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| Visitors look at the main tank at newly opened Lotte World Aquarium in southern Seoul. The 25-meter-wide tank is Korea's largest, and houses 10,000 marine creatures. / Courtesy of Lotte World Aquarium |
By Kim Rahn
Lotte World Aquarium, Seoul's largest aquarium, opened Thursday, allowing the public to take a close look at some 55,000 marine creatures from 650 species.
The aquarium, part of the second Lotte World recreation complex in Songpa-gu, southern Seoul, is dubbed an "Underwater Park in the City." The aquarium's 11,240-square-meter venue and combined 5,200-ton capacity water tanks feature creatures from rivers and oceans around the world as far as Antarctica.
13 zones
The facility, located on the first and second basement floors of the second Lotte World, has 13 zones that aim to provide "another world that you cannot experience anywhere else." The zones feature different themes including Korean rivers, tropical rivers, the Amazon River, a coral reef garden, sea lions, jellyfish, sardines, an ocean tunnel and polar regions.
"We arranged the zones in such a way that visitors can meet the various marine creatures. The zones are arranged on the 840-meter route according to the flow of the ecosystem, from the river to the shore to the ocean," a Lotte World official said.
The course starts from the ecology of rivers and then proceeds to the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean and Antarctica. It takes around two hours to complete the course, which includes watching all the marine life and taking part in the educational programs.
The biggest zone contains the 25-meter-wide main water tank that holds more than 10,000 sea creatures, including 2-meter-long nurse sharks.
Some other zones contain water tunnels, which are 85 meters long in total. Inside the transparent tunnels, visitors can see beluga whales and other sea creatures swimming above their heads.
Trout, sea lions, sturgeons and penguins are also must-see creatures.
Educational programs
Lotte World Aquarium offers the largest number of educational and experiential programs among aquariums in Korea. It has 14 such programs, while others only have six on average.
"We believe an aquarium should be a place to learn about marine life," the official said.
To ensure the quality of the programs, the aquarium developed them together with educators, veterinarians, curators and aquarists. The programs include a presentation each on the ecology of beluga whales, sea lions, penguins, otters and the creatures in the main water tank. The aquarium will add a presentation on sardines next year.
"For the beluga whales, we made an animated video about their life. It will help children learn about the animal more easily," he said.
Each presentation is given by aquarists in charge of the specific species.
The aquarium will also offer eight other educational programs gradually after the opening. The programs include the Jellyfish Club, where participants can examine jellyfish with microscopes; an aquarium tour; Junior Doctor, where participants can learn the differences between fish and whales and observe science experiments; and a one-day aquarist experience. Some of the programs charge fees.
A good environment for creatures
Lotte World Aquarium hopes that it can help people learn about marine life and about the importance of protecting sea creatures. "In that sense, providing the most suitable living environment to the creatures is very important," the official said.
For the beluga whales, for example, the aquarium built a tank that holds 1,224 tons of water, twice the 600-ton standard required by the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria.
It also installed top-quality life support systems for each tank to prevent disease infection among the different species. Other aquariums in the country have only one system for every tank. Besides the state-of-the-art equipment, veterinarians and fish doctors regularly check the marine creatures' health and living environment.
The aquarium also plans to jointly conduct studies and hold seminars with Seoul National University's College of Veterinary Medicine and the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute.
"We'll strengthen our educational offerings so that the aquarium can be a place where human beings and sea creatures can communicate and coexist," Lotte World CEO Lee Dong-woo said.
