Posted on: Monday, March 24, 2003

EDITORIAL
Where's the market for two big aquariums?

When is two better than one? Not when we're talking about two "world-class" aquariums within 25 miles of one another along O'ahu's shore. Yet House lawmakers have for some perplexing reason advanced two such aquarium proposals.

In the first case, they approved a measure granting tax breaks for developer Jeff Stone's Ko 'Olina resort — which would include a world-class aquarium and marine research center.

In the second, they've revived a proposal to assist development of an aquarium at the Kaka'ako waterfront, whose developer, Marvin Suomi of Kajima Urban Development, proposes $40 million in revenue bonds to help pay for the project.

Rep. Brian Schatz, chairman of the House Committee on Economic Development and Business Concerns, says "It's possible to sustain both."

It seems more likely to us that dual aquariums would cannibalize one another. Nowhere in the nation is there a metropolitan area with multiple aquariums drawing from the same customer base. We already have Sea Life Park and the Waikiki Aquarium.

Moreover, if one aquarium doesn't make enough to at least pay operating costs, and there are no wealthy philanthropists to bail it out, the state is left holding the bag. If two fail, we get stuck with a bill twice that size.

Of course, if the Kaka'ako facility were primarily a marine research facility, then there might be a case to be made for two. But it still needs to be self-supporting so taxpayers aren't footing the bill.

A 1998 state-commissioned analysis for a Kaka'ako aquarium projected that the attraction would draw about 775,000 customers annually, including 600,000 tourists, generating an operating surplus each year in its first decade.

But that study didn't factor in a second "world-class" aquarium on O'ahu. If there's a compelling argument for dual aquariums on O'ahu, we'd like to know because we haven't heard it yet.