When the Antwerp Zoo opened its new reef aquarium earlier this month, they did it with pomp and circumstance we can appreciate. Antwerp Mayor Bart De Wever and KMDA CEO Dries Herpoelaert opened the exhibit from inside one of Europe’s largest reef aquariums. Antwerp Mayor Bart De Wever donned full diving gear, but Antwerp ZOO director Dries Herpoelaert one-upped him wearing his dress suit and a full-face diving mask to officially christen the aquarium with an underwater speech broadcast to the visitor’s space.
The Zoo spend two year prepping this 80,000 gallon aquarium in the renovated aquarium building that dates back to 1911. The aquarium is home to more than 4,000 fish and plenty of corals, making it one of the largest reef aquariums in Europe. The tanks observation curved window spans a height of 4 meters and 8 meters long, giving visitors a nice view of the tank’s inhabitants.
