Aquarium Of The Pacific

Trying to prevent a municipal bailout of the struggling Aquarium of the Pacific, the Long Beach City Council on Tuesday approved a plan to refinance the aquarium and transfer ownership of its building to the city. Long Beach officials say the move will reduce the overall debt of the aquarium, which might not be able to afford this year's interest and principal on bonds sold to build it.

Faced with falling attendance and sagging revenue, Long Beach aquarium officials suffered a setback Friday when Gov. Gray Davis gave the struggling tourist attraction a fraction of the $2.4 million in state aid they had been seeking. Aquarium of the Pacific's supporters, who once promised the facility would require no public funding, now say the state money is necessary to help cover operating costs and free up other money to make interest payments to bondholders.

Gliding about in a murky quarantine tank at the Aquarium of the Pacific lurks one lucky shark. Barely visible in the bubbly water, the sand tiger shark will soon join about 150 other creatures in a $3-million, 10,000-square-foot exhibit at the Long Beach aquarium.

The Long Beach aquarium, a key part of that city's waterfront revival, will not be able to make its $8.5-million bond payment this year unless it can reduce expenses and increase visitors, financial reports revealed Thursday. If the Aquarium of the Pacific cannot meet its obligations, the city of Long Beach has pledged to help the 2 1/2-year-old attraction pay the principal and interest on almost $115 million in bonds sold to investors.

The Lechugas of Whittier bounded through the doors of the new Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach like thousands of other visitors Saturday. The big tank of predator fish at the back of the foyer caught their attention right away, and the three older girls, Lexi, Kristen and Carisa, rushed right up to it. "I see the long fish with the black tail that's so skinny," said Kristen, the talkative one. "I think they're stingrays." Actually, they were giant sea bass.

Anyone who's taken care of so much as a goldfish knows the routine: Feed the fish, clean the bowl, change the water. But overseeing the well-being of more than 10,000 sea creatures in about 1 million gallons of saltwater can be anything but routine.

One of Frances Bond's first memories is being thrown into water. "I was 3 years old and my father tossed me into Lake Manitou [in Indiana]," recalled Bond, who will be 90 in February. "Instinctively, I began to dog paddle and swim." Bond has been throwing herself into water ever since, literally and figuratively. Her latest leap came in June when she signed up to become an educational volunteer at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, where she is its oldest volunteer.

Three Long Beach middle school students were arrested for allegedly breaking into the Aquarium of the Pacific, where police say they tortured and killed two sharks and a ray. The attack occurred sometime after 11 p.m. Sunday, when the fish were last seen alive, said Perry Hampton, director of aquarium husbandry. Aquarium staff arrived early Monday to find debris in the shark habitat and the velvety black cow-nose ray on the concrete pool deck. They then noticed that some sharks were missing.

Crouched behind the Long Beach aquarium, a foghorn moaning off the coast, the three Franklin Middle School boys waited. The Aquarium of the Pacific now deserted, the 13-year-olds climbed the wall and began dragging docile sea life from darkened pools, prosecutors allege. They stabbed three sharks and a ray with pipes and left all but one to suffocate out of water. They lobbed small sharks into tanks of bigger predators. They slashed a shark's translucent egg sac and severed the embryos.