The 23,000 square foot SciQuarium will house a variety of interactive exhibits. Lindsey Zarecky, Director of the Natural Science Center of Greensboro said the facility will also provide behind the scenes tours, so people can get a first hand look of what it is like to run the aqarium.
"There's an assortment of aquatic life and also animals that don't neccesarily live in the water but maybe live near the water - like otters, penguins, and we are looking at bringing in some Amazon species like paronas, sloths and small monkeys like tamarans. And we will have the standard aquatic animals like sharks, stingrays and school fish," said Zarecky.
Greensboro voters passed a bond referendum in 2009 to help fund upgrades to the Natural Science Center. Zarecky said the new aquarium is part of a three phase project.
'Phase two will gut and redo a lot of the current museum including things like new bathrooms and new dinasour gallery. The third phase will be an addition to the animal discovery zoological park that we currently have, and it will have all sorts of highly endangered animals in a sort of sanctuary station at the lower end of our zoo," said Zarecky.
The SciQuarium at the Natural Science Center of Greensboro is expected to open in spring 2013.
