The Florida Aquarium will open a new exhibit experience this fall that will include sharks, sea turtles and coral.
The newly renovated Waves of Wonder gallery, formerly known as Ocean Commotion, will feature the exhibit dubbed Heart of the Sea, which will open on Oct. 6.
"Our Heart of the Sea exhibit provides a unique underwater perspective by allowing guests to experience the exhibit both physically and through technology. It will also, for the first time, directly connect the important conservation work we are doing at our Apollo Beach Center for Conservation to every guest visiting the aquarium," Florida Aquarium CEO Roger Germann told the Tampa Bay Business Journal in a prepared statement.
The new 100,000-gallon Heart of the Sea exhibit, the aquarium's second largest habitat, will have cameras in the large tank, allowing guests to have different perspectives.
"We've never done this before where we have cameras that present this live information. Underwater cameras aren't unique to aquariums, but they are usually in permanent positions or in a rock. We made it easy to change the positions," Director of Creative Services Pete Colangelo told TBBJ and Germann, as the two did a walk-through of the gallery and exhibit.
"Our educators are going to talk to our guests about what we are doing down at the Center for Conservation and have an opportunity to talk about wellness. For the first time, we will have underwater cameras that will be focused on the exhibit, we have cameras attached to a diver when they go in and also have a camera that is top-side looking down at the exhibit and one we can take in the water on a stick, so there are a lot of opportunities to show people up close what we are doing," Colangelo said.
The new exhibit and renovated gallery will present information to guests on how to make a difference for the ocean, for example, by not littering.
The new exhibit, which will also be open to guests wanting dive experiences to swim with fish, is open to naming rights as well as the gallery.
"While the final touches to the exhibit and gallery are being completed, we're in the beginning phase of working with the corporate, foundation and philanthropic community in Tampa Bay to officially name Waves of Wonder and Heart of the Sea," Germann said.
He also shared the new rendering with TBBJ for a first look at the reimagined gallery and exhibit.
The new gallery is home to animals like blue blubber jellyfish, a giant pacific octopus and king crabs. The gallery is one of the largest in the aquarium.
"We had to transform this gallery little by little in pockets of time," Colangelo explained, stating the process took about two years to complete.
Today, the aquarium sees an average of 1,000 people per day and up to 4,500 on weekends. Annually, it sees over 800,000 people; however, Germann said he expects that number to hit 1 million.