Waikiki Aquarium popular

Advertiser Staff

Gov. Ben Cayetano's plan to build a new $30 million aquarium at Kaka'ako was dealt a major setback this year when the Legislature refused to provide the funding.

The failure of that effort has left the Waikiki Aquarium without a clear blueprint for the future, said Bruce Carlson, who has run the aquarium since 1985.

The Waikiki Aquarium, which is part of the University of Hawaii system, has steady attendance of about 320,000 people a year, said Carlson. That number may be "small for Mainland but it's fine for us," he said.

The aquarium has 38 employees and an annual $2.5 million budget, which it earns from ticket sales and other sources, Carlson said.

"We get very high marks from visitors," Carlson said, adding that about 95 percent of the comments visitors drop in a suggestion box are positive.

"If you only display brown fish, people may not be all that impressed," he said. "That doesn't apply to us because we are exhibiting the premier animals that everyone in the earth wants to display."