(Virginia Beach, Va., October 20, 2009) – On November 21, the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center will open its new $25 million
Restless Planetrenovation, featuring 12,000 square feet of spectacular new habitats, exhibits and aquariums. Home to 6,000 new animals and 367 new species – including Komodo dragons, exotic cobras, hedgehogs, and so much more –
Restless Planet will more than double the Aquarium’s animal collection.
Restless Planet features four habitats from around the world that existed in Virginia millions of years ago. Visitors will explore immersive live-animal exhibits and engage in 36 new hands-on activities designed to demonstrate the processes that shaped Virginia’s current landscape.
Restless Planet will include a Malaysian Peat Swamp, a Coastal Sahara Desert, the Red Sea, and Indonesia’s Flores Island – the same environments and landscapes that Virginia experienced millions of years ago. The habitats will recreate the look, feel and smell of those environments, as well as showcase many of the animals that adapted to those environments.
Slog through the humidity of a Malaysian peat swamp and come face-to-face with tomistomas, the world’s most endangered crocodile. Shuffle through North African desert sands where cobras and scorpions reside. Explore a 40-foot tunnel in the Red Sea while eagle rays with 6-foot wingspans and hundreds of colorful reef fishes swim overhead. Then hike across an Indonesian volcanic island in search of Komodo dragons, the world’s largest lizards.
In the
Restless Planet’s two Science Shacks, visitors will learn how these exotic habitats relate to Virginia’s past through an educational and entertaining mix of experiments, games, and unique artifacts. For example, they can make coal, produce a volcanic eruption, create a new ocean basin, and study 750 million-year-old rocks from Mount Rogers and more recent artifacts from Virginia’s coal mining industry.
Children also will love playing the “Puzzled Earth” and “Where in the World” games. In the Conservation Station, visitors will meet live animals up close in a “research tent in the field” setting during daily programs led by the Aquarium’s educators.
Restless Planet’s final gallery, appropriately entitled the Reflections Gallery, provides visitors with an emotional connection with the environment. A kaleidoscope of more than 100 still and video images and mirrors stimulates thinking about our planet Earth, and inspires personal reflection about what each person might do to help our environment.
In addition to
Restless Planet, the Virginia Aquarium is also opening new Journey of Water galleries, which follows the descending path of Virginia’s watershed from a gentle waterfall in the Upland River Gallery to the near-shore depths of the Chesapeake Bay. A giant holographic globe will show how Virginia and the continent changed over millions of years along with the plants, animals, and fish of today. Children of all ages will enjoy a newly-renovated touch pool with horseshoe crabs and other ocean critters.
A visit to the newly renovated Virginia Aquarium will educate, engage, and inspire visitors with the world they inhabit while generating awareness of the conservation challenges we face. The Virginia Aquarium is open daily except Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Restless Planet opens this November – so now’s the time to plan your Virginia Beach winter getaway. For travel planning, call 800-VA-BEACH or visit
www.vbfun.com. For more information about the Virginia Aquarium, call 757-385-FISH or visit
www.VirginiaAquarium.com.
For journalists seeking the
Restless Planet media kit, more information and complimentary images, please visit
www.vbpressroom.com.
Virginia Beach entices visitors to “Live the Life” every season of the year! Virginia Beach is four hours southeast of D.C. by car and within a day’s drive or less from two-thirds of the U.S. population. For visitor information, call 1-800-VA-BEACH (800/822-3224) or visit the Web site www.vbfun.com for online trip planning. For media information and digital images, click on www.vbpressroom.com.
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