Page 125 - Sjæklen2002

Tilbagemeldinger fra byen fik vi i løbet af sommeren, og
især i efterårsferien, hvor mange bedsteforældre med bør-
nebørn har tradition for at besøge museet. Meldingerne var
positive, og således mener vi, at vi fortsat lever op til det
succeskriterium Fiskeri- og Søfartsmuseet hele tiden bør ar-
bejde efter, nemlig ”...at være et sted hvor de lokale borge-
re gerne tager deres udenbys gæster med hen”.
Summary
The saltwater aquarium in the Fisheries and Maritime Mu-
seum was completely renovated in winter 2001-2002 at a
cost of approximately 20 million kroner. The renovations
were carried out because a 1997 report on the aquarium’s
condition indicated that it was in such a poor state that very
extensive renovations were necessary. The concrete foun-
dations under the tanks were crumbling away because of
ruptures due to rust, the plastic pipes had become as brittle
as glass with age, and the electrical installations were cor-
roded. The report made it clear that the saltwater aquarium
required such extensive renovation that it was a question of
total replacement of the tanks, the piping, the electrical
installations and the cooling system.
To allocate the costs of this total renovation, the City of
Esbjerg, which owns the buildings, planned to carry out the
renovations over a period of 5-8 years. But viewed in rela-
tion to the running of the aquarium, such a solution posed a
number of problems. Firstly, the aquarium would have to be
closed to the public for several periods, and the entire re-
novation period would be marked by dust and noise.
Secondly, renovation in stages would mean major problems
in relation to the care and custody of the animals in the
aquarium. And last but not least, the result of such a simple
renovation would be an aquarium where, despite an invest-
ment of millions of kroner, the public would not be able to
see any indication of what was new, and where a number of
basic problems in the construction of the original aquarium
– such as the problematic access for the disabled – would
not have been solved.
Given these problems and disadvantages, an alternative
proposal was prepared and implemented. This proposal was
based on completely clearing out the aquarium so that only
the outer walls and the inner walls supporting the ceiling
remained, and then starting again from scratch. Apart from
solving a large number of technical problems, this decision
placed us in the unique situation of being able to combi-
ne 30 years of experience with aquariums with the very
newest ideas, principles and strategies within both aquarium
technology and design.
The result is a saltwater aquarium where visitors can
experience life in the sea in many different ways. Moving
through the aquarium, the visitor first meets a circular tank
with jellyfish floating in the water in weightless elegance.
Further inside, the visitor is presented with the many and
varied life forms we meet in the sea. A circular tank with
the streamlined bright and shiny herring, tanks with the
often more colourful and variegated species which live near
the sea floor, and finally a tank with the flatfish which live
right on the sea floor. The flatfish aquarium is constructed
so that the window faces downwards, making it possible to
lean in over the “sea floor” and study the often cleverly
camouflaged fish at quite close quarters. In a big tank with
an eight metre-wide and three metre-high window, the visi-
tor can approach the biggest fish in the North Sea – the
sharks, the conger eel which can reach a length of two
metres, and the almost one metre-square turbots. Finally, an
open aquarium allows the visitor to touch a living shark.
And there are also numerous bigger and smaller tanks – all
created to display life in the sea in the greatest possible
variety of different ways.
The new aquarium has been well received by both our
many tourists and by the city’s residents. The fine and safe
access options for the visually and physically impaired have
won special praise.
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