Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium

The Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium is located within the Ocean Expo Park in Okinawa, Japan. It welcomed its 20 millionth visitor on 30 March 2010 and is a member of the Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums (JAZA). It was the largest aquarium in the world until it was surpassed by the Georgia Aquarium in 2005. The aquarium has the theme of “Encounter the Okinawan Sea”.HistoryIn 1975, the World's Exposition or World's Fair was held in Okinawa, Japan at the Ocean Expo Park. Afterward, the park began to lose tourism and it was believed that a new aquarium would help revive the area and celebrate Okinawa's marine tradition. The aquarium was designed by Yukifusa Kokuba and was opened on 1 November 2002."Churaumi" was selected as the name of the aquarium by public vote amongst Japanese people. "Chura" means "beautiful" or "graceful" in the Okinawan Japanese dialect, and "umi" means "ocean" in Japanese.AquariumThe aquarium is a part of the Ocean Expo Park located in Motobu, Okinawa. The aquarium is made up of four floors, with tanks containing deep sea creatures, sharks, coral and tropical fish. The aquarium is set on 19,000 m2 of land, with a total of 77 tanks containing 10,000 m3 of water. Water for the saltwater exhibits is pumped into the aquarium from a source 350 m offshore, 24 hours a day.The main tank, called the Kuroshio Sea, is 35m long, 27m wide and 10m deep. It holds 7500m3 of water and features an acrylic glass panel measuring 8.2by with a thickness of 60cm, the largest such panel in the world when the aquarium was opened.