Press Release No. 185-03
24 April 2003
Philippine
Wild Reef Exhibit Opens in Chicago
The Department of Foreign Affairs announced today that the Philippine Wild
Reef Exhibit at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, USA, opened this month.
The $45-million Philippine Reef Exhibit is a reproduction of a coral reef
found in Apo Island, Negros Oriental. It contains over one million individual
corals and fish, 27 sharks and over 17.5 tons of Philippine sand. Built
over a period of eight years, the exhibit also features Apo Island, a 178-acre
volcanic island in the Visayan Sea which is home to exotic flora and fauna.
Shedd Aquarium officials said that they chose to do an exhibit featuring
this Philippine reef because the Philippines is “…the epicenter of ocean diversity…”,
with 450 species of coral and 2,500 species of fish. “It brings the guests
into the habitat,” said Bryan Schuetze, lead designer of the project. “It
gives the feel of diving on a reef.”
The Shedd Aquarium, the largest aquarium displaying a multitude of ecosystems
and species of sea plants and animals on the planet, is visited by at least
two million tourists a year from the United States and the world.
The Philippine Wild Reef, being a permanent exhibit there, may be expected
to whet the appetites of environmentalists and diving enthusiasts enough for
them to come to the Philippines and see the real thing.