Accessibility Statement Skip Navigation
  • Why PRWeb
  • How It Works
  • Who Uses It
  • Pricing
  • Login
  • GDPR
  • Create a Free Account
Return to PRWeb homepage
  • News
  • Resources
  • Contact
When typing in this field, a list of search results will appear and be automatically updated as you type.

Searching for your content...

No results found. Please change your search terms and try again.
  • News in Focus
      • Browse News Releases

      • All News Releases
      • Multimedia Gallery

      • All Multimedia
      • All Photos
      • All Videos
  • Business & Money
      • Auto & Transportation

      • Aerospace, Defense
      • Air Freight
      • Airlines & Aviation
      • Automotive
      • Maritime & Shipbuilding
      • Railroads and Intermodal Transportation
      • Supply Chain/Logistics
      • Transportation, Trucking & Railroad
      • Travel
      • Trucking and Road Transportation
      • View All Auto & Transportation

      • Business Technology

      • Blockchain
      • Broadcast Tech
      • Computer & Electronics
      • Computer Hardware
      • Computer Software
      • Data Analytics
      • Electronic Commerce
      • Electronic Components
      • Electronic Design Automation
      • Financial Technology
      • High Tech Security
      • Internet Technology
      • Nanotechnology
      • Networks
      • Peripherals
      • Semiconductors
      • View All Business Technology

      • Entertain­ment & Media

      • Advertising
      • Art
      • Books
      • Entertainment
      • Film and Motion Picture
      • Magazines
      • Music
      • Publishing & Information Services
      • Radio & Podcast
      • Television
      • View All Entertain­ment & Media

      • Financial Services & Investing

      • Accounting News & Issues
      • Acquisitions, Mergers and Takeovers
      • Banking & Financial Services
      • Bankruptcy
      • Bond & Stock Ratings
      • Conference Call Announcements
      • Contracts
      • Cryptocurrency
      • Dividends
      • Earnings
      • Earnings Forecasts & Projections
      • Financing Agreements
      • Insurance
      • Investments Opinions
      • Joint Ventures
      • Mutual Funds
      • Private Placement
      • Real Estate
      • Restructuring & Recapitalization
      • Sales Reports
      • Shareholder Activism
      • Shareholder Meetings
      • Stock Offering
      • Stock Split
      • Venture Capital
      • View All Financial Services & Investing

      • General Business

      • Awards
      • Commercial Real Estate
      • Corporate Expansion
      • Earnings
      • Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)
      • Human Resource & Workforce Management
      • Licensing
      • New Products & Services
      • Obituaries
      • Outsourcing Businesses
      • Overseas Real Estate (non-US)
      • Personnel Announcements
      • Real Estate Transactions
      • Residential Real Estate
      • Small Business Services
      • Socially Responsible Investing
      • Surveys, Polls and Research
      • Trade Show News
      • View All General Business

  • Science & Tech
      • Consumer Technology

      • Artificial Intelligence
      • Blockchain
      • Cloud Computing/Internet of Things
      • Computer Electronics
      • Computer Hardware
      • Computer Software
      • Consumer Electronics
      • Cryptocurrency
      • Data Analytics
      • Electronic Commerce
      • Electronic Gaming
      • Financial Technology
      • Mobile Entertainment
      • Multimedia & Internet
      • Peripherals
      • Social Media
      • STEM (Science, Tech, Engineering, Math)
      • Supply Chain/Logistics
      • Wireless Communications
      • View All Consumer Technology

      • Energy & Natural Resources

      • Alternative Energies
      • Chemical
      • Electrical Utilities
      • Gas
      • General Manufacturing
      • Mining
      • Mining & Metals
      • Oil & Energy
      • Oil and Gas Discoveries
      • Utilities
      • Water Utilities
      • View All Energy & Natural Resources

      • Environ­ment

      • Conservation & Recycling
      • Environmental Issues
      • Environmental Policy
      • Environmental Products & Services
      • Green Technology
      • Natural Disasters
      • View All Environ­ment

      • Heavy Industry & Manufacturing

      • Aerospace & Defense
      • Agriculture
      • Chemical
      • Construction & Building
      • General Manufacturing
      • HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning)
      • Machinery
      • Machine Tools, Metalworking and Metallurgy
      • Mining
      • Mining & Metals
      • Paper, Forest Products & Containers
      • Precious Metals
      • Textiles
      • Tobacco
      • View All Heavy Industry & Manufacturing

      • Telecomm­unications

      • Carriers and Services
      • Mobile Entertainment
      • Networks
      • Peripherals
      • Telecommunications Equipment
      • Telecommunications Industry
      • VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)
      • Wireless Communications
      • View All Telecomm­unications

  • Lifestyle & Health
      • Consumer Products & Retail

      • Animals & Pets
      • Beers, Wines and Spirits
      • Beverages
      • Bridal Services
      • Cannabis
      • Cosmetics and Personal Care
      • Fashion
      • Food & Beverages
      • Furniture and Furnishings
      • Home Improvement
      • Household, Consumer & Cosmetics
      • Household Products
      • Jewelry
      • Non-Alcoholic Beverages
      • Office Products
      • Organic Food
      • Product Recalls
      • Restaurants
      • Retail
      • Supermarkets
      • Toys
      • View All Consumer Products & Retail

      • Entertain­ment & Media

      • Advertising
      • Art
      • Books
      • Entertainment
      • Film and Motion Picture
      • Magazines
      • Music
      • Publishing & Information Services
      • Radio & Podcast
      • Television
      • View All Entertain­ment & Media

      • Health

      • Biometrics
      • Biotechnology
      • Clinical Trials & Medical Discoveries
      • Dentistry
      • FDA Approval
      • Fitness/Wellness
      • Health Care & Hospitals
      • Health Insurance
      • Infection Control
      • International Medical Approval
      • Medical Equipment
      • Medical Pharmaceuticals
      • Mental Health
      • Pharmaceuticals
      • Supplementary Medicine
      • View All Health

      • Sports

      • General Sports
      • Outdoors, Camping & Hiking
      • Sporting Events
      • Sports Equipment & Accessories
      • View All Sports

      • Travel

      • Amusement Parks and Tourist Attractions
      • Gambling & Casinos
      • Hotels and Resorts
      • Leisure & Tourism
      • Outdoors, Camping & Hiking
      • Passenger Aviation
      • Travel Industry
      • View All Travel

  • Policy & Public Interest
      • Policy & Public Interest

      • Advocacy Group Opinion
      • Animal Welfare
      • Congressional & Presidential Campaigns
      • Corporate Social Responsibility
      • Domestic Policy
      • Economic News, Trends, Analysis
      • Education
      • Environmental
      • European Government
      • FDA Approval
      • Federal and State Legislation
      • Federal Executive Branch & Agency
      • Foreign Policy & International Affairs
      • Homeland Security
      • Labor & Union
      • Legal Issues
      • Natural Disasters
      • Not For Profit
      • Patent Law
      • Public Safety
      • Trade Policy
      • U.S. State Policy
      • View All Policy & Public Interest

  • People & Culture
      • People & Culture

      • Aboriginal, First Nations & Native American
      • African American
      • Asian American
      • Children
      • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
      • Hispanic
      • Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual
      • Men's Interest
      • People with Disabilities
      • Religion
      • Senior Citizens
      • Veterans
      • Women
      • View All People & Culture

  • Hamburger menu
  • Cision PRWeb provides efficient communication tools to continuously engage with target audiences across multiple online channels
  • Create a Free Account
    • ALL CONTACT INFO
    • Contact Us


      11AM ET Sunday – 8PM ET Friday

  • Send a Release
  • Sign up
  • Log in
  • Resources
  • RSS
  • GDPR
  • News in Focus
    • Browse All News
    • Multimedia Gallery
  • Business & Money
    • Auto & Transportation
    • Business Technology
    • Entertain­ment & Media
    • Financial Services & Investing
    • General Business
  • Science & Tech
    • Consumer Technology
    • Energy & Natural Resources
    • Environ­ment
    • Heavy Industry & Manufacturing
    • Telecomm­unications
  • Lifestyle & Health
    • Consumer Products & Retail
    • Entertain­ment & Media
    • Health
    • Sports
    • Travel
  • Policy & Public Interest
  • People & Culture
    • People & Culture
  • Send a Release
  • Sign up
  • Log in
  • Resources
  • RSS
  • GDPR
  • Send a Release
  • Sign up
  • Log in
  • Resources
  • RSS
  • GDPR
  • Send a Release
  • Sign up
  • Log in
  • Resources
  • RSS
  • GDPR

The Tennessee Aquarium's New Island Life Gallery Now Open

Spring is a great time for an island getaway and the Tennessee Aquarium has a series of new exhibits to take you on an island-hopping adventure. The new Island Life gallery gives guests the opportunity to meet creatures that live above, and below, the waves from the islands of the Coral Triangle to the chilly waters surrounding Vancouver Island.


News provided by

The Tennessee Aquarium

Mar 18, 2019, 23:35 ET

Share this article

Share toX

Share this article

Share toX

The Indo Pacific exhibit is just one of the many locations showcased in the Tennessee Aquarium's new Island Life gallery.
The Indo Pacific exhibit is just one of the many locations showcased in the Tennessee Aquarium's new Island Life gallery.
Youtube
Youtube

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., March 18, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- With the doors now open on a massive, globe-trotting gallery, the Tennessee Aquarium has become the place to be for an inland island getaway.

On March 15, the nationally renowned aquarium on the banks of the Tennessee River in downtown Chattanooga cut the ribbon on Island Life. Just in time for spring break getaways, this multi-million-dollar expansion to then Aquarium's Ocean Journey building features a collection of dynamic exhibits whose residents show how isolated ecosystems above and below the water lead to amazing animal adaptations and behaviors.

We’re excited for guests to experience these new exhibits. They’ll feel like world travelers while seeing some pretty amazing animals. - Thom Demas, the Tennessee Aquarium’s director of aquatic collections and life support systems

Post this

"We're excited for guests to experience these new exhibits. They'll feel like world travelers while seeing some pretty amazing animals," said Thom Demas, the Aquarium's director of aquatic collections and life support systems. "I think visitors will be amazed by Flashlight Fish, and will love seeing many other species we haven't exhibited previously. Islands are remarkably diverse locations, and in this gallery, we're able to tell quite a few of these stories of biodiversity."

A journey through Island Life will whisk guests around the world, from the frigid waters of the Pacific Northwest to the tropical seas off Southeast Asia to the teeming wilds of Madagascar. Some of the stops along the way include:

  • Vancouver Island. Recreating the waters off the rocky shores of Canada's West Coast, Vancouver Island features a wide variety of colorful anemones, urchins, sea stars and other marine life. This habitat is Island Life's piece de resistance, a massive, dynamic display with artificially generated waves that rush along 20 feet of sinuously curved acrylic before crashing against an upright viewing window.
  • Indo-Pacific Reef. In the mostly barren expanse of the ocean floor, reefs are like underwater islands, oases of life and refuge to a stunning variety of animals. In Island Life, the Indo-Pacific Reef tank highlights a huge variety of aquatic life found off the coast of Southeast Asia in a region known as the Coral Triangle. This expanse of ocean is home to nearly 600 species of reef-building corals and more than 2,000 kinds of fish. Guests entering Island Life will be greeted by this towering, eight-foot-tall display — the second-largest exhibit in the Ocean Journey building — housing a bustling community comprising more than 30 species of vibrant reef-dwellers, including Raccoon Butterfly Fish, Guinea Fowl Pufferfish and Spotted Sweetlips.
  • Cave of the Flashlight Fish. Inside this dim, mirror-filled room, the darkness will glow with flashes of light courtesy of hundreds of Split Fin Flashlight Fish. This deep-dwelling fish generates radiance through pockets of glowing bacteria housed in a pouch under its eyes. During the day, this fish dwells in darker depths before migrating upwards at night along a kind of vertical island to feed in shallower water. This habitat features one of the largest schools ever exhibited of this bioluminescent species.
  • Clownfish and Anemones. Thanks to the Pixar classic Finding Nemo, most people are familiar with the symbiotic relationship of this oceanic Odd Couple. In Island Life, this exhibit will show off how colorful Pink Skunk and False Percula Clownfish have adapted to seek shelter within the venomous, stinging tentacles of Bubbletip Anemones, which act as a kind of living "island."
  • Marvelous Madagascar. At more than 225,000 square miles, Madagascar is 40 percent larger than California and ranks as the world's fourth largest island. Because its species have developed in isolation for millions of years, scientists estimate that about 75 percent of this African island's plants and animals can be found nowhere else on Earth. In a pair of Island Life exhibits sponsored by Unum, guests will become familiar with a wide variety of Malagasy reptiles and amphibians, including riotously colorful Panther Chameleons, nimble Madagascar Giant Day Geckos, poisonous Mantella Frogs, and critically endangered Radiated Tortoises.    

Visitors will be led on their exploration of this densely packed space by a scaly guide, Leon the Chameleon. Throughout the gallery, Leon will appear on graphics and interactive elements sponsored by Unum to pose questions that make guests — especially younger ones — question their understanding of islands and the special adaptations of the animals on display.

"I want people to come away with a whole new appreciation of islands and to expand their thought about islands and the animals that live on them," says Jeff Worley, the Aquarium's exhibit designer. "If we can start that when someone is three years old, then by the time they're adults, they'll be thinking differently about the world and maybe acting differently, too."

Throughout Island Life, guests can deepen their experience through fun activities that bring to life many of the species' unique adaptations via multimedia and physical engagement.

Visitors can speed up or slow down video footage of a Chameleon's tongue in mid-flight, do their best Clownfish impression by weaving through a patch of oversized anemone "tentacles," light up touch-sensitive Flashlight Fish and snap turtle-y awesome selfies atop an enormous bronze sculpture of a Galapagos Tortoise sponsored by Tennessee American Water.

These many interactive elements — combined with the ever-changing, always-photo-worthy interaction of the animals — mean return visits to Island Life are sure to offer up new memorable moments and bring to light overlooked details. Yearlong family memberships to the Aquarium include unlimited daily visits for two adults and five children and can be purchased at community.tnaqua.org/join.

After visiting Island Life, the fun continues with a pair of stunning giant-screen films at the Tennessee Aquarium IMAX 3D Theater. Showing through May 24, Oceans: Our Blue Planet features breathtaking footage displaying the amazing diversity and stunning beauty of the planet's largest, least-explored ecosystem. All summer long, guests can join narrator Kristen Bell (Frozen, The Good Place) to catch up on un-bear-ably cute Giant Panda cubs being trained for reintroduction to the wild in Pandas 3D. Tickets, showtimes and additional information available at tnaqua.org/imax.

Island Life Fast Facts

  • Clownfish protect themselves from the stings of the venomous anemones in which they live by developing a protective layer of mucus.
  • More than three-quarters of the world's reef-building coral species and more than a third of all reef fish species can be found in the 2.3 million-square-mile Coral Triangle marine area in the Western Pacific Ocean.
  • Henderson Lake on Canada's Vancouver Island is the wettest place in North America, averaging more than 270 inches (22.5 feet) of precipitation per year. In 1997, it set the single-year precipitation record with 366.4 inches (30.5 feet).
  • About 95 percent of Madagascar's reptiles are found nowhere else on Earth. One of these is the Madagascar Giant Day Gecko, a brilliant green lizard, which — as the name suggests — bucks the daily schedule of most other geckos, which tend to be nocturnal.
  • Deep water-dwelling Split-fin Flashlight Fish house symbiotic bacteria in pouches under their eyes. These bacteria generate light, which the Flashlight Fish use to see their prey.

SOURCE The Tennessee Aquarium

Related Links

https://www.tnaqua.org/

Modal title

After observing Clownfish, kids can pretend they're Clownfish by crawling through a giant sea anemone.
After observing Clownfish, kids can pretend they're Clownfish by crawling through a giant sea anemone.
A wave machine generates a large ocean swell in the Vancouver Island exhibit at the Tennessee Aquarium.
A wave machine generates a large ocean swell in the Vancouver Island exhibit at the Tennessee Aquarium.
Terrestrial creatures, like the Panther Chameleon, are popular with Aquarium guests.
Terrestrial creatures, like the Panther Chameleon, are popular with Aquarium guests.
After observing Clownfish, kids can pretend they're Clownfish by crawling through a giant sea anemone. A wave machine generates a large ocean swell in the Vancouver Island exhibit at the Tennessee Aquarium. Terrestrial creatures, like the Panther Chameleon, are popular with Aquarium guests.

Contact PRWeb

  • 11AM ET Sunday – 8PM ET Friday
  • Contact Us

About PRWeb

  • About PRWeb
  • Partners
  • Partnership Programs
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Resources

Why PRWeb

  • Why PRWeb
  • How It Works
  • Who Uses It
  • Pricing

Accounts

  • Create a Free Account
  • Log in
  • Contact Us

Do not sell or share my personal information:

  • Submit via [email protected] 
  • Call Privacy toll-free: 877-297-8921

Contact Cision

Products

About

My Services
  • All News Releases
  • Online Member Center
  • ProfNet
Cision Distribution Helpline
888-776-0942
  • Legal
  • Site Map
  • RSS
  • Cookie Settings
Copyright © 2025 Cision US Inc.