Waikiki Aquarium
Encyclopedia
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The Waikiki Aquarium is a marine science institution in the City and County of Honolulu
Honolulu County, Hawaii
The City and County of Honolulu is a consolidated city–county located in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The municipality and county includes both the urban district of Honolulu and the rest of the island of Oahu, as well as several minor outlying islands, including all of the Northwestern Hawaiian...
and the State of Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
. Founded in 1904, this marine aquarium
Marine aquarium
A marine aquarium is an aquarium that keeps marine plants and animals in a contained environment. Marine aquaria are further subdivided by hobbyists into fish only , fish only with live rock , and reef aquaria. Fish only tanks often showcase large or aggressive marine fish species and generally...
is the third oldest public aquarium
Aquarium
An aquarium is a vivarium consisting of at least one transparent side in which water-dwelling plants or animals are kept. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, marine mammals, turtles, and aquatic plants...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Since 1919, the Waikiki Aquarium has been an institution of the University of Hawaii System.
Built near a living coral reef on the Waikiki
Waikiki
Waikiki is a neighborhood of Honolulu, in the City and County of Honolulu, on the south shore of the island of Oahu, in Hawaii. Waikiki Beach is the shoreline fronting Waikīkī....
shoreline, the Waikiki Aquarium is home to more than 3,055 organisms of 464 species of marine plants and animals. Each year, over 350,000 people visit. The Waikiki Aquarium was designated a Coastal Ecosystem Learning Center of the Coastal America Partnership federal program.
Establishment
The Waikiki Aquarium was established on March 19, 1904 by the Honolulu Rapid Transit Authority, a forerunner of the present-day TheBus. It was hoped that the aquarium would entice travelers to ride the trolley all the way to the end of the line at Queen Kapiolani ParkKapiolani Park
Kapiolani Regional Park is the largest and oldest public park in Hawaii, located in Honolulu, Hawaii on the east end of Waikīkī just beyond Kuhio Beach Park and the Waikiki residential neighborhood...
. It was built on land donated by James Bicknell Castle
James Bicknell Castle
James Bicknell Castle was a Honolulu businessman in times of the Kingdom of Hawaii, Republic of Hawaii and Territory of Hawaii.-Life:...
with funds from Charles Montague Cooke
Charles Montague Cooke
Charles Montague Cooke was a businessman during the Kingdom of Hawaii, Republic of Hawaii and Territory of Hawaii.-Life:Charles Montague Cooke was born May 6, 1849 in Honolulu, Hawaii. His father was Amos Starr Cooke co-founder of Castle & Cooke...
and his wife Anna Rice Cooke
Anna Rice Cooke
Anna Rice Cooke was a patron of the arts and the founder of the Honolulu Academy of Arts.-Biography:Anna Charlotte Rice was born on September 5, 1853 into a prominent missionary family on Oahu, Hawaii. Her father was teacher William Harrison Rice , and her mother was Mary Sophia Hyde. Anna grew...
.
William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan was an American politician in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. He was a dominant force in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, standing three times as its candidate for President of the United States...
and Jack London
Jack London
John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...
traveled to Honolulu to see the Waikiki Aquarium first hand. Biologist David Starr Jordan
David Starr Jordan
David Starr Jordan, Ph.D., LL.D. was a leading eugenicist, ichthyologist, educator and peace activist. He was president of Indiana University and Stanford University.-Early life and education:...
said the Waikiki Aquarium had the finest collection of fishes in the world.
History
Hawaiian butterflyfish
The Hawaiian butterflyfish, Chaetodon tinkeri, is a member of the family Chaetodontidae of order Perciformes. It is also known as Tinker's Butterflyfish, after Spencer W. Tinker who discovered it in 1949, trapping them in fish traps at off Oahu, Hawaii.-Description:It grows to a maximum length of...
is named Chaetodon tinkeri in honor of Spencer Tinker who became the Aquarium's second director in 1940.
The aquarium's live fish gathering has a controversial history. In 1973, community worries over collecting actions were first handled by the Hawaii Division of Aquatic Resources by requiring monthly collection information. Increases in fish gathering united with growing public perception of declining fish supply ultimately developed into a harsh disagreement between fish collectors and the dive tour industry.
In reply to declines in reef fishes due to aquarium collectors, the Hawaii State Legislature, in the course of Act 306, formed the West Hawaii Regional Fishery Management Area in 1998 to advance management of fishery resources. The projected management plan received 93% support at a public hearing and was then approved by the Governor.
Development and conditions
The Waikiki Aquarium developed displays of living coralCoral
Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of...
s starting in the middle to late 1970s. These aquarium structures were reliant on a permanent provision of seawater and therefore the aquarium seawater situation was not so different from the ones on the reef just outside.
Living corals are more complex to sustain in aquariums than most marine fish. Aquarists must be more aware of the physical, chemical and natural necessities of corals if they hope to accomplish success. Lighting, water chemistry, water motion, and temperature are the main features of concern to aquarists preserving living corals.
The Waikiki Aquarium was the first aquarium in the world to maintain the chambered nautilus
Chambered Nautilus
The Chambered Nautilus, Nautilus pompilius, is the best-known species of nautilus. The shell, when cut away reveals a lining of lustrous nacre and displays a nearly perfect equiangular spiral, although it is not a golden spiral. The shell exhibits countershading, being light on the bottom and dark...
and the first to breed them.
Art
Art at the Waikiki Aquarium includes:- Tropical Sounds, a 2000 group of abstract ceramic sculptures by Jun KanekoJun Kanekois a Japanese ceramic artist living in Omaha, Nebraska, in the United States. In 1942 he was born in Nagoya, Japan, where he studied painting during his high school years. He came to the United States in 1963 to continue those studies at Chouinard Institute of Art when his focus was drawn to...
- Vita Marinae, a 1975 ceramic tile waterscape by Claude HoranClaude HoranClaude Horan is an American sculptor who was born in Long Beach, California. He received a BA from San Jose State University in 1942 BA and an MA degree in art from Ohio State University in 1946. His wife Suzi Pleyte Horan collaborated on many of the larger projects.He started the ceramics...