The Brevard Zoo wants to build an aquarium at Port Canaveral. It would have indoor and outdoor exhibits and focus on marine life found on the Space Coast, in the Indian River Lagoon and the St. John’s River. Executive director Keith Winsten says that includes deep water fish, shrimp, gators and otters.
“We’d really focus primarily on the things we can find right off our shores and in our backyard. It’s a really diverse area because we’re right here on the sort of sub-tropical temperate border so you get a great variety of marine organisms here,” said Winsten.
He envisions an underwater exhibit including a replica of the Orion crew capsule.
“In the case of an Orion capsule, it falls down into the water and gets retrieved and we’ve been doing that with space capsules for a long time here. So we want to capture that unique space connection and one of the ways would be, 'What would it be like if you were under the water when one of those capsules came down?' ”
Winsten said the early estimates price the aquarium at $30 to 50 million. The zoo hopes to fund it through public-private partnerships.
He said it’s too early to say when the proposed aquarium could open.