A new direction - A Fascination for Fish: Adventures of an Underwater Pioneer - page 314

ends. Sadly, the project fell victim to Hawaiian politics and was scut-
tled by the incoming governor. Among the innovative exhibits we had
planned was the first open ocean exhibit for yellowfin tuna in the United
States. Alas, that milestone had to wait for the Monterey Bay Aquar-
ium to bring to fruition.
An unusual challenge came when I was asked to participate in brain-
storming meetings to determine what to do about the degradation of
tanks and the building at the National Aquarium in Baltimore (only
two years older than the Monterey Bay Aquarium) due to corrosion.
This was a prime example of what can happen down the road when a
project relies on the lowest bidders and there's a lack of diligent proj-
ect management.
The quality of the concrete work on the big tanks was poor, and in
some places saltwater had penetrated all the way through the walls. The
seepage into the concrete had caused the reinforcing steel to expand
and pop o¤ chunks of concrete, a process called spalling. The electri-
cal system, which had been installed in steel conduit and junction boxes,
was also failing from the e¤ects of corrosion. We concluded that there
was no possible quick or inexpensive fix. In the end the aquarium was
closed for over a year while the necessary repairs were made, at a cost
of many millions of dollars.
At Sea World and Steinhart I'd seen first-hand the results of the cor-
rosive nature of seawater; this experience at Baltimore made me dou-
bly glad I'd pushed for corrosion-resistant materials in Monterey.
An ongoing consulting project in which I have a high degree of in-
terest is the New England Aquarium in Boston, the first of the new
generation of aquariums. In 1987, John Prescott, the aquarium direc-
tor and a friend from my early days at Marineland, invited a team of
us to participate in a three-day brainstorming session on developing a
major expansion and relocation of the aquarium for New England. Wa-
terfront property had become so valuable in Boston that the old har-
borside aquarium was in an ideal position to make a good financial
deal. They could sell the present site for commercial development and
build a brand-new aquarium away from downtown for only a little more
money than they would get for their property. We came up with some
dramatic exhibits, and considerable follow-up work was done. Shortly