World’s largest oceanarium set to open in S’pore in December

The world’s largest oceanarium, Marine Life Park (MLP), is set to open its doors on December 7 this year at Resorts World Sentosa (RWS).

RWS made the announcement on Monday morning, marking the launch of the last of the 12 mega-attractions since the opening of the integrated resort in 2010.

Located on the west of the IR, the sprawling MLP houses more than 100,000 marine animals. It also boasts over 800 species in more than 60 million litres of water.

The main attraction consists of the Adventure Cove Waterpark, which consists of Southeast Asia’s first hydromagnetic coaster, a slide that takes riders upwards. Guests also can snorkel amongst thousands of fishes at the “Rainbow Reef”. The park will also feature sharks feeding and other interaction programmes with Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins next year.

The highlight of the second attraction known as the S.E.A Aquarium allows guests to see the world’s largest aquarium viewing panel. It features over 100,000 animals including manta rays and hammerhead sharks.

Together, the two man-made attractions provide members of the public the option of getting wet or staying dry during the tour.

Dennis Gilbert, senior vice president of attractions at RWS, said, “No other attraction in this part of the world comes close to the Marine Life Park in terms of scope and concept. We believe that the Marine Life Park, being the world’s largest marine classroom, gives us the opportunity to put Singapore on the world map for innovative marine conservation and education programmes.”

Since May 2012, RWS has been conducting education outreach programmes with more than 50 schools. They are also currently in the first few stages of collaboration with tertiary institutions such as Ngee Ann and Temasek polytechnics to research on vetinary medicine and others.

The grand opening of MLP scheduled for December 7 will include a 12-minute public fireworks display at its waterfront promenade. The 1,600 invited guests invited for the gala dinner at the Resorts World Convention Centre will view a performance from the world’s best-selling soprano, Sarah Brightman. She will be accompanied by the Singapore Chinese Orchestra in their first collaboration.

The MLP project has previously been entangled in a controversy over 27 wild life dolphins that were captured in Solomon Islands. Only 25 have survived and are currently housed in Subic Bay, Philippines.  The public uproar that ensued saw over 100,000 people signing a petition, urging for the release of the dolphins.

However, Biswajit Guha, director of education and conservation of MLP, strongly defended RWS’s stance and assured the public that the 25 dolphins are “given the best care possible”.  Guha also added that there has been no date fixed yet for the transportation of the dolphins to MLP.

The MLP is into its final stage of preparations. Ticket prices to the park have not been announced yet.