AQUARIUM REELS IN VISITORS LEAVING TOWNSVILLE REEF HQ IN ITS WAKE

Bacteria a test but aquarium tops 100,000

CAIRNS Aquarium is on track to beat Townsville’s Reef HQ aquarium annual visitor numbers after just three months of opening.

The $50 million attraction, which officially opened in mid-September, is expected to welcome its 100,000th visitor by the end of this week.

It comes as the aquarium deals with its first major problem since opening, an outbreak of white spot disease in its main oceanarium tank.

Cairns Aquarium general manager Julie Cullen said the salinity level in the tank had been lowered in order to kill off the parasite that caused the disease.

“Basically we’re treating it as anyone who has an aquarium at home would,” she said.

“It occurs on animals out in the wild and it’s a common occurrence.”

She said the disease had resulted in the loss of some small fish from the aquarium but not their more significant species, like hammerhead sharks, which had been placed in quarantine.

“Because we’ve dropped the salinity level, all we’ve done is we’ve taken some of the animals that are a little bit more sensitive to drops in the salinity level, and we’ve moved them up into some other tanks,” she said.

“We’re basically keeping them there until we keep them under control, which will be another week to go, and then we’ll just bring the salinity level back up and then the animals will go back out into the (main) tank.”

In the meantime, the aquarium expects to welcome its 100,000th visitor either today or tomorrow.

That person will receive a platinum visitor’s pass, which includes a private guided tour through the aquarium and behind the scenes, a sevencourse degustation menu and matching wines at AquaLuna Restaurant and a souvenir photo and special gift from the aquarium store.

Ms Cullen said the level of local patronage was impressive.

By comparison, Townsville’s Reef HQ aquarium – which opened in 1987 – receives an average of about 100,000 visitors each year.

Last financial year, the Flinders St attraction had a total 142,610 visitors.