Sea Life Park adds new $1M touch pool exhibits

Sea Life Park Hawaii guests will be able to get closer to Hawaii’s sea life with the recent opening of a $1 million touch pool complex, the largest investment in a single exhibit since the park’s Madrid-based parent company, Parques Reunidos, purchased the attraction seven years ago.

The exhibit replaced a single 2,685-gallon pool with three pools with a combined volume of 5,333 gallons. The renovations add a new immersive experience, including an underwater viewing bubble in a tank showcasing baby sharks and juvenile Hawaiian rays. Guests can also interact with baby honu (Hawaiian sea turtles) during hatchling season. Other creatures on display include shellfish, crabs, sea cucumbers and octopuses. There’s even a specialty tank featuring cleaner shrimp, which will gently nibble on the hands of humans brave enough to put them in the holding pool.

Leisure park operator Parques Reunidos bought the 22-acre amusement park from Dolphin Discovery of Cancun, Mexico, in 2008. According to its website, the parent company owns and operates more than 50 park operations across a dozen countries, including amusement and theme parks, zoos, water parks and marine life parks.

Parks most similar to Sea Life Park Hawaii include Miami Seaquarium, Marineland in France, Selwo Marina in Spain, Oceanarium in the United Kingdom and L’Oceanografic in Valencia, Spain.

Sea Life Park Hawaii’s parent company reported a 5.8 percent increase in revenue in 2014 from the previous year. The company also reported that it had 22.2 million visitors worldwide, a 5.8 percent increase in the number of park guests.

Valerie King, Sea Life Park General Manager, said Parques Reunidos spent over $4 million last year redoing infrastructure and signage. They also have spent a combined $2.5 million since 2012 on their shark tank exhibit, a 3-D theater and a bird aviary.

“However, this is the first renovation of this size on a single exhibit since the company purchased the park,” King said. “The shark tank was about $400,000, so really we haven’t had any other exhibit changes of this scope.”

King said the touch pool was selected for major enhancement because it is one of the park’s most popular attractions and fits in with its educational mission. All animals featured in the touch pool are native to Hawaii waters and tide pools. The exhibit will be open during park hours with scheduled experiences led by Sea Life Park educators throughout the day.

“This fully redesigned exhibit provides visitors the chance to experience the depth and breadth of marine life surrounding our islands,” King said. “This past year the president of Parques Reunidos made his first visit to Hawaii. He recognized Hawaii’s great potential and said they are very committed to this park. “

Sea Life Park Hawaii Curator Jeff Pawloski said the touch pool exhibits were designed to give the park more flexibility.

“Our interactive displays are flexible. Each pool can be run as an open water system or a closed system like an aquarium. We can change them up,” Pawloski said. “We will be able to expose our visitors to many different animals found in Hawaii’s waters and tide pools.”

Pawloski said the park will showcase different attributes of the animals that are collected locally or born at the park.

“We could have collector urchins and decorator crabs to show how they cover themselves,” he said. “We’re excited about all the possibilities.”

The one constant is that trained aquarists will be at each tide pool to help guests and animals safely interact and to bridge the knowledge gaps in conservation, Pawloski said.

“We are bringing the ocean to people. The closest most people ever get to these animals is snorkeling in less than 10 feet of water. You can’t easily find all of these animals in water that shallow or in some of Hawaii’s depleted tide pools,” he said.

Pawloski said many people want the ability to make a connection with Hawaii’s sea life.

“We show them how to do it respectfully and in a way that they will learn something about how to treat these animals if they ever get the chance to see them in a natural tide pool. Most people don’t realize that man has the greatest impact on the environment — even flipping over a rock can have grave consequences,” he said.

The displays brought out childlike enthusiasm in Anna-Maria Wright, a visitor from Paola, Kan., who stuck her hand in the shrimp cleaner pool.

“They’re tugging on me,” Wright said as the red-and-white stripped cleaner shrimp’s little claws cleaned her skin. “It’s a really strange sensation.”

Daniel Marsh, an 8-year-old visitor from Sydney who was touring the park Nov. 9, gravitated to the small white-tip sharks, the one animal on display that can’t be touched.

”It’s really cool,” Daniel said after emerging from the viewing bubble.

The park was worth visiting, said Darcy Lohan, a 13-year-old member of Marsh’s traveling party.

“I really liked seeing how they live and learning more about them,” Darcy said.