World’s biggest oceanarium

Press, 12 January 1977, Page 3

World’s biggest oceanarium

NZPA Hong Kong Two New Zealanders were in the spotlight when Ocean Park, the world’s biggest oceanarium, opened in Hong Kong on Monday. For Mr Rodney Abel, of Napier, Ocean Park’s development and operations manager, the opening by Hong Kong’s Governor (Sir Murray Maclehose) was the culmination of four years work to give the four million or so people in Hong Kong the chance to see animals, sea animals, fish, and birds most of them have never seen before.

For another Napier man, Mr T. Martin, aged 23, the opening is part of what he describes as a “tremendous experience” — training the dolphins and sea lions which will perform every day in the 3500-seat Ocean Theatre at the park. Mr Abel was formerly

manager of Napier's Marineland and Mr Martin was a trainer there and in Australia before he came to Hong Kong. “It is a tremendous experience to be involved in a big project like this,” Mr Martin said. “It is an ambitious thing, and we obviously don’t want to fail at it. I have been fascinated by dolphins ever since I was a kid in Napier.” For the New Zealanders, however, there was an element of disappointment at the opening — there are no animals or sea animals from New Zealand at Ocean Park, and Mr Abel’s efforts, and the efforts of the New Zealand commission here, to get the New Zealand Government to allow a few fur seals to be sent from New Zealand have so far been unsuccessful. "I still hope we will be able to get them. I believe it has gone to the Prime Minister himself,” Mr Abel said.