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National Aquarium (Visit this link)
The first interest in building a Hawkes Bay aquarium was expressed in 1938 by a local architect, when it was proposed to build an aquarium against the walls of the salt water baths on the Marine Parade in Napier. However these plans were not realised at that stage.
The first aquarium was opened in 1956 under the War Memorial Hall in the form of a weekend fish show by the HB Aquarium Society. The first weekend show was so popular that another was arranged for the following weekend and a market was recognised. On the 3rd April 1957 the first public meeting was held to discuss the establishing of a permanent aquarium in the basement of the War Memorial Hall. And 8 months later on the 13 December 1957 the aquarium was up and running after 2 bays of the Halls' basement was partitioned off. In its first month of operation 20,000 people had visited the aquarium, with adults paying a shilling and children six pence.
The success of the aquarium in its cramped conditions led to the proposal, of a joint aquarium and dolphin pool. In 1964 an architecture firm was commissioned to design such a complex. The main dolphin pool and the kidney shaped pool next to that were opened in 1966.
By June 1971, 1 million people had visited the basement aquarium and the aquarium executive was still trying to get a new building. In 1973 the planning commenced and the circular 2 storey design with a 350,000L oceanarium was suggested.
On the 10th December 1976 the new aquarium was opened and within the first year had won the NZ Tourism Award as well as the Building Design for a round building made from Square Bricks (Firth).
The first year of opening saw 230,000 people pass through its doors (at a time when the population base was 50,000 people in Napier), and the first 5 years saw over 190,000 people visit per year.
The aquarium was designed totally as an entertainment facility, whereas nowadays education is an important aspect of most places. This is represented in the new development plans which will incorporate more education, research, passive education (80% of the general public do not want to be educated as such) so the displays will be set up as education with a theme where topics such as ocean currents, mountain to the sea (water cycle), local (i.e. Kidnappers, Hawke Bay) are displayed. The foyer of the planned building is also going to have displays which can be changed on a semi regular basis.
The Hawkes Bay Aquarium has also been involved in a number of research programs in the past. These include assisting DoC with the Tuatara Recovery Programme (the oldest living captive Tuataras hatched in the world).
They have also assisted Massey in coronary studies on Kingfish and Kahawai, and MAF Fish, with the spawning of snapper which are now farmed by Moana Pacific (they now have 4th and 5th generation aquarium stock there).
http://www.nationalaquarium.co.nz