The Mar de Cortés Aquarium, the largest in Mexico and Latin America, is inaugurated

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Mazatlán, Sin.- Considered the largest marine facility of its kind in Mexico and Latin America, this Tuesday, authorities from the three levels of government officially inaugurated the Mar de Cortés Aquarium.

Dedicated exclusively to the species that inhabit this sea, it is a construction of 50,000 square meters, its main oceanic fish tank has a capacity of 2.5 million liters.

It has 19 exhibition halls, more than 200 species and five thousand specimens, as well as an Ocean Research Center.

Funded through a Public-Private Association, with 587.3 million pesos of federal resources and a private investment of 800 million pesos, in 2019 the first stone was laid. More than two thousand workers and collaborators participated in its construction.

“It is built within a master plan that is the Central Park… my most important motivator was to create a world-class social-tourist attraction that promotes conservation and research. We are a research institution that we already have a partnership with Valencia, Vancouver and Monterrey, California, which are the best aquariums in the world and we are at the level of all of them and, sometimes, even better”, detailed Ernesto Coppel Kelly, developer of the Aquarium.

Projecting modernity and progress and making Mazatlecos feel proud of what their city offers, he added, is his greatest satisfaction after promoting the idea for 10 years.

“Promote ecological awareness in all people and with that we are fulfilling our social responsibility, to take care of the seas, to take care of the world, to feed it, to keep it clean and to produce more food,” he added.

Why is it called the Sea of Cortez?

Mazatlán is one of the main tourist destinations in the Pacific Ocean with its paradisiacal beaches, highlighted Miguel Torruco Marqués, Secretary of Federal Tourism.

Named by the research oceanographer Jacques Cousteau as the “world aquarium”, which is home to 12 Protected Natural Areas, including the Upper Gulf of California Biosphere Reserve, declared Natural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2005. The impressive Sinaloa’s beautiful coasts are part of this enormous natural aquarium.

He highlighted that 36 species of mammals inhabit its blue waters, among them the endemic vaquita, 31 types of cetaceans such as the gray humpback and blue whales; 5 of the 7 classes of sea turtles existing in the world and more than 700 categories of fish, including sharks.

The facilities of the “old Aquarium” will be recover

Following an agreement with Coppel Kelly, Governor Rubén Rocha Moya announced that they are going to leave the area that houses the penguin and sea lions “beautiful” and in good condition.

“We are going to leave the aquarium that has its sea lions and penguins beautiful and in very good condition, to continue be enjoyed by the Mazatlecos and all the tourists. We are going to work so that they are maintained. Our Aquarium was born in 1980 and that is a jewel. It is very much in agreement that we have to give it, we have to do it little by little, we are going to be pushing its development”, he assured.

The Great Sea of Cortez Aquarium was born from a futuristic concept and at the same time raises awareness about what is happening in the world, a possible rise in sea level. The design oversaw the architect Tatiana Bilbao.

“We thought and imagined that we had arrived in the year 2289, where we found a building that was built in 2023 without knowing why or why. The only thing we knew is that in 2100 the water rose so much in the sea that it flooded it, and when we arrived, we opened paths, we created stairs and we opened possibilities to meet a world that had taken over this space”, he explained.

This is the printed story, he added to the walls, stairs, patios, fountains, lights and fish tanks where marine animals live today.

Source: El Sol de Mazatlan