Featured Image Credit: Floridaography.com
By Alice Morris
The Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Clearwater, Florida is about to get an upgrade that should make wildlife and guests alike very happy.
Last Monday city officials held a groundbreaking ceremony at the site of the aquarium’s expansion. The addition will build upon Clearwater’s already impressive setup and feature a new 400-space parking garage, two new buildings for guest education and a 1.5-million-gallon dolphin habitat. The new habitat is an exciting upgrade that will give the aquarium’s non-releasable dolphins plenty of space to swim.
The new developments will also provide the rest of the aquarium’s rescued animals with more living space and improved hospital facilities.
In addition to all of these upgrades, Clearwater’s director David Yates is discussing adding a pelican habitat to the aquarium and possibly converting a nearby waterway into a natural habitat for the aquarium’s rescued animals.
The new developments will allow the aquarium, which is well known for its involvement in rescuing and rehabilitating marine animals, to expand their work and provide more educational opportunities for aquarium visitors.
The project’s estimated cost is $50 million and should take about thirty months to complete.
While two and a half years may seem like a long time to wait for this new expansion, the good news is that Clearwater will stay open during the entire construction process so visitors won’t miss out on seeing any of the aquarium’s amazing critters.