Halifax is about to get its very own aquarium.

If you are picturing your standard aquarium with classical music and fish swimming around in tanks, that is not quite what you can expect.

Dov Bercovici, President and CEO of the Discovery Centre tells our newsroom there will be a bit of that but with marine life native to our waters here at home that have been saved or caught.

“There’s actually going to be three fairly large tanks as well as some smaller tanks around the center. We actually have access to 25 species right now.”

This includes blue whale skeleton hung from the ceiling, a deep-sea octopus found in the gully – a canyon off of Nova Scotia’s coast -as well as a bi-colored lobster.

“Orange and blue,” Bercovici says, “That’s one in 50 million. I believe we call her Claudia. These are the types of things that you’re going to see. Creatures that you normally wouldn’t see in an aquarium. Very Atlantic Ocean focused as well.”

Been in the works awhile…

The project is in partnership with Dalhousie University, with the idea that started during the pandemic when things were closed down.

Bercovici says that’s when the design work began.

“What they’ve [Dalhousie] has done is provided 10,000 square feet to us. We design and build the exhibits and operate the space on their behalf and open this up to the public so they can access and you know, become future marine biologists and get into ocean tech and so on.”

“It’s probably going to be the first of its kind in Canada. It’s more of a research aquarium, but equally entertaining as the Discovery Centre. Lots of storytelling. Lots of programming.”

Bercovici says, in addition to that, what makes it really unique is the knowledge the staff will have in order to keep things relevant.

“The biggest asset here in Nova Scotia, we have probably the highest concentration of ocean scientists, ocean science expertise per capita in the world. If you think about the work that’s going on, a lot of work that people don’t know about that’s fascinating on specific species, but also the impact of climate change.”

Bit of a price tag

To build a research aquarium can cost up to $20 million.

Bercovici says Dalhousie and the team have already raised over $10 million and continue to fundraise.

In addition to that, they’ve asked HRM to help with the cost by contributing $200,000 a year.

“We have approached the city of Halifax. They have a vision. They want to see this happen. They’re doing a staff study right now. We are asking for $1 million over five years.”

If the city declines, Bercovici says, even though it would be challenge, they can afford to run the aquarium on their own.

“It has success written all over it. Just the like the Discovery Centre opened to resounding success in 2017. So, we’ve been there and have done that before and we’re going to do it again.”

The aquarium is scheduled to open this fall.