F [blue] or B1F [green]): AquaPlanet JEJU exhibits

    - Video map of the facility: Aqua Planet JEJU Information Map–Vimeo
    - Two whale sharks now inhabit the main tank along with rays and schooling fish (I don't see any 'normal' sharks in the video, I guess they will be added later): AquaPlanet JEJU Whale Shark–YouTube

    Apparently a very large aquarium; in total water volume slightly larger than Japan's excellent Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, but well behind Georgia Aquarium and the soon-to-open Singapore Marine Life Park.
     
    Last edited: 13 Jul 2012
  5. devilfish

    devilfish Well-Known Member

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    Some amazing links condor, and Jeju looks really impressive. I was wondering whether the whale sharks and mantas on the map were fictional or not, so the youtube video was good confirmation. Maybe the waving penguin in the video will get visitors' hopes up? We can only wait and see.

    Although it's still an 'Aquaplanet', I think the opening of Jeju's Aquaplanet (now Asia's largest aquarium) deserves a separate thread to the smaller aquarium in Yeosu.
     
  6. condor

    condor Well-Known Member

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    oops, missed that there were two by the same company and apparently both new?! Evidently I need to brush up on my Korean ;)

    Here´s the page with the floor plan for Yeosu

    (in the video link in my last post there are pelagic Myliobatid rays, probably Aetobatus ocellatus, but no mantas. Considering the size of the exhibit, they may still get mantas, of course)