TORONTO'S RIIPLEYS AQUARIUM OF CANADA FACTOIDS

worker in the shark lagoon - Toronto

DIVER MAGAZINE FACTOIDS

§      There is a gift shop and food services in the aquarium. They are prepared to accommodate meat eaters and vegetarians

§      The Aquarium will be open 365-days-a-year, starting in the early fall of 2013

§      The 96-metre-long (315 foot) moving walkway through an acrylic tunnel – which you will be able to step off and admire the sharks will be, according to Ripley’s, the longest indoor underwater tunnel in North America.

§      Ripley’s has two other aquariums – one in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and the other in Gatlinburg, Tenn.

§      Robert Ripley was a cartoonist, an adventurer and collector. He was born in 1890 in California and died in 1949.  His Believe It Or Not cartoons continue to be published. Two recent panels show a bull shark fetus with two-heads and a one-eyed shark (called Cyclops the Shark). Neither are coming to Toronto!

§      Ripley’s Aquarium has pledged not to have dolphins or whales in Toronto

§      Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada is expected to draw nearly two million visitors each year

§   Well-trained staff dedicated to the highest standards of aquatic husbandry will include biologists, scientists, divers and aquarists who will work to ensure all the animals are safe, well-tended to, and allowed to flourish

§  The Aquarium will conduct breeding/conservation programs for endangered species, including ongoing tagging and tracking programs for sand tiger sharks in conjunction with universities and government agencies.