Toronto Star
Jan. 24, 2005. 06:44 AM
PETER GORRIE
FEATURE WRITER

Aquarium dilemma
It's a tough business, U.S. experts say And local proposal lacks key elements

How do you turn several thousand fish into one white elephant?

It's not a magician's trick.

Instead, it's the almost inevitable result if a public aquarium, such as the one proposed for Toronto's Exhibition Place, is built in the wrong place and in the wrong way.

Presto! A bright and shimmering attraction is transformed into a lumbering burden that has a ravenous appetite for cash and leaves piles of unsavoury problems in its wake.

Although Toronto's project is at the very early stages — private-sector proponents have until Feb. 25 to express interest — some aquarium experts suggest it's heading for trouble.

Aquariums are expensive to build and very costly to operate, they say. And, in the current climate where competition for entertainment spending is intense, they require certain things to succeed.

Three elements are key, says Deb Fassnacht, executive vice-president of the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago and a student of the industry.

They need to be part of a critical mass of attractions. They can't be saddled with debt. And they must have "something charismatic" to attract the large numbers of paying customers they require to stay afloat.

The proposed Toronto aquarium appears to be missing at least two of those essentials; the third is uncertain.

The 4.63-hectare site is tucked away at the west end of Exhibition Place, a barren expanse that for most of the year is devoid of people. The main nearby attractions are tired, summer-only Ontario Place, the cavernous National Trade Centre, a small casino and a dinner theatre.

As for charismatic attractions, it won't include the most popular : whales, dolphins and other marine mammals.

"There are restrictions: no mammals in this aquarium," says Councillor Joe Pantalone, who, as chair of Exhibition Place, is spearheading the project. "Mammals are biologically our cousins and it would be completely inappropriate" to bring them in, he says.

"We don't have whales and dolphins in our aquariums," says Bob Masterson, president of Ripley Entertainment Inc. of Orlando, Fla., which operates two aquariums in U.S. cities, is building two others and is expected to be a leading candidate to construct Toronto's.

That policy will avoid conflict with powerful animal rights activists, who are vowing to fight any attempt to include whales, dolphins or other marine mammals in the project.

"We've put them on notice: it would spark a massive controversy if they attempt to bring in any mammals," says Julie Woodyer, campaigns director for Zoocheck Canada, in Toronto. "It won't just be us. It will be massive. There will be groups from right around the world lobbying the city for this not to be allowed to happen."

Excluding marine mammals will, however, make it more difficult to attract crowds of visitors, particularly at the high admission prices aquariums must charge to cover their costs.

"You have to have ... sharks or marine mammals or something," Fassnacht says.

Critics argue that marine mammals are intelligent, social and need far more space than they get in any enclosure. Studies have shown they live only half as long in captivity as they do in the wild, says Michael O'Sullivan, executive director of the Toronto-based Humane Society of Canada.

"The problem is the miseducation of the public, that it's okay to take these highly intelligent, social animals from their families at a young age, put them in concrete boxes and force them to do silly pet tricks," says Annelise Sorg, president of the Vancouver-based Coalition for No Whales in Captivity, which helped persuade that city's aquarium to stop housing killer whales.

Ripley's Masterson says they aren't essential: "We've been successful without them."

But Fassnacht says the big mammals play an important role in aquariums.

The Shedd, like most others in the U.S., is a non-profit operation with an educational and political mission: to inspire visitors to care about Earth's oceans, lakes and rivers, and the creatures that inhabit them.

It wants its animals to "connect people to the living world, and no animal in the building does a better job of that than whales and dolphins. People see these animals and they're completely wowed," Fassnacht says.

As long as they get top-quality care and aren't forced into doing circus stunts, "they become ambassadors for the wild," argues Peter Chermayeff of Chermayeff, Sollogub and Poole Inc., a Boston architectural firm that specializes in aquarium design and development.

"They make people care more. When you care, you become another voice for habitat protection."

Most U.S. aquariums, whether for profit or non-profit, display dolphins, whales or both, and all have some sort of marine mammals. That includes two of the "big three": Shedd and Baltimore National.

The third, Monterey Bay, on a spectacular Pacific coast site, has none in captivity, but visitors can see them from the aquarium's deck, cavorting in the animal-rich open ocean.

It's possible to succeed without marine mammals, as a freshwater aquarium in Chattanooga, Tenn., is proving.

It showcases freshwater marine life from habitats stretching from the Appalachian Mountains to the Gulf of Mexico. Visitors can see, for example, how brook trout hide in river eddies then come out into the current to feed, says Chermayeff, whose firm designed it.

People enjoy learning about environments that seem familiar but that they don't really know, he says.

Peterson and others point out that aquariums, like any other attraction, must constantly offer new and exciting exhibits.

Monterey welcomed about 2.5 million visitors in its first year, then watched as attendance slowly and steadily eroded. The aquarium began a program of special exhibitions, which are changed regularly, and brought in a charismatic attraction: the only white shark in captivity. Annual attendance now averages about 1.8 million.

But anything — even jellyfish or seahorses — can draw visitors if it's done right, Peterson says.

Backers of Toronto's proposed aquarium say it will attract tourists and boost the city's western waterfront. But industry observers have doubts about how much business such a stand-alone project can bring in.

More crucial than having mammals, they say, is that aquariums be part of a critical mass of attractions or, at the very least, be on sites where other development can happen.

"You can't be confident of success standing alone unless you're very, very good," Chermayeff says.

It's far better, he says, to have "synergies" with other attractions or features. The ideal is to create a location where visitors, rather than coming just to see the aquarium, will spend an entire day or even stay overnight.

That suggests that Toronto's proposed site — a considerable distance from downtown, hemmed in by roads and railway tracks, and with only a couple of small, all-year attractions nearby — presents a challenge.

At Exhibition Place, "there is some planning of some other adjacent development to be considered," Chermayeff says, cautiously.

Experience across North America shows that whether or not aquariums display whales and dolphins, they rarely succeed on their own, says John Holer, who owns and operates Marineland, on 400 hectares in Niagara Falls. At first an aquarium may look successful, he says, but people visit only once or twice: "They don't want to come back and see the same thing."

Marineland includes rides, restaurants and other attractions, and is undergoing another expansion, Holer says. And it's in Niagara Falls, which is already a tourist mecca.

The Shedd Aquarium — which is the world's largest indoor aquarium and attracts about 2 million people a year — is close to downtown Chicago, next to a planetarium and the world-famous Field Museum. The Art Institute of Chicago is nearby.

The Baltimore National was part of an extensive downtown waterfront redevelopment. Monterey Bay is on a main tourist route between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Atlanta is getting a massive new aquarium, but it's being built along with a Coca-Cola museum.

The Chattanooga aquarium went up in a derelict industrial district, but it's just nine blocks from the small city's downtown and was surrounded by developable land. Before long, it attracted three new hotels, several dozen stores and restaurants and other attractions, and helped to revive what is now known as the "Environmental City."

"It helps if everything around you is being developed according to plan," Peterson says.

All of Ripley's aquariums are near the company's museums and other features, says spokesperson Tim O'Brien.

Ripley this week broke ground on a $200 million project in Niagara Falls that will eventually include an aquarium, but only after a hotel and all-year water park are completed.

Aquariums in Tampa, Fla., Camden, N.J., and Long Beach, Calif., ran into financial trouble because development didn't follow them as quickly as expected.

Financial prospects are difficult to assess, experts say.

Most U.S. aquariums are non-profit organizations or publicly owned, and were built with large grants from generous donors or government-backed financing. A few, including Shedd, get part of their operating budget from the host city.

Toronto's plan is a rare attempt to build an aquarium without government financing, apart from favourable terms for a 99-year lease on the property and transit improvements. City officials say they've contacted about 50 potential builders, but only four private companies operate large marine exhibits in North America.

City officials expect it would attract at least a million visitors each year, for an annual operating profit of up to $11 million.

Masterson estimates it would cost more than $100 million to build and $30,000 a day to operate.

Simple arithmetic using these numbers suggests tickets would have to cost an average of about $20, just to cover operating costs and the forecast profit. More would probably be needed to repay the construction investment.

The main thing, the experts say, is to do an aquarium well.

"You have to have a very clear vision of what you're planning to do" as well as "a really conservative financial plan," Peterson says.

Despite the potential problems, Chermayeff — who was involved in some of the previous attempts to launch a Toronto aquarium — is optimistic.

"Toronto will respond to a world-class aquarium very well," he says. "It's a great place for this to happen."

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