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There are signs on Highway 99 where a new aquarium will be built. In the meantime, the people behind the new attraction are bringing the aquarium to the classroom.
The Aquarius Aquarium Institute is teaching hundreds of Valley schoolchildren about tide pools. They bring creatures like sea stars, sea urchins, and sea anemones to schools for students to see, touch, and learn about life under the sea. It also increases awareness for the Fresno Aquarium project -- over a decade in the making.
"We're very close, the more the donations come in, the sooner it will get built. All of the money so far has gone into al lthe approvals, the studies that needed to be done in order to get our permission to build on the property," said Tom lang with the Aquarius Aquarium Institute.
The institute is planning to build the aquarium on a 10-acre campus along Highway 99 just north of Herndon, overlooking the San Joaquin River. Renowned Fresno architect Arthur Dyson designed the building. Lang says he still needs to raise $300,000 for phase one of the Fresno Aquarium.
For more information or to donate, call the Aquarius Aquarium Institute at (559) 490-FISH (3474) or go to the website www.fresnoaquarium.org.
