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Monday, November 7, 2005
Beluga girls arrive
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Marina, Natasha and Maris, three female beluga whales, arrived safely at the Georgia Aquarium early Monday from New York.
The three beluga whales are on a breeding loan from the Wildlife Conservation Society’s New York Aquarium. They will join Nico and Gasper — both males — who came from a Mexico City amusement park outdoor exhibit. In their new home at the Georgia Aquarium, the belugas will share an 800,000 gallon state-of-the-art habitat designed to simulate their natural environment.
Two United Parcel Service cargo jets flew the three female belugas to Atlanta. UPS donated the service to the Georgia Aquarium. Previously, UPS had flown the Mexico City beluga whales and Ralph and Norton, the Aquarium’s two whale sharks, from Taiwan. Ralph and Norton are in a 6.2-million gallon tank.
“We hope they enjoy the company of the boys from Mexico City and we soon have baby beluga whales,” said aquarium benefactor Bernie Marcus.
More than 45,000 people had purchased annual passes to the aquarium as of Monday. Tickets are on sale at the aquarium’s Web site (georgiaaquarium.org).
Marcus to give up reins of aquarium after a year
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia Aquarium benefactor Bernie Marcus said he will turn his $200-million-plus fish tank over to a nonprofit board of directors about a year after it opens.
Marcus said he plans to leave “an efficient working machine that’s going to be operating properly to a board and say, ‘Here now, it’s your responsibility. Now you take care of it.’ ”
Marcus, who co-founded Home Depot in Atlanta, has said he is building the 500,000-square-foot facility as a gift to the people of Georgia, whom he credits for the early success of his business. Marcus is providing most of the aquarium’s construction cost, with a little help from several major Atlanta-based corporations.
Cost estimates on the aquarium run as high as $280 million, though Marcus has refused to speculate on a final tab.
There had been some speculation that Marcus might eventually turn over the aquarium to the city of Atlanta or possibly the state.
“It is absolutely not going to the city or state,” Marcus said. “It’s a nonprofit organization that’s been set up already. It already has a board of advisers that will turn into a board of directors. They’re going to run it the same way you run any nonprofit.”
The 76-year-old mogul said his wife, Billi, and “some members of the Marcus Foundation” likely will serve on the board that eventually runs the ship-shaped facility. During the construction phase, the aquarium, which opens Nov. 23, has been run as a tax-exempt nonprofit — technically known as a 501(c) 3 — set up under the auspices of the Marcus Foundation.
Many public aquariums have struggled because they began life saddled with huge construction debt. In some cases, revenues failed to meet expectations and they had to be bailed out by local and state governments.
“Many aquariums essentially open with a mortgage, and that’s a huge disadvantage,” said Ken Peterson, spokesman for the world-class Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. Those fish tanks have to cover not only their operating cost, but payments of their debt.
The Monterey aquarium, which was built by David and Lucile Packard (of the Hewlett-Packard fortune) and opened debt-free in 1984, is operated like the Georgia Aquarium, as a nonprofit.
Peterson said the major disadvantage of a nonprofit is that you don’t get any government subsidies.
But the arrangement has many benefits, he said.
“Contributions by outside individuals are tax-deductive, so it’s an incentive for people to donate,” he said. “And you have full control of your own operations. You’re not subject to anybody else’s rules.”
Prior to the Georgia Aquarium’s opening, Marcus has essentially called all the shots. The aquarium already has an audit committee and a human resources committee, but it’s not a democracy.
“It’s just that now I’m making all the decisions, and they’re not,” Marcus said. It is that arrangement that permitted Marcus to keep many details of his big fish tank under wraps. He made contractors, university officials and even corporate bigwigs sign “non-disclosure agreements” to keep their lips sealed. Marcus said his primary goal is to turn over a debt-free facility that is generating enough revenue to cover its operating costs.
Public aquariums are notoriously expensive to operate. Two of the nation’s biggest, Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium and the Monterey Aquarium, have annual budgets of about $40 million each.
Georgia Aquarium officials have said they will not know what their operating budget is until they have been in operation a year.
Marcus said he thinks operating costs will be covered by “money they make on the gate and the social events at the aquarium.” The aquarium rents its massive ballroom for social functions.
Marcus dismissed any notion that city or state money might be needed to cover operating costs in the future.
“I hope that never happens,” he said.
