Despite Neighbor, Local Aquarium Plans Still Afloat

Santa Barbara on Wednesday appeared to take the lead over Oxnard and Ventura in the race for a city aquarium, unveiling blueprints for a $50-million waterfront facility.

But Ventura County aquarium boosters said the Santa Barbara project far from sinks their own proposals to build tourist-luring marine centers.

“It really doesn’t affect our plans at all,” said Supervisor John K. Flynn, who backs an aquarium project proposed for Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard. “We are moving ahead. If we reacted to every project that came along in California, we would never do anything.”

Flynn said the Channel Islands Harbor Aquarium would be smaller than Santa Barbara’s, which would cover nearly four acres along that city’s waterfront. Flynn said the Oxnard aquarium would highlight sea life from the Southern California coast and serve as a marine educational and research center.

Yet despite differences in size and focus, two major aquariums within a 30-minute drive of each other would probably have trouble staying afloat financially, said Ken Peterson, a spokesman for the nationally renowned Monterey Bay Aquarium.

“My suspicion would be that two aquariums on that scale could not be built in the area,” Peterson said. “If the anticipation is that they are both going to be major tourist attractions, someone is going to be disappointed.”

Ventura Mayor Tom Buford said his city’s plans involve building a facility that would serve more as a center for marine study rather than a splashy tourist spot.

“We are not exactly sure in which direction our project is going,” Buford said. “But there has always been the feeling that there is room for more than one project on the coast.”

Between 1989 and 1994, national aquarium attendance jumped from about 23 million to nearly 35 million--thanks in part to the construction of nine new aquariums.

Ventura and Oxnard are among dozens of U.S. cities with aquariums on the drawing board, including Denver, Minneapolis and Buffalo, N.Y. On Nov. 20, Long Beach is set to break ground on a $117-million aquarium featuring both indoor and outdoor exhibits, said Bob Paternoster of the Long Beach city manager’s office.

Though Oxnard officials have discussed building an aquarium--estimated by Flynn to cost between $25 million and $35 million--on South Victoria Avenue for years, a five-member steering committee formed only recently to study the proposal.

Flynn said he will announce a funding strategy by early next year, which now includes seeking corporate donations and issuing county revenue bonds to be repaid with aquarium receipts.

Sue VanCamp, a member of the aquarium steering committee and vice president of marketing for Martin Smith & Associates, said developer Martin V. (Bud) Smith would most likely contribute to the project. But VanCamp declined to specify what amount Smith, one of the county’s wealthiest residents, would contribute.

“Mr. Smith is a strong supporter of the aquarium and would probably do something financially with it,” VanCamp said.

Flynn predicts the aquarium would be a boon for the county.

“It will attract research money,” he said. “It will attract education money. It will attract visitors. All of that means revenue coming into Ventura County.”

John Cahill, president and executive director of the Santa Barbara Channel Foundation, which has coordinated that city’s plans for an aquarium, believes that the facility would not compete with other aquariums.

Cahill predicts about 800,000 tourists would visit the Santa Barbara aquarium annually, which represents about 12% of the city’s volume of visitors.

“We are not building this project to generate tourism,” Cahill said. “We think this will just hold [the tourists] here a little bit longer.”

Cahill said construction of the Santa Barbara aquarium, expected to open in the year 2000, will be funded through bonds and private donations.

Despite the aquarium building boom, Jane Ballentine, a spokeswoman for the American Zoo and Aquarium Assn. in Bethesda, Md., said she does not recall any major aquarium closing in the past five years.

Attendance at the New Jersey State Aquarium in Camden fell nearly 50% after its first year of operation, Ballentine said. But receipts have rebounded with the addition of new exhibits.

Peterson said several factors have contributed to the financial health of the $55-million Monterey Bay Aquarium, built in 1984. For one, the Packard family, which made its fortune in the computer industry, provided a $55-million grant for the project. The aquarium also sits on Monterey’s Cannery Row, already a major tourist center.

Peterson said it may be risky for a locale to pin its hopes on an aquarium drawing tourists from out of the area.

“People make stops in Monterey and Carmel,” Peterson said. “The aquarium gives them an additional reason to stop. That is not true for every community.”