A Ripley's Aquarium was originally planned in 2004 to be built in Niagara Falls, Ontario, next to what is now Great Wolf Lodge around 2007, but plans fell through and Ripley's eventually relocated to Toronto. Construction began on the attraction in August 2011 with a final cost approaching $130 million. The aquarium opened to the public in October 2013. The project was a partnership with three levels of government. The federal government'sCanada Lands Company contributed $10 million to the project to develop the "John Street Corridor" linking Front Street with the aquarium, the CN Tower and the Rogers Centre. The Government of Ontario contributed $11 million to the project, and the City of Toronto government provided property-tax incentives amounting to between $8 million and $12 million over the first twelve years of the aquarium. Ripley's Aquarium has been the target of animal liberation groups such as TARA and MAD, which claim animal captivity is synonymous with animal abuse. They regularly conduct protests and demonstrations at the facility. Prominent animal conservationist Bob Timmons has also publicly spoken out against Ripley Aquarium's capture of endangered tiger sharks.
Building
The building features a multi-faceted shell clad in large aluminum panels, with the roof of the main entrance that "gives the illusion of the earth’s crust peeling away to reveal a window into the aquatic world." There are also coloured surfaces that juxtapose reflective aluminum soffits. The building was designed with special shielding so that sharks would not be disturbed by its electrical systems.
Access
The building is located on Bremner Boulevard, to the east of the Rogers Centre, just south of the CN Tower and across the street from the Roundhouse Railway Museum. The aquarium is accessible from the Union subway station using the SkyWalk pedestrian pathway. The building does not have parking of its own. Parking is available in several underground parking garages nearby and surface parking lots. The nearest highway access is the Gardiner Expressway by exiting at York Street.
Exhibits
The aquarium holds 5.7 million litres of water and shows marine and freshwater habitats from around the world. The aquarium is organized into ten galleries: Canadian Waters, Rainbow Reef, Dangerous Lagoon, Discovery Centre, The Gallery, Ray Bay, Swarm: Nature by Numbers, Planet Jellies, Life Support Systems and the Shoreline Gallery. It is home to more than 20,000 animals. s, longcomb sawfish, and green sea turtles.
The Dangerous Lagoon is an underwater tunnel with a moving conveyor belt, which is the aquarium's largest tank. Some of the featured animals in this exhibit include sand tiger shark, sandbar shark, roughtail stingray, longcomb sawfish, green sea turtles.
The Discovery Centre features various hands-on activities such as underwater viewing bubbles, a pop-up research submarine and a touch pool which allows visitors to touch living fossils. Discovery Centre inhabitants include clownfish, palette surgeonfish, horseshoe crab. The Touch exhibits give visitors the opportunity to touch the skins of various animals like sharks and sting-rays with the help of aquarium employees. This gallery is home to whitespotted bamboo sharks, brownbanded bamboo sharks, southern stingray, cownose rays.
The Ray Bay exhibit is focused around three distinct species of stingrays. Occasionally visitors can see aquarium divers feeding the stingrays during their daily interactive dive shows. Some of the inhabitants of this exhibit include the bonnethead shark, cownose ray, and the southern stingray.
The Life Support System gives visitors a behind the scenes look at the aquarium’s life support systems room. The building features the largest life support systems room of Ripley’s three aquariums. This gallery features equipment for Dangerous Reef and Ray Bay.
