Georgia Aquarium to Get Dolphins

By Odette Yousef

Atlanta, GA – The Georgia Aquarium will be getting dolphins. The aquarium's founder announced the addition today, touting it as the biggest development for the attraction since its opening.

Bernie Marcus hopes the aquarium will ultimately hold 10 to 12 dolphins, host dolphin shows, and let visitors swim with the animals:

MARCUS: Here in Atlanta we are landlocked. We are so far from the ocean, and just imagine that you're gonna be able to immerse, go in these tanks with the dolphins, and five hours away from the ocean. Isn't that great?

The aquarium will begin with four dolphins, on loan from Marineland, an oceanarium outside St. Augustine, Florida. Marcus hopes they'll help bring the number of annual visitors to the aquarium back up to 3 million. 2007 saw 2.6 million.

To accommodate the dolphins, the Aquarium will build a 1.3 million gallon facility, roughly the size of 2 football fields. Construction on the $110 million dollar expansion will begin in August. Marcus says it will open in November of 2010.