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For visitors to The Deep, Britain’s stunning new aquarium, it’s almost like being a deep-sea diver
UNITED KINGDOM SUMMER PEARLS: London's architectural gems along the banks of the Thames
MUSIC: Europe's best pop and rock gatherings
BAGPIPES: The plaintive sounds of Scotland
SUBMARIUM: Journey to the bottom of the sea FESTIVALS: Fun in the sun in West Belfast
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FRANCE and SWITZERLAND VULCANIA: Blow your top at France's volcano park
ART: Berthe Morisot, the unknown Impressionist
FESTIVALS: Aix-en-Provence has it all
ART: The Barbizon School painters come to life
ART: Take a stroll through medieval gardens of delight
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SPAIN, PORTUGAL, ITALY and GREECE SALAMANCA: The city splashes out on culture
MUSIC: God's rock stars: the singing Greek monks
FOOD: Italy's unusual culinary delights
FILM: Great outdoor viewing in Rome
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GERMANY and BENELUX HORTICULTURE: The world blossoms at Floriade
BRUGGE: Belgium's second city shines
ART: Berlin's homage to multiculturalism ART: The best of the world's artists on show at Documenta 11 DANCE: Czech twin ballerinos steal the show in Hamburg MORE ..
CENTRAL and EASTERN EUROPE ART: Yugoslavia's modern art museum is back
ART: A retrospective of Samizdat art and writing from the Communist bloc
GRAZ: Austria's little-known city of culture
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THE NORDIC REGION DESIGN: Denmark celebrates Arne Jacobsen
MUSEUM: Get a blast from the past at Stalin World
STOCKHOLM: Welcome to the Venice of the North
MUSIC: Pianist Leif Ove Andsnes on tour MORE ..
PLUS LISTINGS: Other things to see and do in each region
Planet Earth's only submarium recounts the oceans' stories
For centuries, the sea has been part of the lifeblood of Hull, in northeastern England. As traditional maritime industries have declined and, with them, Hull's economy, local officials knew they had to do something unique to attract a new trade: tourism. Again, Hull looked to the sea — not just to the chilly north Atlantic, but to all the world's oceans.
The result is The Deep, home to more than 2,500 fish, including seven species of shark, and dozens of audiovisual and interactive exhibits designed to appeal to the PlayStation generation. Touted as the world's only "submarium," a word coined by staff members to distinguish Europe's newest, deepest and most stunning aquarium from its more conventional rivals, The Deep tells the story of the oceans — from the Big Bang to
future undersea research — through time, latitude and depth.
"Our task is to conjure up a world that is less familiar to most people than the surface of Mars," says exhibition designer John Csáky. "It is our aim to create a magical experience that will become lodged in the imagination of millions of visitors." Perched on a promontory at the confluence of the Humber and Hull Rivers, The Deep has already created a huge splash since its March 23 opening. The attraction features an underwater viewing tunnel beneath its main, 10-m-deep "Endless Ocean" tank, providing a diver's-eye view as sharks, stingrays, potato groupers, giant morays, shoals of golden trevally and other colorful fish glide by. A glimpse upward, past a gray reef shark and toward brighter light, reveals an inflatable raft floating on the water's surface, adding to the effect. A transparent acrylic elevator — said to be the only one of its kind in the world — rises through the 2.3-million-liter tank, giving exiting visitors an all-too-brief last encounter with the creatures of the deep. (Tip: Take the scenic staircase.)
Long before that, though, there are numerous habitats to explore. A lagoon tank, replete with young and shallow-water-dwelling fish, is clear-sided all the way to the floor, letting even the shortest of visitors view the riot of color and patterns as the fish nibble food that has settled on vivid, lifelike artificial corals. In a small tank, moon jellyfish are nearly invisible, until a touch of a button bathes them in ultraviolet light. Other little tanks host real corals, which The Deep is propagating, and "stranger-than-fiction" creatures, like the shortnose batfish, which walks on leglike side fins.
While the fish are undoubtedly the stars, other exhibits are meant to be handled, in the hope that learning about the oceans will foster greater understanding of the need to protect them. For kids, the most dramatic of the interactive exhibits is the futuristic Deep Blue One. Hypothetically, it is the year 2050 and "trainee crew members" are aboard an international scientific research station 4 km below the ocean's surface. Amid blips and beeps, they monitor the station's life-support system, plan the crew's diet, pilot a submersible vehicle, explore ocean-floor vents and conduct experiments.
And there is the polar gallery, with real ice walls on to which film of the marine life of the Arctic and Southern Oceans is projected. Touch the images of penguins huddling in a howling Antarctic blizzard, and feel the cold. In a marine mammals area, listen, via earphones, to tapes of a whale's song, a sea lion's bark, a dolphin's clicks and whistles. The Deep, like the oceans themselves, is full of wonders, and ever-changing.
The Deep, off Citadel Way, Hull, England • Open: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily •Tickets: adults, €9, children under 16, €6 •Phone:+44 (0)1482 381000 •Website:www.thedeep.co.uk •E-mail:info@thedeep.co.uk
