Offers Exciting Educational Trips around Philippines

Manila will experience this newest awesome attraction. Young and old alike for sure will enjoy the coming of the Ocean Park just behind the Quirino Grandstand at the Rizal Park.

According to Mr. Lim Chee Yong, Manila Ocean Park president, this big project, is owned by China Oceanis Philippines Inc., a subsidiary of China Oceanis Inc., a Singaporean-registered firm that has opened four oceanariums in China.

Lim said that the park's concept would be an oceanarium, a mall, a boutique hotel, a restaurant row and open marine habitats, where marine fanatics could learn to swim and dive with the fishes. Singaporean together with Malaysian investors is the first world class marine park to adopt a fusion concept. The park will accommodate the first ever and largest aquarium facility in the Philippines.

Manila Ocean Park would be amongst the most contemporary ocean parks in Asia, with an area larger than the famous Sentosa oceanarium in Singapore. Lim said that the oceanarium and the open marine habitats would hold 12,000 cubic meters of seawater which boasts 300 marine species found in the Philippines and Southeast Asia.

Robert Dean Barbers, PTA general manager says, “All over the world, people have been saying that our country is the center of marine biodiversity, this is the time to be proud and show the world what we have”.

The project is comprised of three phases, the oceanarium. The second, is the marine themed mall and a hotel, the third would be the marine habitats, and would be open to the public by next year.

The oceanarium journey is divided into six sections. The first one, called Agos (Flow), flaunts a rainforest theme with eight tanks containing freshwater species. The next section, called Bahura or the Reef, would exhibit artificial corals in 48 tanks, Laot (Fishing Ground), would feature big fish and Eagle spotted rays in a long tank. The main attraction of the oceanarium is a 25 meter long walkway tunnel with 220 degree curved acrylic walls. A school of barracudas would be seen swimming in a large tank at the Kalaliman (The Deep) section of the oceanarium. There would also be a shark tank and an overhead aquarium featuring the breathtaking beauty of rays.

Manila Ocean Park would not include endangered and protected species like the whale sharks and other sea mammals. A group of marine biologists and scientists has been working to make sure that the types of fish could live well together with each other in the tanks..

Parks vice president, Cristina Romualdez says, “We are largely an educational facility. As much as possible, we want to promote the conservation and preservation of marine species”.

This is something for Filipinos to be proud of, another tourist spot from the Philippines. Not everyone has opportunity to travel and happy that Filipino kids and adults too will now experience a world class theme park at the comforts of their own country . Other than that, the project would increase the peso from dollars coming from tourist, can create more jobs and would decrease our growing unemployed population.