The Mediterranean: hallmark attraction

The date 11.9.2001, now infamous as 9/11, was designated for a particularly glittering opening ceremony for over 300 invited guests in a tent set up in front of the Haus des Meeres. After a 1-year construction phase, the new Mediterranean division had been completed. Our motto was "Back to the roots" and the idea was to recall Austria's first Mediterranean exhibition in 1959. The result was a system with a water volume of more than 40,000 liters, divided into a variety of aquarium sizes ranging from 150 to 15,000 liters. This now enables us to keep many different animal groups under state-of-the-art conditions. On the way to the opening ceremony, I heard the news about the tragic events in the USA and immediately modified the program. The moving words spoken by Prof. Rupert Riedl and Prof. Hans Hass at the inauguration will be long remembered.