Ariz. aquarium project seen as economic boost
22.09.11
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Hardly 10 years after the city pulled the plug on the Rio Nuevo aquarium, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is fulfilling a jingle of that promise by building a $500,000 aquarium project.
Hoping to pate off an attendance slump that coincided with the economic downturn, museum officials desire to complete a gallery next fall that will focus on fish and invertebrates from the Firth of California, widely known as the Sea of Cortez.
The project will start young, with 14 tanks and a "touch tank" where kids can have the impression a variety of swimming creatures.
But Craig Ivanyi , the museum's administration director, said this could serve as a test to see if a larger one might be steal at some point in the future — especially given the renown aquariums generally hold and the fact that it was one of the original elements the Rio Nuevo lob city voters passed in 1999.
Source: Houston Chronicle