The AquaDom; an aquarium in the Radisson atrium located in Berlin, Germany has burst into pieces.
What is AquaDom?
Holding 264,000 gallons and standing 82 feet tall, it’s the largest cylindrical free-standing aquarium in the world according to the aquarium’s manufacturers and this aquarium housed 80 different species of fish that totaled close to 1500 fish all together. Open since December 3 of 2003, it was renovated just 2 years ago.
What happened?
There are speculations that freezing temperatures may have cracked the acrylic and it couldn’t stand the weight of the tank when the integrity of the aquarium was compromised and then gravity did the rest. But is this really what caused it? Germany’s winter isn’t something new and it’s had similar temperatures for the 19 years that it was in operation, so what changed? Aquariums this size, usually have heat exchange units to regulate the temperature so I am curious to see the investigation report when it comes out.
The aquarium “exploded” just before 6 am and fortunately no one was seriously hurt (2 minor injuries) from this incident. However it could have drastically changed had this blown during high traffic hours. The acrylic debris can be seen everywhere and all the water draining created a mini tsunami out to the street which went into the sewer system. But had there been a congestion of people, results would have been catastrophic.
What happened to all the fish?
According to the earlier reports, many of them perished during the aquarium’s collapse as well as dying in freezing weather outside of the hotel but some survived. For those that were able to be saved, they were supposed to be transported to different facilities that can accommodate these fish. However Mayor Franziska Giffey has stated later that “Unfortunately, none of the 1,500 fish could be saved.”
According to the earlier reports, many of them perished during the aquarium’s collapse as well as dying in freezing weather outside of the hotel but some survived. For those that were able to be saved, they were supposed to be transported to different facilities that can accommodate these fish. However Mayor Franziska Giffey has stated later that “Unfortunately, none of the 1,500 fish could be saved.”
This isn’t their only aquarium though.
The hotel doesn’t have electricity due to the event and they have an additional 400-500 animals in other exhibits below the aquadom that need rescuing. Various organizations like the Berlin Zoo are offering to take in those fish and I hope that they move with haste to get these animals to safety as they battle navigating through the freezing weather and debris.
This is a huge blow to the commercial aquarium industry and one that will have many people asking what happened? Who takes the blame? Do you rebuild this or get rid of it completely?
What do you guys think? Should they rebuild this or get rid of it?
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