Loveland Living Planet Aquarium

The Loveland Living Planet Aquarium was founded in 1997 by Brent Andersen, a Utah native and marine biology graduate from the University of California Santa Barbara.^[5] It is a regional attraction with over 850,000 annual visitors. The initial plan was to build a 90,000 square feet (8,400 m²) aquarium that showed ecosystems from around the world. Locations for the aquarium were originally considered in Salt Lake County and Utah County. Ultimately, feasibility studies indicated downtown Salt Lake City would be the best location.^{[citation needed]} The first education component was launched in February 1999 when its AQUAVAN was outfitted with educational portable marine exhibits and began visiting Utah schools.^{[citation needed]}

In 2004, in order to garner support for the full-size aquarium, the new organization opened a 10,000 square feet exhibit at the Gateway Mall in downtown Salt Lake, offering an exclusive experience of marine and freshwater life that was not then available in Utah's arid climate. The Living Planet Aquarium Preview Exhibit featured freshwater fish, sharks, stingrays, eels, a coral reef, a giant octopus, a small theater, and other interactive exhibits.^{[citation needed]} Attendance reached over 150,000 visitors per year in the first two years, and the small space was quickly outgrown.^{[citation needed]} The Aquarium relocated in June 2006 to a much larger 43,000 square feet (4,000 m²) space in Sandy, Utah. Attendance reached 460,000 visitors per year. The long range plan to eventually construct a campus that would house an Aquarium and a Science Learning Center continued to get support from the community over the next 4 years and in 2010 several prominent members of the business community joined to lead the Board of Trustees including Ken Murdock, Jim Loveland, Tim Cosgrove, Jeff Flam, Rick White, Ron Nielsen, Michele Hilton and Paul Hutchinson.^{[citation needed]} . The Loveland Family Foundation had been a long time donor. In 2011 they presented a lead gift that allowed the organization to accelerate fundraising, purchase 17 acres of land and raise $27 million to build the Aquarium's permanent home in Draper, Utah.^{[citation needed]} The 136,000 square feet (12,600 m²) Loveland Living Planet Aquarium opened to the public on March 24, 2014 and saw over 1.1 million visitors in the first year of operation.^{[citation needed]} The Aquarium is a 501(c)(3)non-profit organization.

The Ocean Explorer features saltwater species from all over the world, including jellyfish, moray eels, octopus, seahorses, sea turtles, wolf eels, clownfish, lionfish, stingrays, and nine species of shark. Shark species include swellsharks, hornsharks, coral catsharks, epaulette sharks, nurse sharks, zebra sharks, sandbar sharks, blacktip reef sharks, and grey reef sharks. The shark tunnel weighs 26,000 pounds and was lifted through the roof of the aquarium with a crane. The tunnel is made from 3.5 inch thick acrylic.^[6]

The Journey to South America is made to look like a rainforest, and houses animals such as a 14-foot anaconda, piranhas, caiman, desert insects, tree boas, electric eels, and tree frogs. The exhibit is meant to educate guests about the biodiversity of rainforest ecosystems, the benefits rainforests provide, and how to help protect rainforest habitats.

Discover Utah houses some of Utah's threatened and endangered species such as desert tortoises, Bonneville cutthroat trout, june suckers and least chub. The largest exhibit in this gallery features three male North American river otters which serve to educate visitors about river otters, otter reintroduction efforts, and release locations in Utah.

Antarctic Adventure immerses guests in a Falkland Islands research station where they meet gentoo penguins.^[7]

As of 2023, it is confirmed that king penguins and Southern rockhopper penguins are planned to gradually be added to Antarctic Adventure in the future, but the main priority is to also continue the Gentoo Breeding Program.

Expedition: Asia opened on June 15, 2016. The traveling exhibit features a breeding pair of clouded leopards, three male Asian small-clawed otters, three Asian arowana, a baby Komodo dragon, and many different species of Asian birds, fish, and reptiles, including even White Cloud Mountain minnow, Nicobar pigeons and hill mynas. The main feature of Expedition: Asia are the aquarium's two roul-rouls, Roulanda and Raoul.^[8]

The Rio Tinto Kennecott Plaza was added to the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium in 2020. It features the signature VR claw, two playgrounds, and even outdoor habitats for various fish species.^[9]

In 2023, construction started for a permanent 5-story Southeast Asian exhibit at Loveland Living Planet Aquarium, scheduled to be completed in 2025. As well as relocating some of the animals from Expedition Asia there to free up space in the aquarium's existing Expansion Gallery for additional travelling exhibits as well as potentially adding public space for ambassador animals, there are also plans to exhibit additional species such as Goodfellow's tree-kangaroos, Chinese giant salamanders, Victoria crowned-pigeons, and even returning species such as longspine porcupinefish and zebra sharks (the latter which already returned to Loveland on Election Day 2024). There will also be additional space for when the Komodo dragon is fully grown. Visitors are thrilled by the excitement of new species coming to Utah as well as additional learning campuses.

The aquarium's education department currently operates two outreach programs: the Utah Waters Van and the Rainforest Van.^[10][11] The outreach programs visit over 450 elementary schools statewide each year, reaching nearly 80,000 students. Field trip programs for pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade and a teacher professional development program with resources for fourth grade teachers are offered.

• Official website