DRAPER, Utah – A Salt Lake area aquarium has been busy building their brand-new facility, and on Thursday they announced the larger facility will open in March.
The Loveland Planet Aquarium is scheduled to officially open its doors to the public on March 25 at 10:00 a.m.; the facility is located at 12033 South Lone Peak Parkway in Draper.
According to a press release from aquarium officials, the 136,000-square foot facility is three times larger than the previous location in Sandy and will allow guests to be more fully immersed in diverse ecosystems; there will be 74 exhibits and a total of 600,000 gallons of water.
Brent Andersen is the CEO of the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium, and he said in the press release the new facility represents a great deal of hard work from a variety of people.
“Building this world-class aquarium has been accomplished through the support from our friends and donors and the hard work and dedication of hundreds of staff, volunteers and board members over the years,” Andersen said in the release. “To see it now come to fruition is a wonderful experience. After all these years, it is a privilege and an honor to announce the opening of The Loveland Living Planet Aquarium. I think visitors will be amazed by all that this new facility has to offer.”
Journey to South America—a two-story tall exhibit with the temperature, humidity and plant life from the Amazon rainforest—is one of the new exhibits. There is an exhibit featuring Amazon birds, and another houses sharks in a new, 20 times larger, shark tank featuring a walk-through tunnel. The penguin exhibit has also grown, and there are now three touch pools instead of one.
The facility also features Utah’s first 4D theater, which the press release describes as “…a 3D movie incorporated with additional sensory effects such as wind, mist, scents, leg and back ticklers and seat vibration/movement.”
For more information about the aquarium, visit their website or Facebook page.
