After a construction period of 35 months, the doplhin lagoon at the Tiergarten Nürnberg as ceremoniously opened on Thursday, 28 July 2011. The dolphin lagoon which cost about 24 million euros is to complete the zoo's 40-year-old dolphinarium with a nature-orientated open-air enclosure based on an abandoned quarry for sand stone. Apart from the first open-air basin for common bottlenose dolphins in Germany, the new enclosure also includes a new tropical house with manatees. In autumn and winter, two of six open-air basins can be covered with an air dome and can thus be used by the dolphins all year round. On Saturday, 30 July 2011 the dolphin lagoon will be open for the public for the first time. On this day, the new price increase as enacted by the City Council will come into effect.
Nurembergs lord mayor Dr. Ulrich Maly was pleased with the new attraction: "I am in favor of the dolphin lagoon. It is a huge enrichment for Nuremberg. With the first open-air enclosure for dolphins , Nuremberg sets standards for keeping dolphins. The new rainforest house for the manatees, the manatee house, is unique. Visitors may expect to see a plethora of tropical animals and plants that can only be found in the Amazon region", said the Lord mayor.
With the dolphin lagoon, the Tiergarten Nürnberg has built state-of-the-art animal compound. It is an essential site to convey the important zoological tasks in the fields of research, conservation of species, education and adventure, which have already been defining the topics dealt with in the old dolphinarium since 1971. The dolphin therapy which has been established over the past few years, will probably be restarted in 2012. One of the altogether six open-air basins, which have an overall surface of 1,600 square meters, was specially tailored for this use. The lagoon contains about 5,500 liters of sea water and fulfills the international standards for keeping dolphins in the long run.
Director of the Tiergarten Nürnberg, Dr. Dag Encke, also pointed out the importance of the lagoon for the protection of species: "The Tiergarten Nürnberg has aimed at offering its visitors an emotional admission to a rational understanding of animals and their habitats. The emphasis is on rational. Only with a rational approach can we approach problems effectively. With the dolphin lagoon and the manatee house we offer all animal species living there conditions that meet their needs. Our visitors should be able to observe and recognize this, be fascinated by it and develop an interest in the animals."
Apart from lord mayor Dr. Maly and zoo director Dr. Dag Encke, the Bavarian Secretary of the Environment, Dr. Markus Söder, and the President of the Association of German Zoo Directors, Dr. Thomas Kauffels, spoke to the roughly 600 invited guests. After that, Nuremberg's construction consultant Wolfgang Baumann cut the ribbon stretched over the lagoon and officially gave the lagoon to the Tiergarten.
In the lagoon, dolphins room with sea lions. Visitors may watch the animals through a large underwater panoramis window in the underground "Blue Saloon" between manatee house and dolphin lagoon as well as from a grandstand integrated into the whole project. The lagoon offers the animals a qualitative improvement, larger habitat in several interconnected basins and more retreat areas.
At the moment there are four dolphins living in the dolphin lagoon: 51-year-old Moby as well as Jenny, Noah and Sunny. Furthermore a raft of sea lions consisting of six females and two males splash around the lagoon: Ella, Tiffy, Soda, Foster, Hazel, Blue, Scott and Salomon.
The three manatees Mara, Zoorra and Herbert as weill as several fish will move into the fresh water basin of the manatee house. Furthermore, a large number of animals such as nectar-feeding bats, pygmy marmosets and white-faced sakis, various birds, ants and butterflies live in the tropical gallery.
Donations of the Bacarian Foundation of the Land, the sponsorship association "DelphinLagune" and Cortal Consors, that altogether took over 5 million euros of the construction cost, allowed for building the dolphin lagoon. The main part of the dolphin lagoon, however, is financed by the Tiergarten Nürnberg.
With the opening of the dolphin lagoon on Saturday, 30 July 2011, the Tiergarten Nürnberg changes their admission fees to a new model. It is intended to cover the construction costs with additional income from admission fees. This means that as of next Saturday, there will be no separate admission fees for the Tiergarten and for the dolphinarium. The future prices are based on the currently existing fees for Tiergarten and dolphinarium. Adults will pay 13.50 euros in the future, children (from 4 to 13) will pay 6.50 euros. A family ticket will cost 31.50 euros. Compared to other German zoos, however, the prices of the Tiergarten Nürnberg are still moderate.
In the past few years, the Tiergarten Nürnberg was on average visited by more than one million visitors each year. In the first half of 2011 the Tiergarten had 530,166 visitors.
