[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 17] [Senate] [Pages 23782-23783] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]THANKING MR. BERNARD MARCUS Mr. CLELAND. Mr. President, I would like to offer my thanks and appreciation to Mr. Bernard Marcus for his generous donation of $200 million for the construction of a five-million-gallon aquarium in the city of Atlanta, GA. This gift, made by the Marcus Foundation, is one of the largest single grants ever made by a private foundation and will provide the people of Georgia and those who visit our great State the opportunity to experience the wonders of aquatic and riparian wildlife. In addition to this most recent gesture of generosity, Mr. Marcus has contributed to causes ranging from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, vascular diseases, developmentally disabled children, and Jewish charities. Those who have benefitted from his benevolence know him to be a man dedicated to his community and friends. I thank him for his friendship and generosity and look forward to this exciting new addition to the City of Atlanta and the State of Georgia. At this time, I would like to ask that the text of two Atlanta Journal-Constitution articles be printed in the Record. The articles follow: [From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Nov. 20, 2001] Aquarium ``Will Be a Great Marvel'' Home Depot Chief Pledges $200 Million (By Shelia M. Poole) Home Depot Chairman Bernard Marcus promised that the huge Georgia Aquarium announced Monday would have ``no boundaries'' in offering top-notch entertainment and research opportunities for residents and visitors. ``It will be a great marvel,'' said Marcus, whose private Marcus Foundation will spend up to $200 million to build and endow the aquarium, which will be owned by the state. The nonprofit aquarium--at 5 million gallons and 250,000 square feet--would be among the largest and most elaborate in the nation. It will contain freshwater and saltwater fish and mammals. Marcus, the 72-year-old cofounder of Home Depot, said the aquarium is a way for him and his wife, Billi, to give back to the community in a way that is ``meaningful and will last past our lifetimes.'' The aquarium, to open in 2005, will be built on 15.5 acres adjacent to Atlantic Station, a planned $2 billion minicity under construction west of the Downtown Connector. When completed, the development will include apartments, condominiums, offices, shops and a 20-screen movie theater. The site for the aquarium is just north of Atlantic Station, east of Mecaslin Street and south of Deering Road, near the former National Lead Industries site. The developer of Atlantic Station, Jim Jacoby, who owns Marineland in Florida, is assisting in acquiring the property. On Monday, representatives of state and local government, business, academia and the tourism and convention industry attended the announcement in the Georgia Capitol's Senate chamber. Atlanta Mayor-elect Shirley Franklin called it ``a wonderful gift for the city.'' She said the aquarium would not only provide entertainment and education opportunities for residents, but also create a draw for tourists and conventioneers. City boosters have long decried the lack of attractions in downtown Atlanta. Marcus' announcement effectively supersedes other efforts to build aquariums in Atlanta. At least two proposals had been floated to build aquariums at Stone Mountain Park and near Turner Field. ``We're not in business to compete,'' but to work toward getting quality recreation facilities in the area, said Thomas Dortch, chairman of the Atlanta-Fulton County Recreation Authority, which had tried for years to find financing and a downtown site for an aquarium. ``With the commitment from Mr. Marcus and the governor, we're excited about the fact there will be a world-class aquarium.'' The aquarium is still very much a work in progress, say those associated with it. There are no renderings, site plans or economic impact figures, although attendance is projected to be between 1.5 million and 2.5 million annually. Don Harrison, a Home Depot spokesman, said Marcus planned to visit aquariums across the United States and elsewhere, including China. The design will be finalized over the next 18 months. ``Now is when all the work begins,'' said Harrison. The aquarium will be global in [[Page 23783]] scope, drawing researchers and visitors from around the world, he said. ``The world is, frankly, our target.'' Former Atlantan Jeffrey Swanagan, executive director and chief executive officer of the Florida Aquarium in Tampa, has been tapped to run the project. Swanagan spent 10 years as deputy director of Zoo Atlanta and was a protege of director Terry Maple. Marcus first approached Gov. Roy Barnes about the project a year ago. The governor suggested Atlantic Station as a possible site. ``Location was key,'' Marcus said. ``In our minds it will become a destination to visitors.'' Already the city has museums, art galleries and theater. What it doesn't have, Marcus said, is an aquarium. Dan Graveline--executive director of the Georgia World Congress Center--said, ``It will be a wonderful asset for the city. One of [the city's] biggest shortcomings is that convention[-goers] lack things to do in downtown Atlanta.'' The aquarium represents the largest donation to date from the Marcus Foundation and is a departure from previous endeavors, noted Harrison, the spokesman for Home Depot. With the private funding, the Georgia aquarium will open with no debt. Other aquariums, typically funded by municipal bonds and saddled with enormous debt, have struggled to prosper. Many have had difficulty funding new exhibits critical to attracting repeat customers. A notable exception is the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. The aquarium, which opened in October 1984, was privately financed with a $55 million gift from David and Lucile Packard of the Hewlett-Packard fortune. There were ``no bonds and no debt,'' said Ken Peterson, a spokesman for the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which attracts 1.8 million visitors annually and was expanded in 1996. ``When you're paying a mortgage plus your operating expenses, it doesn't leave a lot of extra revenue for developing special exhibitions or new exhibit galleries.'' Bob Masterson, president of Orlando-based Ripley Entertainment Inc., which operates aquariums in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Gatlinburg, Tenn., said the size of the Atlanta Facility will make it expensive to operate. ``We spend about $30,000 a day to run the 1.3 million- gallon aquarium in Myrtle Beach and a little more than that in Gatlinburg,'' he said. ``With a 5 million-gallon tank, I'd guess it would cost at least $50,000 a day to operate. And if it fails, there is nothing else you can do with that building.'' ____ [From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Nov. 20, 2001] An Aquarium for Atlanta: Giant facility Will Increase Knowledge About Oceans (By Charles Seabrook) Call it the Atlanta Ocean. A world-class aquarium in Atlanta will mean not only a place where people can marvel over ocean wonders, but also a place where scientists and students can unravel mysteries of the sea. Understanding the oceans' workings is vital, scientists say, because the declining health of the world's seas has become a pressing public problem. Dozens of ocean fish species are in peril because of overfishing, and marine biologists estimate that more than 25 percent of the coral reefs in the world's tropical oceans are sick or dying. ``If this aquarium is built the way it's envisioned, it will be wonderful not only for economic development but also for basic science,'' said Mark Hay, professor of environmental biology at Georgia Tech. ``It will be of immense importance for researchers.'' The Georgia Aquarium that Bernard Marcus, chairman of Home Depot, says he wants to build--spending up to $200 million-- will hold more than 5 million gallons of water and encompass 250,000 square feet. ``People who may never travel to the coast will be able to come to Atlanta to learn the lessons of the sea,'' Hay said. For scientists, the size and scope of the aquarium, scheduled for completion in 2005, means they may be able to conduct studies that cannot be done very well in laboratories. ``We can buy little tanks and put little creatures in them and observe them in our labs,'' Hay said. But a large aquarium, he says, could accommodate complete ecosystems--such as a living coral reef--replete with large numbers of different creatures and plants and minerals. Scientists say the ocean will never be fully understood until they understand how its ecosystems function. The Georgia Aquarium will follow the lead of other major aquariums around the world. Scientific research is a basic mission at most of those institutions. ``We realize that health oceans are essential to our survival on Earth,'' says Ken Peterson of the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. ``As an aquarium, we see our role as raising public awareness of the oceans and conducting research to help resolve the problems the oceans face.'' He notes that half the Earth's oxygen comes from the sea, and the only protein for more than a billion people is provided by the ocean. ``We believe it is important that people know that and know how important the oceans are for their survival,'' he says. Jeffrey Swanagan, who has been tapped as the executive director of the aquarium, says a theme has not been chosen. ``But it will have a world focus, so that we can tell any freshwater or saltwater story,'' he says. Swanagan, a Georgia Tech graduate who spent 10 years at Zoo Atlanta, said the ``value of research and conservation is very strong in me.'' Swanagan said he hopes the Georgia Aquarium will make people in Atlanta as familiar with the sea as they are with the Chattahoochee River. ``In Tampa, where I live now, kids take the sea for granted because it's all around them,'' he said. ``They think nothing of driving over a causeway and seeing dolphins jumping out the water. We want the people in Atlanta to have similar experiences, albeit it will be an indoor one.'' Swanagan, executive director of the Florida Aquarium, said he and his staff will be looking closely at aquariums all over the world to study their exhibits, planning and their public appeal. Universities and other academic institutions in Georgia also are being asked for help in establishing a marine research program. ``We want an aquarium like no other,'' he says. That means, he adds, that the aquarium might attempt to house sea creatures that have been heretofore difficult for other aquariums to maintain. Some of those creatures, say marine biologists, include fish, squids and other animals that live deep in the ocean under tremendous pressures--and which have never been seen alive on land. For Hay and other scientists, the aquarium will be the chance of a lifetime. Hay helped build the renowned living coral reef aquarium at the Smithsonian Institution 20 years ago. Many scientists said that facility could not be done because of all the requirements needed to keep the reef animals alive and healthy. ``We did have to learn as we went along,'' he said. For instance, one scientist argued that a machine was needed to create wave patterns in the aquarium, but others argued that it was unnecessary. The researchers found, however, that wave action is vital to maintaining a health coral reef system. ``So, designing and building a new aquarium will further our knowledge even more,'' he says. ____________________