Image of Macduff Marine Aquarium by Bill Harrison, Creative Commons.
Macduff Marine Aquarium in Scotland is to close for several weeks after the Easter holidays for a full refurbishment of its popular kelp reef display tank.
The Aberdeenshire attraction’s 400,000 l kelp tank is Scotland’s deepest open-topped tank at 5m depth and 10m diameter. Open to the sky, it allows seaweeds to grow under natural daylight and is home to over 100 fish and countless invertebrates.
Macduff Marine Aquarium has stood on the shore of the Moray Firth since 1997 and is a popular attraction and major driver for tourism in the Macduff area.
Tying in with the aquarium’s 20th anniversary, Aberdeenshire Council, which owns the attraction, has announced the makeover of the kelp exhibit. This will mean draining the tank, before stripping the existing lining off the walls and a new lining applied before the tank theming is rebuilt. The fish will be held in temporary storage while the work is carried out.
The whole job will take around 11 weeks to complete and the aquarium will remain closed during that period, but is scheduled to re-open in time for the summer holidays with a brand new look to the kelp tank.
The aquarium’s manager, Claire Matthews, said: “The kelp tank is one of our star attractions here at the aquarium and visitors especially enjoy watching our divers hand-feeding its inhabitants.
“We are very excited to get started and catching all the fish will be our first challenge.
“But first we’re looking forward to a busy Easter — after all, it’s the last opportunity for people to see the tank before the big makeover.”
The aquarium team will be posting updates regularly on social media throughout the refurbishment process, visit www.facebook.com/macduffmarinequarium for more information.