DENVER -- Putting aside their usual tourism magnet -- the Rocky Mountains -- officials in Colorado's capital city are hoping to lure visitors with a glimpse of the marine world.
Thousands of exotic fish, plants, birds and water-loving mammals are taking up residence in this land-locked city in an aquarium to open June 21.The $93 million aquarium is designed to replicate the paths of the Colorado River and the Kampar River in Indonesia as they descend from elevated peaks through deserts and rain forests, and ultimately to the ocean. Along the paths, creatures from Colorado trout to Sumatran tigers are displayed to add depth to the full habitat experience.
"We have a lot of moving water, and we have a continuing journey," says Bill Fleming, who co-founded the aquarium, called Ocean Journey, with his wife, Judy Petersen-Fleming. "Journey is a very important word to us."
It has been an eight-year journey for the couple since they first doodled their aquarium idea on the back of a napkin.
"We had two smiles and an idea," says Petersen-Fleming. "Nine out of 10 people thought we were crazy."
But the idea of an aquarium in her home state of Colorado was a dream for Petersen-Fleming. She says a land-locked state is a perfect environment to teach people about the ocean.
"The message we're trying to get across is everything uses water," she says.
The aquarium itself uses about 1 million gallons of water to sustain 15,000 specimens representing nearly 300 species. It is housed in a 106,500 square-foot facility near downtown Denver along the South Platte River.
The non-profit aquarium is part of an extensive redevelopment effort in the Platte River Valley.
"Denver has become such a hot place to visit for a number of reasons," says Andrew Hudson, a spokesman for the city. "Our hope is that this is going to add another dimension to our tourism efforts."
In 1997, about 8.8 million people came to Denver for an overnight visit or a longer stay, says Rich Grant of the Denver Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau.
"With this attraction we're going to show the 13 million people of the Rocky Mountain region something that they've never seen before," Grant says.
The aquarium tour begins at the birthplace of the Colorado River, high atop the Continental Divide. There, the greenback cutthroat trout, Colorado's state fish, thrives in the headwaters of the river.
Several species of trout are showcased as the exhibit moves into the wetlands and canyon lands areas of the Colorado River. River otters and waterfowl swim in tanks visible above and below the waterline.
The river canyons area houses four endangered fish species: the Colorado pikeminnow, bonytail chub, humpback chub and razorback sucker.
For visitors wanting more than animals, the desert area offers a simulated flash-flood every two to five minutes with a burst of 2,500 gallons of water crashing into a tank.
In high-flow years, the Colorado River empties into the Sea of Cortez in Mexico. Ocean Journey pays tribute to the marine diversity of the sea with a 180,000 gallon salt water tank featuring green moray eels, spotted eagle rays and colorful cave-dwelling fish.
"The Sea of Cortez is very abundant and lush with invertebrates and ornamental fish," says Scott Nygren, the director of life sciences at the aquarium.
He says Ocean Journey's Sea of Cortez exhibit is the largest of its kind in the world.
But it is not the largest tank at Denver's new aquarium. That honor is reserved for the Depths of the Pacific at the end of the Indonesian River Journey.
There, a 320,000-gallon tank is filled with zebra sharks, damselfish and cuttlefish. Three portals in the floor next to the tank allow visitors to watch sharks or a Napoleon wrasse swim under their feet.
Perhaps the largest predators of the Indonesian River Journey, however, are found upstream from the ocean tank.
As the Kampar River travels from the high volcanic peaks of the island of Sumatra along its 300-mile journey to the sea, the habitat along its banks changes from rain forest to lagoons. The critically endangered Sumatran tiger roams its banks looking for prey and staying close to the refreshing water.
Ocean Journey features two of the tigers in an above-ground and water tank exhibit. Visitors can watch the powerful cats climb hilly terrain or swim in cooling river water.
Two more rare mammals are found at the conclusion of the river tours. The aquarium showcases two Southern sea otters that can no longer survive in their native waters off the coast of California.
Sea otters are one of only a few marine species known to use tools. They manipulate rocks to dislodge shellfish for eating. The otters need to eat 25 percent of their body weight every day because they have such a high metabolism.
Aquarium officials hope visitors will bring an appetite of their own to Ocean Journey, which was built with the help of corporate sponsors and private donors.
"Colorado's hungry for something like this," said Petersen-Fleming. "You always hunger for something you don't have."