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Napoleon wrasse now in Ocean Voyager gallery
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia Aquarium
Napoleon wrasse roams Ocean Voyager.
Seven Napoleon wrasse, pointy-nosed fish from the Great Barrier Reef that can grow to 7 feet long and weigh up to 400 pounds, are now swimming in the Georgia Aquarium’s Ocean Voyager tank.
The giant fish, sometimes called the Maori wrasse because the delicate patterns on its face resemble the tattoos of New Zealand’s Maori warriors, are sharing space with two whale sharks, a bowmouth guitarfish and thousands of other fish.
The Napoleon wrasse’ bright color and unique characteristics truly add to the Ocean Voyager exhibit,” said Tim Binder, Georgia Aquarium’s director of husbandry.
The species inhabits the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean and the Red Sea.
“Most of these wrasses begin their lives as females,” said Paul Clarkson, manager of animal quarantine.
“As they mature, some of them will go through a sex change. They will change from animals with female sex organs to animals with male reproductive organs. They’ll change color. They’ll change size, and they’ll get a crest on their head.”
Crowds flood big opening
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“It’s official. It’s open!”
With those words, volunteer Bryan Shaw, 36, of Duluth welcomed the first of more than 10,000 people expected at the Georgia Aquarium on Wednesday.
The world’s largest aquarium opened to the general public with fewer glitches than earlier in the week when season ticket holders tested it out and found frustrating delays trying to park, get through security and obtain laminated passes.
The aquarium’s Web site and call center, however, continued to work poorly for scores of people trying to buy tickets or make reservations.
For the hundreds of people who had already made reservations and lined up well before the 9 a.m. opening, there was little trouble making their way inside .
“Oh, it’s so much better,” aquarium Executive Director Jeff Swanagan said of how staffers handled the crowd. “I’m so happy it’s improved.” Once inside, visitors were wowed by the massive displays.
“Daddy, look at the jellyfish!” cried Christian Jones, 4, pointing above his head. The Sandy Springs child was mesmerized by the glowing jellyfish floating up and down in the dark tank while his father, Chris Jones, 32, tried to coax him to move on. The child turned to a blue, illuminated tank in the Tropical Diver gallery. “Look, more jellyfish!”
Jones, who purchased tickets online three weeks ago, said his family rode MARTA and arrived at the aquarium at 8:15 a.m. He said it took him only 30 minutes to get in when the doors opened. “I expected it to be longer,” Jones said.
Several kids flocked to the touch pool near the Georgia Explorer gallery, waiting for a personal encounter with little stingrays and bonnethead sharks. Nicolas Reich, 4, of Duluth kept his hand in the water until, all of a sudden, he felt the back of one of the sharks. “He feels, like, smooth,” the giggling child told his father, Vince Reich, 43. “He knows sharks better than his ABCs,” the father said.
Retired teacher Dianne Lockwood, 62, of Lilburn said she was pleased with the mix of education and entertainment. She especially liked the touch-screen displays in each gallery that pop up interesting facts about the more than 100,000 fish and mammals in the 500,000-square-foot facility.
“I was almost afraid I’d be disappointed. I’ve heard so much about it,” Lockwood said. “I can’t wait to bring my grandkids.”
Aquarium spokesman Dave Santucci said the facility is fully booked through the weekend.
The rush to get tickets had been fueled by the national attention the aquarium has generated. CBS, CNN, the “Good Day Atlanta” TV show and six radio stations reported from the $290 million aquarium.
Officials late Tuesday increased the Web site’s bandwidth and added a subcontractor to their call center operations. On Wednesday, however, visitors to the Web site (www.georgiaaqua rium.org) and callers continued to find trouble getting through to the aquarium (404-581-4000).
Swanagan said planning ahead is still key. “I’m encouraging people to think about Christmas through New Year’s Day,” he said.
The day also attracted protests but far fewer than the dozens Monday. Mike Vosburg-Casey, an advocate for the homeless, stood alone outside the aquarium’s exit all morning, holding up a sign that said “House people before fish” and clanging a can of loose change.
At noon, 20-year-old Micah Risk took standing up for a cause to another level, appearing topless in a mermaid costume and crammed into a small cage.
“I’m just trying to boycott the world’s largest sea prison,” said Risk, who was one of three protestors with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
But there were no security problems, security workers said, other than grumblings from some visitors whose pocket knives and cigarette lighters were taken before they entered.
Inside, a line quickly formed with kids wanting to take a photo with the aquarium’s large orange mascot, Deepo. But another line was longer. It led to Bernie Marcus, the Home Depot co-founder and aquarium benefactor.
“Thank you,” visitors called out to Marcus as they passed by. The 76-year-old billionaire, in turn, waved.
“It does my heart good,” said Marcus, who put up $250 million of the money needed to build the aquarium. “This is why I did it.”
— Staff writers Ernie Suggs and Jim Tharpe contributed to this article.
Doors open to everybody
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“It’s official. It’s open!”
With those words, volunteer Bryan Shaw of Duluth welcomed the first of more than 10,000 people expected to visit the Georgia Aquarium today.
The world’s largest aquarium opened to the general public with fewer glitches than earlier in the week.
While its Web site and call center continued to respond slowly to demand for tickets, the hundreds of people who had made reservations and had lined up outside the massive fish tank well before the 9 a.m. opening had little trouble making their way inside.
Once inside, they were wowed by the massive displays.
“Daddy, look at the jellyfish,” cried Christian Jones, 4, pointing above his head. The Sandy Springs child was mesmerized by the glowing jelly fish in the dark tank while his father, Chris Jones, 32, tried to coax him to move on.
Jones, who purchased tickets online three weeks ago, said his family took MARTA and arrived at the aquarium at 8:15 a.m. He said it only took him 30 minutes to get in when the doors opened.
“I expected it to be longer,” Jones said.
Several kids immediately flocked to the touch pool, waiting for a personal encounter with stingrays and bonnethead sharks. Nicolas Reich, 4, of Duluth, eagerly kept his hand in the water until all of a sudden he felt the back of one of the sharks. “He feels, like, smooth,” the giggling child told his father, Vince Reich, 43. “He knows sharks better than his ABC’s,” the father said.
The rush to get tickets to the hottest attraction in town has been fueled by the national attention the aquarium has generated. CBS, CNN, the “Good Day Atlanta” TV show and six radio stations were broadcasting from the aquarium, today, once again inflating interest.
Aquarium spokesman Dave Santucci said the facility is fully booked through the weekend, and only those who have made reservations are getting in. Still, many people have flocked to the aquarium’s Web site and called its offices hoping to buy tickets, only to find trouble getting through.
The Web site (www.georgiaaquarium.org) and call center were still swamped early today. Officials late Tuesday increased the Web site’s bandwith twelvefold and added a subcontractor to their call center operations. Many callers, however, were getting busy signals when they dialed the call center (404-581-4000).
Shaw, one of more than 700 volunteers working at the aquarium, was just as excited about the opening as those passing through the doors.
“I just wanted to be a part of this new great addition to this city,” the BellSouth project manager said.
Staff writers Ernie Suggs and Jim Tharpe contributed to this report.
Tickets as rare as fish inside
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s easy to get into the Georgia Aquarium as long as you are Matt Lauer or a whale shark.
But if you are one of the many metro Atlanta residents who tried to buy a ticket on Tuesday you already know that getting a ticket is no swim in the park.
I know. I tried it myself. My bosses, facing a flood of e-mail and telephone calls complaining of the difficulties of buying tickets online or by telephone, asked me to check things out.
I started, like most of you, with the Web site: www.georgiaaquarium.org.
I was greeted by a stalled site and the unwelcome news that it was “experiencing a high volume of traffic.”
OK. That made sense. So I tried again. This time I actually got to the part of the site that offers to sell tickets. I hit the enter key. After a couple of moments of grinding, the Web site had more bad news for me:
“An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current Web address.”
Don’t you hate it when that happens?
In an attempt to be helpful, the Web site said I should “review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated.”
I try not to review stack traces when I’m in a bad mood. And I was. So I decided it might be easier just to telephone for tickets.
I dialed 411 to get the number. The automated software couldn’t decipher my Southern accent when I said “Georgia Aquarium.” But soon I was transferred to an operator who speaks my language.
Armed with the number, I call.
I had already been warned by an editor that many of our readers reached one of those maddening menus only to be disconnected before being able to place a ticket order.
Those are the lucky ones. I never reached a menu. Instead, the phone rang and rang. But there was no answer.
Aquariums have been unlucky for me since I was in the second grade and my guppies died.
Visitors’ cash flows freely
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Acworth mother Deryl Heflin, 47, opened her arms, and Georgia Aquarium T-shirts, plush versions of aquarium mascot Deepo, a stuffed beluga whale, magnets and stickers spilled out onto the gift shop counter.
“She’s already got two bags in her hand,” Heflin’s husband, Bob, 57, noted before handing over his credit card to add $66.69 to his tab.
“This is our second trip,” Deryl Heflin said gleefully.
From $10 parking to $6.99 Deepo toys and $2 bottled water, patrons have been plunking down fistfuls of credit cards and cash since the world’s largest aquarium opened Monday. Already, about 28,000 visitors have experienced Atlanta’s newest attraction and spent untold thousands of dollars there.
“Hey, we gotta pay for the place,” joked Dwight Friday, a 55-year-old chiropractor from Smyrna, as he entered the aquarium’s gift shop. “It’s like Disneyland — maybe a little bit high, but I guess you have to pay for the ambience.”
Although philanthropist Bernie Marcus and some of Atlanta’s elite corporations have funded the construction cost, annual operating expenses estimated at more than $40 million will be covered by ticket sales, ballroom rentals and a percentage of souvenir and food sales.
Between marveling at otters, whales, sharks and other sea life in the $290 million attraction, thousands of visitors are shopping for souvenirs and stopping for lunch.
On Tuesday, Suwanee mother Jessica Brumer, 39, carried a tray of two cheeseburgers, french fries, three drinks and two desserts through a crowd as son Max, 8, followed with his own tray of fried chicken fingers, an orange drink, two Oreo ice cream bars and a lollipop.
With a 20 percent discount granted to all annual pass holders and the novel approach of buying only kids’ meals for herself and her husband, Brumer paid only $20.91 for lunch.
“That 20 percent was quite a savings,” Brumer said as she sat down to eat with her husband, son and daughter. “But I was disappointed that it was $10 to park.”
An aquarium spokesman declined to say how much of the money generated by concessions — which are operated by outside vendors — is returned to the aquarium. Judging from the long lines at Cafe Aquaria and the Beyond the Reef gift shop — which everyone must pass through on the way out — few seemed concerned about where the money might be going. After all, many already had spent hundreds of dollars for annual passes and the chance to view the attraction before the general public, who will be able to visit the aquarium starting today.
Mohamed Khan, a 42-year-old hospital nurse from Kennesaw, paid $324.50 for annual passes for himself, his wife and four children. He spent an additional $100 on movie passes, lunch and souvenirs Tuesday. “We’ll be back right after Christmas,” he said.
Randy Grimes, a 45-year-old UPS manager from Kennesaw, pulled out $14 from his pocket to pay for tickets to the aquarium’s 3-D movie before he and his sons entered. But after Mitchell, 6, and Jonathan, 8, said they didn’t want to wait in line for lunch and neither found much in the souvenir shop, Grimes walked out having spent only $31.50. “I had anticipated spending 100 bucks,” he said.
Most families were planning to pay for parking, lunch and souvenirs during their first visit to the facility, and few were complaining about the somewhat elevated prices.
“It was worth it to me to get to share this place with him and Amanda,” Alpharetta resident Linda Stovall, 65, said of her daughter and grandson Ben, 5, who was clutching two plastic whale sharks Stovall had bought for $15.98.
“You just kind of pull out all the stops when it comes to spending time with your family,” she said.
Of course, some people did leave the aquarium empty-handed. Tom and Greer Broadwater of Tyrone said they didn’t have any grandchildren for whom to buy presents. Besides, Greer Broadwater, 56, said: “We don’t need any more junk.”
— Staff writer Jim Tharpe contributed to this article.
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I pity the fish that changes sexes like that, I’ll pity it soooo hard….... read the full comment by Mr. T | Comment on Napoleon wrasse now in Ocean Voyager gallery Read Napoleon wrasse now in Ocean Voyager gallery
Only I can make a female Napoleon wrasse become a male. The Napoleon wrasse become males when I tell them to!... read the full comment by Chuck Norris | Comment on Napoleon wrasse now in Ocean Voyager gallery Read Napoleon wrasse now in Ocean Voyager gallery
said sub-species is said to be found primarily in waters around Duke University.... read the full comment by gtgd | Comment on Napoleon wrasse now in Ocean Voyager gallery Read Napoleon wrasse now in Ocean Voyager gallery
there’s a sub species that makes a whining noise called the JJ Wrasse-dick.... read the full comment by gtgd | Comment on Napoleon wrasse now in Ocean Voyager gallery Read Napoleon wrasse now in Ocean Voyager gallery