Anglesey Sea Phew!
A GREEN energy company has helped turn Anglesey’s Sea Zoo into the UK’s first solar powered aquarium, with the sun’s rays now helping to revive a rare sea turtle.
The boost from the banks of solar panels are already providing vital warmth for the Olive ridley turtle - the first of her species ever found off the shores of Great Britain and Ireland since records began in 1748.
The animal, given the name ‘Menai’, was found fighting for its life in early November, just yards from the door of the top tourist attraction on the shores of the Menai Strait at Brynsiencyn.
But after months of rehabilitation, its hoped she’ll be released back into the wild once strong enough.
The Sea Zoo was taken over 10 years ago by entrepreneur Frankie Hobro, specialising only in British marine life, housing over 100 different species of sea creatures.
As part of her commitment to sustainability and safeguarding the environment, Frankie was determined to power as much of the aquarium’s energy requirements as possible from renewable sources.
So she turned to St Asaph-based Carbon Zero Renewables and after an initial inspection, it took a team of three specialist installers just over a week to fit the 166 high-efficiency panels to the roofs of three of the Sea Zoo’s main buildings.
Laid end to end, the panels would be three times the height of Big Ben and its estimated that the system, which will produce around 40,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year, will save the Sea Zoo at least onethird to half of its annual power bill.
The solar installation is now supplying enough power to meet all of its general electrical requirements, including pumps and filters for the 30 odd tanks containing aquatic exhibits ranging from lesser spotted cat sharks to conga eels and from octopuses to jellyfish.
They also supply the chillers in the roof which maintain the lower temperatures essential for some exhibits during the summer months, as well as supplying the onsite Rockpool Café and gift shop.
The panels are also being used to maintain the constant 25-26oC needed for the indoor holding tank which has now become home to ‘Menai.’
The turtle has a shell diameter of 62 cms, and is believed to originate from Gabon on the west coast of Africa, where the nearest breeding population of her species is found.
Its now thought that she’s been carried from the shores off the very southern Atlantic coast of Africa, clockwise in the North Atlantic Gyre current, up past the coast of America and then across to British shores in the Gulf Stream, a journey totalling some 15,000 miles.
Frankie said: “When we found Menai she was in such a bad condition, in a ‘cold shock coma’ that we weren’t expecting her to survive more than a day or two.
“But we very gradually brought her body temperature back up to the correct level and since then she’s continued to improve, she’s feeding well and enjoying plenty of room for swimming around in her own spacious indoor tank.
“Just before Christmas we moved Menai out of her small quarantine ‘intensive care’ tank into a new much larger water tank inside the aquarium which is being heated by the new solar power system.
“Once she has fully regained her strength, our aim is to fly Menai abroad to a longer term turtle rehabilitation facility, in order to ensure her continued recovery and hopefully see her eventually released back into the wild where she belongs.”
She went on to say: “Our underlying theme is sustainability and a regard for the environment, so fitting the new PV system was a dream of ours.
“It cost about £60,000 and in the long term will save us at least a third or half of our total energy bill which was working out at between £1,000 and £2,000 every month.
Carbon Zero boss, Gareth Jones, added: “I agree with Frankie that the Sea Zoo in now very possibly the UK’s only solar-powered aquarium. I certainly don’t know of any others. That’s quite fitting for us because we know we’ve already installed the systems for Wales’ first solar-powered abattoir in Corwen and first solar powered vineyard at Penygroes near Caernarfon.”