Newport Aquarium

This article is about the aquarium in Newport, Kentucky, United States. For the aquarium in Newport, Oregon, United States, see Oregon Coast Aquarium.
Newport Aquarium

Newport Aquarium main entrance
Date opened May 1999[1]
Location Newport, Kentucky,
 United States
Coordinates 39°05′40″N 84°29′51″W / 39.0943725°N 84.4975877°W / 39.0943725; -84.4975877Coordinates: 39°05′40″N 84°29′51″W / 39.0943725°N 84.4975877°W / 39.0943725; -84.4975877
Number of species 90+
Total volume of tanks 1,000,000 US gal (3,800,000 L)
Memberships AZA[2]
Major exhibits 12
Website www.newportaquarium.com

The Newport Aquarium is an aquarium located in Newport, Kentucky, United States at Newport on the Levee. The aquarium has 70 exhibits and 14 galleries, including five seamless acrylic tunnels totaling over 200 feet (61 m) in length. The aquarium showcases thousands of animals from around the world in 1,000,000 US gal (3,800,000 L) of water, including the "Scooter" and "Sweet Pea," two of the few shark rays in captivity. In 2009, the Aquarium received a baby shark ray from Taiwan, named Sunshine.

The facility is open to the public 365 days a year. Newport Aquarium is an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums a leader in global wildlife conservation.[3]

The Newport Aquarium is part of Herschend Family Entertainment Corporation, a for-profit company.

Exhibits

The Newport Aquarium's jellyfish gallery is the largest in the Midwest.[4]

Rain forest includes Oriental small-clawed otter, Burmese pythons, kookaburra, Goldie's lorikeet, kea, rainbow lorikeet, and Swainson's blue mountain lory.

The underwater tunnel

Gator Alley includes Mighty Mike (the largest American alligator outside of Florida), plus varying sized specimens of Orinoco crocodile, American alligator, caiman and gharial.

Amazon includes arapaima, pacu, redtail catfish, silver arowana, black arowana, long-tailed river stingray, and perch.

Shark Central lets visitors pet the many species of sharks including lesser guitarfish, pyjama shark, Port Jackson shark, leopard shark, puffadder shyshark, small-spotted catshark, crested bullhead shark, spotted gully shark (sharptooth houndshark).

Kroger Penguin Palooza includes king penguin, Inca tern, chinstrap penguin, gentoo penguin, macaroni penguin and rockhopper penguin.

Jellyfish Gallery includes moon jelly, upside-down jellyfish, sea nettle, and spotted jelly.

Frog Bog includes green tree frog, American bullfrog, African clawed frog, red-eyed tree frog, gray tree frog, cane toad, tomato frog, and other frog and toad species.

Dangerous and Deadly includes Gila monster, red lionfish, pinecone fish, electric eel, Gaboon viper, spotted wobbegong, stonefish, redeye piranha, whitespotted bamboo shark, tentacled snake, Thunder the alligator snapping turtle and a cottonmouth (water moccasin).

Bizarre and Beautiful includes discus, cardinal tetra, Peters' elephantnose fish, eyelash viper, giant Pacific octopus, grunt sculpin, lumpsucker, umbrella crab, painted greenling, decorated warbonnets, spotted garden eel, Japanese spider crab, striated frogfish, yellow boxfish, porcupinefish, deepwater burrfish, and a group of seahorses.

Surrounded by Sharks includes bowmouth guitarfish (shark ray), sand tiger shark, sandbar shark, whitetip reef shark, blacktip reef shark, nurse shark, zebra shark, southern stingray, Nassau grouper, giant grouper, reticulate whipray also known as the honeycomb stingray, and Denver the loggerhead sea turtle.

Coral Reef includes honeycomb moray, unicorn fish, cownose ray, blue tang, powderblue tang, yellow tang, and bonnethead.

Turtle Canyon includes Galopagos tortoise, Egyptian tortoise, alligator snapping turtle, loggerhead sea turtle and many more.

Gallery

References

  1. "The making of an aquarium". enquirer.com. The Cincinnati Enquirer. Retrieved December 26, 2006.
  2. "List of Accredited Zoos and Aquariums". aza.org. AZA. Retrieved February 13, 2011.
  3. "Newport Aquarium". Retrieved December 26, 2006.
  4. NewportAquarium.com

External links

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