Nordsøen Oceanarium

Nordsøen Oceanarium

Date opened	1998
Location	Hirtshals, Denmark
Coordinates	57°35′12″N 9°58′48″E / 57.5866°N 9.9800°E / 57.5866; 9.9800Coordinates: 57°35′12″N 9°58′48″E / 57.5866°N 9.9800°E / 57.5866; 9.9800
Total volume of tanks	4,500,000 litres (1,189,000 USgal)
Website	www.nscentre.dk

Nordsøen Oceanarium is a public aquarium and museum that opened in 1998 on the shores of the North Sea in Hirtshals, north Jutland, Denmark. It is the largest public aquarium in Northern Europe.

The Oceanarium is part of the Nordsøcentret, which also houses a conference centre. It is specially designed to hold schooling, pelagic fish. It is of great importance that these fish have sufficient space – a lot more space than in traditional fish tanks – to allow them to show natural behaviour. Therefore the Oceanarium is constructed with a volume of 4,500,000 litres (1,189,000 USgal) of water. It is not only important that the surface area is large (the Oceanarium is elliptical and measures 22 by 33 metres (72 by 108 ft)), but also the large depth 8 metres (26.2 ft) is necessary for the fishes´ schooling behaviour. Each school of fish can choose depth according to their species, like they do in the sea.

History

The Oceanarium was opened in 1998. It was destroyed by fire in December 2003 and reopened in July 2005.

Exhibits

Tank in the oceanarium

The centre tank

The large octagonal tank in the centre of the museum's old building is 5 metres (16.4 ft) deep and holds 4,500,000 litres (1,189,000 USgal) of water. The centre tank does not show a particular habitat from the North Sea, but can be seen as a kind of "show-room" for displaying large specimens of some of the species which are also seen in the habitat tanks - for example cod, saithe, turbot and sea-bass.^{[disambiguation needed ]}

Habitat tanks

Twelve tanks, varying in size from 4,000 to 16,000 litres (1,057 to 4,227 USgal), present different habitats from the North Sea - from the sandy bottom by the jetties to the muddy seafloor at several hundred metres in the Norwegian Trench between Denmark and Norway.

In each tank fish and other sea animals which can be found in that particular habitat are shown. The oceanarium tries to make the bottom and the surroundings as authentic as possible, however with the appropriate compromises.

Theme tanks

In addition to the centre tank and habitat tanks the oceanarium has a large number of theme-tanks with fish or other marine animals, which may contain animals which are impossible to show in other tanks, or animals subject to special theme exhibitions; an example would be the exhibition "Creepy Crawlies". Here the oceanarium presents different invertebrates. With special "bio-scanners", tourists are able to see details of the animals not possible with the naked eye.

In other theme-tanks can be found some of the small fish found in shallow water; also in the Activity area there are tanks which staff biologists use for demonstrations.

Sealarium

In the Oceanarium's large outdoor seal pool, the Sealarium, visitors can get close to the two seal species common in Danish waters - the harbour seal and the grey seal. The Sealarium contains 800,000 litres of seawater which is continually renewed.

External links

• Official website