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May 21, 2008 6:03 pm US/Central
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Shedd's Oceanarium To Close For 9 Months
Animals To Be Shipped Elsewhere During Preventative Maintenance Project
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
The Shedd Aquarium has announced plans for its biggest renovation to date. The Oceanarium will be closed for nine months for repairs and rehab.
And as CBS 2's Susan Carlson reports, that makes for a complicated moving day for whales, dolphins and sea otters.
"There is a blue epoxy paint on the side of those pools that was guaranteed to last five years, back in 1991," said Shedd President and CEO Ted Beattie.
The Oceanarium will close the day after Labor Day. For the safety of the animals, aquarium officials will not say when or where they will be transported until after it's complete. Their trainers will be moving with them to various facilities around the country.
"The animals know us well, they know our staff well so we will have staff members traveling to these remote locations to live with the whales, to live with the dolphins, to live with the otters while they're outside of Chicago taking a little vacation," said Shedd Vice President of Animal Collections and Training Ken Ramirez.
But getting them on chartered flights to their destinations may be a little tricky. Sixteen animals, including a 2,000 pound whale, will travel in custom-sized carriers.
"It's called a stretcher, but it's like a hammock that supports their weight and that hammock rests inside a large tub that's filled with water.
The 3 million gallon Oceanarium will get its long-overdue renovations from money gathered from fundraising efforts.
The $50 million renovations will also include additional office space, an outdoor patio and restaurant upgrades to accommodate the Shedd's growing attendance.
"Those restaurants, both our food court area and our sit-down restaurant, they were never designed to accommodate 2 million people a year," Beattie said.
The office consolidation will free up 20,000 square feet in the Oceanarium for a planned Great Lakes exhibit area.
The 170,000-square-foot Oceanarium was opened in April 1991.
The rest of the aquarium, including the coral reef exhibit, will stay open during the project and admission will be reduced to roughly half-price. The renovation should be complete by the summer of 2009.
CBS 2's Susan Carlson and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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