What accounts for the boom? Aquariums add a splash of color to cities searching for new vibrancy. They also draw tourists, revenue, and renown. Annual aquarium attendance in America ballooned from 23 million in 1989 to 35 million in 1994. But a product needs a market before it will sell. What explains our fascination with marine life? Is it the allure of the unknown? We've grown pretty comfortable with life on dry land over the past 100,000 years or so, but only recently have scientists begun to explore the darkest reaches of the sea as well as the effects of human intrusion on these natural landscapes and their inhabitants. At Sea World in Orlando, Florida, you will observe and experience first-hand these mystical regions of the earth and learn how you can help to preserve and protect them.
SEAWORLD, FLORIDA
To fully appreciate Wild Arctic, SeaWorld of Florida's ambitious thrill ride/polar animal attraction, you must suspend disbelief. If you do--and the elaborate staging makes it easy--you are rewarded with a sensational virtual flight to a mock polar research center where live polar bears, walruses and beluga whales play in carefully replicated habitats.In the preflight briefing room, you are advised of ground conditions at your destination, Base Station Wild Arctic, where the high temperature is a brisk minus 6 degrees Celsius, whiteouts lower visibility to zero and a gale warning is in effect. The movie theater is tricked out like the cabin of a high-tech chopper, with riveted steel walls, radar monitors and a flashing digital altimeter. The screen becomes the helicopter's windshield, and state-of-the-art video laser disc projection creates an IMAX-style sensation of virtual flight. The cabin pitches, yaws and rolls in sync with the video so accurately that it could probably fool the average F-16 pilot.
The trip begins serenely enough: Passengers ooh and aah as the helicopter sweeps low over a herd of caribou. Soon, however, a killer storm sets in, turning cheers to screams of delighted terror. A glacier collapses beneath the craft's runners, plunging it seaward. Jagged mountain peaks loom while wind shear buffets the helicopter like a paper bag in a gale. When the chopper finally alights at Base Station Wild Arctic, relieved parents and kids deplane into what looks like an underground garage. Beyond the door lies a polar landscape. Foggy, damp and eerily underlit, the domed enclosure completes the illusion that sunny Florida has been left far behind.
In a pool of frigid water, white beluga whales swim among schools of haddock and Atlantic cod. Behind glass walls, two thick-coated polar bears frolic on ice floes, and a pair of long-tusked walruses loll in the water. Twenty-eight learning stations provide information about the creatures, their environment and the effects of human encroachment on polar regions. Often perceived as unspoiled, the Arctic actually receives pollution from rivers, the ocean and air currents. Certain spots are so highly contaminated that some polar bears, living at the apex of a tainted food chain, have become toxic. But if the exhibit is designed in part to make people think about endangered wildlife, the gorgeous, graceful animals are their own best advocates. To see them in this mock arctic habitat is to appreciate the tragedy of their decline.
Kids get a kick out of punching their birth dates into a computer that delivers a ticker tape noting how the environment has changed since they were born. An 11-year-old might learn that 1.62 billion people came into the world, 405 million cars were made and 200 species of birds were declared endangered or threatened.
Unlike traditional aquariums, SeaWorld's inhabitants perform in nearly two dozen "stage" shows, including a slapstick sea lion and otter review and a water-sport stunt extravaganza inspired by the TV drama BAYWATCH. Still, Sea World shares an important characteristic with all facilities accredited by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association: a commitment to education, research and conservation.
For information about Sea World in Orlando, Florida, call (407) 351-3600. Wild Arctic is also at SeaWorld of California in San Diego; call (619) 226-3901.
For some fun animal facts, click here.
Please keep in mind that phone numbers, addresses, and prices are subject to change. Updated July 2005.
