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Aquarium officials hope to raise $3-million for improvements, including new habitats, exhibits and parking.
By CHRISTINA HEADRICK
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 15, 2000
CLEARWATER -- The Clearwater Marine Aquarium is ready to embark on its most ambitious expansion in a decade after christening a campaign last weekend to raise $3-million over the next five years for the work.
Underlying the expansion and renovation project is the aquarium's commitment to education, with a major goal of raising about $400,000 to triple the number of educational classrooms from two to six at the aquarium.
There even is a dream of adding a snorkel tank that would allow visitors to swim with some aquarium residents. Providing such a facility could shore up programs that help disabled children learn more about local marine life, said executive director Dennis Kellenberger.
For three decades, Kellenberger has had a vision of what the small aquarium, which was born in a renovated sewage treatment plant, was capable of becoming.
"It's going to be a completion of what we've been working on for years," Kellenberger said of the plans.
Other items on the wish list include $320,000 for a new coral reef exhibit, $250,000 for a cypress swamp exhibit, $200,000 to improve the habitat of Sunset Sam the dolphin and $225,000 to improve the holding tank for stranded marine animals the aquarium rescues every year.
But aquarium officials will be counting on the public to help them reach their financial goals.
They kicked off their fundraising campaign last weekend during their annual Romance with the Sea party, where special paving blocks for a redesigned, future entranceway were offered for sale at half-price.
One square paving stone has an endangered sea turtle like the aquarium's Mo carved in it. Another has an image of a dolphin in honor of resident Sunset Sam. A third design has an otter. The stones regularly cost $100 each.
Donors to the improvement campaign will get their names etched in the paving markers. For larger check-writers, there are multiple naming opportunities.
"It would be nice to raise the money we need in short order," Kellenberger said. "But we're looking at our plans over five years. Even if I had all the money today, we would still have to phase new things in, because we have to move our existing residents around as we do the work."
The aquarium already has been buoyed by $100,000 in city financial support, which is paying for renovations to the habitat of Mo, the endangered loggerhead turtle, and an expanded deck over the lagoon that surrounds the facility. The aquarium is expecting $150,000 more from the city during the next three years.
City Manager Mike Roberto says he wants to see the aquarium succeed.
"It has been underutilized, but is becoming a better aquarium," he said. "That helps us with tourism and quality of life for residents."
More ordinary expansion needs include creating a new "auto habitat" on an acre of land that the aquarium bought last year, renovating restrooms and installing a new roof. The 42-year-old sewage plant facility, converted into the aquarium in 1979, is showing its age.
It's not the first time the aquarium has had expansion plans.
In the late 1980s, the aquarium's leaders came up with an idea for a $50-million Florida Aquarium. It was going to be located here.
But the project was lured to Tampa, after Island Estates residents opposed it and city commissioners balked at underwriting it. The project's departure left the Clearwater aquarium with debts for land acquisition and planning as banks foreclosed to take back the additional land that had been secured for the attraction.
That's history now, Kellenberger said.
This time, the expansion plans are more low-key. But the ideas for new exhibits, one on coral reefs and another on the transition from freshwater to saltwater environments, are similar to those at the Tampa aquarium.
Residents touring the Clearwater aquarium last week thought smaller might be better.
Dylan Chewcaskie, 5, smiled as he watched his favorite animals, Sunset Sam and the aquarium's pair of river otters.
Thursday was his "superstar" day, when he choose a place to tour with his class from the Robin's Nest preschool in Palm Harbor. He picked the local aquarium and all the kids loved it.
The 18 youngsters marveled at the platter-sized fish in the saltwater aquarium. They squealed when Sunset Sam balanced his 500-pound body out of the water on his tail.
Even the parents wanted to know more about Sunset Sam's medication, which has kept his ailing liver going in the 16 years since aquarium workers rescued the half-blind dolphin from the mud of Tampa Bay.
"For as small as it is, it really is a good aquarium," said parent Linda Caruso. "Living in this area, these kids want to know the fishes. They know the plants. They learn a lot about nature."