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WAIKIKI
he Waikiki Aquarium is an
T
aquarium in Honolulu, Hawaii,
United States. Founded
in 1904, it is the second oldest
public aquarium in the United
States. Since 1919, the Waikiki Aquarium has
been an institution of the University of Hawaii at
Manoa.
Built next to a living coral reef on the Waikiki
shoreline, the Waikiki Aquarium is home to more
than 3,500 organisms of 490 species of marine
plants and animals. Each year, over 330,000 people
visit, and over 30,000 schoolchildren participate
in the Aquarium’s education activities and
programs. The Waikiki Aquarium was designated
a Coastal Ecosystem Learning Center of the
Coastal America Partnership federal program.
The Waikiki Aquarium developed the first displays
of living Pacific corals in the United States
in 1978 using water from a seawater well and
natural sunlight. A special surge device was developed
later to allow culture of staghorn and table
corals (Acropora spp.). Some of the corals at
the Waikiki Aquarium are over 30 years old.
The Waikiki Aquarium was the second aquarium
in the world, and the first in the United States,
to maintain the chambered nautilus (Nouméa
Aquarium was first) and the first in the world to
produce viable Nautilus embryos.
Other “firsts” for the Waikiki Aquarium were
displays of the blacktip reef sharks (Carcharhinus
melanopterus) ca. 1957; broadclub cuttlefish
(Sepia latimanus) in 1978; a mahimahi
hatchery and exhibit (Coryphaena hippurus) in
1991; and the giant clam (Tridacna gigas) in 1979.
The largest giant clam at the Waikiki Aquarium
was acquired from the Micronesian Mariculture
Demonstration Center in Palau in June 1982 and
was estimated to be five-years old at that time.
At 38 years old in 2016, it is the longest-lived giant
clam in any aquarium in the world.
AQUARIUM
The Waikiki Aquarium has won national awards
for its exhibits and aquatic culture methods:
Association of Zoos and Aquarium (AZA) Bean
Award for Nautilus propagation (1991); AZA/Munson
Conservation Award for “Corals are Alive”
exhibition (1999); AZA/Munson Conservation Exhibit
Award (2003); and the AZA Bean Award for
the “South Pacific Habitat” exhibition (2003).
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