Congrats To The North Carolina Zoo

From the Downtown Greensboro Aquarium Facebook Page:

"The North Carolina zoo at Asheboro had a record breaking attendance in 2012. Families with kids flocked from all over to visit the zoo since it is the the only one of its kind for miles around. That's what a great animal facility does for an area and that's what a world class aquarium will do for Greensboro. I learned a long time ago that kids make the world go around. Parents and grand-parents will do anything for kids. Build an aquarium with interactive learning games and great exhibits and you will have millions of people flocking downtown Greensboro every year. New jobs plus conservation and medical research done at the venue will bring high paying jobs to Greensboro, too! Think about the local universities expanding into marine biology and veterinary studies; students from UNCG, A&T and HP University and others will intern and help run the venue. It's a win-win situation if done right.

Help bring a world class aquarium to downtown Greensboro and help make Greensboro a destination for millions of people and not just a pass-thru city. Share the page and invite people to the fan page so the local politicians know that this is a serious idea to be looked at. We do not need a GPAC. Every city around us has a PAC and we already have a PAC (granted not the best around but still very usable). We need to have our own identity and being another city with a PAC is not going to help Greensboro have it. Our neighbors to our immediate north are building a PAC, too. The PAC pie is getting smaller so do we want a sliver of a pie or have our own pie? I say let's have our own pie and along with Aquatic Center we can be known as the Aquatic City of the Carolinas! Let's do it!"

Fish Man agrees!

How Do You Get National Media To Downtown Greensboro

And doing stories that don't make Greensboro look like hicks. Give them an octopus and other cool animals to video. And remember: Fish Man told you.

Aquarium Volunteers Wanted

Let's start 2013 with a splash!

Fish Man needs real people to make the Downtown Greensboro Aquarium a dream come true. We need people from all walks of life who are willing to volunteer their time and possibly their professional experience towards turning the dream into a reality, young people, old people, happy people, even sad people if you think it might make you feel better to be doing something for Greensboro and Greensboro's working class.

Volunteer as little or as much as you like. Work from home or hit the streets, your choice. Work online or use the telephone, use social networking if you like. Goal #1: Make everyone in Greensboro aware of the effort even though we're currently being boycotted by the local media.

Send your e-mail to greensboroaquarium@gmail.com and ol' Fish Man and real people will get back to you ASAP with ways you can help bring Greensboro into the 21st Century with great paying jobs, more and better commerce, improved economic conditions, better schools, safer communities and all the other things true grassroots prosperity can bring.

And know, that unlike GPAC, the Downtown Greensboro Aquarium is for all of Greensboro, a place where children can learn, families can bond and where memories will last a lifetime.

Is it Outer Space or Underwater?

"Under the Arctic ice is a cosmos of spectacular and rarely seen bioluminescent creatures with an otherworldly quality."

I recommend you watch the following video full screen.



You know, ol' Fish Man isn't a scientist but I'm betting that with some chillers and a few other gizmos, an Arctic exhibition could be made available for viewing at the Downtown Greensboro Aquarium so that marine biologists could study these amazing creatures with access like they've never had before. Who knows, it might even lead to some major scientific breakthroughs right here in downtown Greensboro. That is, if that's what Greensboro decides to do.

Why Is An Aquarium Important To Greensboro?

“Zoos and aquariums worldwide receive more than 700-million visitors annually … This corresponds to 11% of the global human population, indicating that about one in 10 people experience human–animal interactions at zoos and aquariums each year.” -via World Association of Zoos and Aquariums and Two Oceans Aquarium,

Now I guess ol' Fish Man could wear out my gills gurgling on about tourism and economic development and the advantages of an aquarium over a GPAC but I think most of you get it already, even a downtown NASCAR track or NFL football team will probably not bring as many visitors to Greensboro or spur as much economic development and jobs, jobs, jobs as a world class aquarium will bring. It's a given.

But there also the connection to nature that most kids in Greensboro aren't getting. You see, with the exception of Greensboro's better off families, most Greensboro families cannot afford to visit aquariums 200 to 300 miles away. Most of Greensboro's children will never see a world class aquarium if it's not built right here in Greensboro. Most of North Carolina's children will never see a world class aquarium if it's not built right here in Greensboro. While the cost of admission is high, the biggest hurdle for Greensboro's working class poor is the cost of travel. One night in one hotel room is often more than a week's pay for these people and often families have to rent multiple rooms. And have we forgotten what it costs to transport people from point A to point B.

Children who grow up without being directly exposed to nature, without interacting with nature, become disconnected from nature. They are more likely to become litter bugs, be wasteful, waste energy and less concerned about the environment because the environment is not something they can relate to. Sure, you show them nature in books and in your school buildings but is that really nature? Does that inspire like seeing a shark swim overhead or a thousand jellyfish put on an ever-changing light show right before your very eyes? Will your schools teach them the joys of nature in the same way as watching our brightly colored schools swim past? Your schools can fill their heads with facts, figures and numbers but can they inspire like our schools?

Let me see a show of fins if you think your schools inspire as well as our schools? That's what I thought, not a single fin in sight.

As I swim up and down Buffalo Creek and sometimes make my way into the Haw River I look out at what you have done to the land. I talk with the Deer, and other animals who come to drink and we wonder what a difference it might have made if there had been an aquarium here already when people first came to Greensboro. Would generations have come to look at us differently if you could have gotten a closer look? Would you have done a better job as stewards of the planet with dominion over all you see?

I don't know all the answers but I'm praying nobody finds Fish Man's Time Warner Internet Cable laying in the creek and pulls it out before I can get your attention.