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The shark tank at the Virginia Marine Science Museum.

But by 1996, when the museum tripled in size with a $35 million expansion, it was transformed from a minor diversion to a major tourist attraction, complete with an Imax theater and a 300,000-gallon shark tank. That growth spurt helped attract 639,000 visitors last year -- enough to place the museum in 10th place for attendance among the country's marine centers. Now the city-owned museum is aiming for the top five. It is planning another expansion that will add 100,000 square feet to the current 123,000-square-foot building. Plans call for construction of a third building with a 1.2 million-gallon aquarium for marine mammals. The total cost for the buildings and aquarium is estimated at $40 million, and museum officials hope to complete the project within three years.

The first clue that another expansion might be needed came when parking problems arose. "We ran out of parking spaces immediately. We can't serve the people who want to come," says museum director C. Mac Rawls. Included in the expansion plans are about 600 extra parking spaces along with attractions sure to bring even more visitors. Assuming the museum can acquire the land and the funding it needs to pull off its third phase, it will build a four-story building. As with the rest of the museum, "education will be the primary focus," Rawls says.

The centerpiece of the proposed building will be a 1.2 million-gallon aquarium for dolphins and harbor seals. To see it, visitors will start at the top of the tank and wind their way down to the bottom, coming face to face with its inhabitants along the way. In another part of the building, visitors can watch members of the museum's stranding team tend to whales, sea turtles and other ailing creatures that have been washed ashore.

"One important reason for the expansion is the success we have had with our marine stranding program. We have one of the largest stranding programs on the East Coast," Rawls says. "Right now we try to keep the animals alive and find a place that can take them." In the new building, the stranding team will have proper facilities to revive animals and restore their health. The public will be able to witness the care and feeding of sick sea animals via remote control cameras linked to television screens and by strategically placed windows.

Right now it takes about half a day to see the museum's two exhibit-filled buildings, watch its Imax film and stroll through the salt marsh that connects the buildings. When the third building opens, visitors will be longing for a rainy day so they can enjoy the entire museum.

© May 1999, Media General Business Communications, Inc.
publisher of Virginia Business Magazine