Dugong Discovery opens this Christmas

As a first for Australian theme parks, Sea World has announced the latest addition to the park.

When Shark Bay was completed, it made the existing Reef Discovery attraction somewhat redundant. Most of the marine life from Reef Discovery was relocated to the lagoons of Shark Bay, which provided much better facilities, both for the animals and the guests.

By Richard Wilson
14 November 2004

While this was happening Sea World's resident dugong, PIG has been comfortably housed in the back-of-house area at the park, away from the public.

The opportunity was jumped at to not only give PIG a bigger and more enriching home, while providing guests to the park with a touching look at this gentle mammal and the threats that face it.

Reef Discovery closed in October, allowing the next few months to be spent refitting the indoor exhibit to cater for the dugong. Changes made to the exhibit will be

Dugong Discovery will be given an indigenous theme, reflecting on the ideology the mammal has in Aboriginal cultures. Unlike the previous attractions housed in this building, Dugong Discovery will remove the theatre seating and instead have exhibits and displays highlighting the precarious state of the dugong in the wild.

The attraction takes a page from the American "SeaWorld" theme parks and their environmentally-minded "Manatee: The Last Generation?" exhibits which give guests a touching look at this threatened marine mammal. The manatee is a close relative of the dugong which inhabits the waters of Florida. See this attraction in Florida and San Diego.

Dugong Discovery opens at Sea World in time for the busy Christmas holiday period.