On Thursday, the St. Louis Aquarium gave a sneak peek at the two-story, 120,000-square-foot, under-construction train shed that will soon house sharks, rays, otters, and more in Union Station. Scheduled to open in late 2019, once completed, the aquarium will be the home of more than 13,000 animals in over a million gallons of water, including a 250,000-gallon saltwater shark tank—named Shark Canyon—with more than 60 sharks and rays.
SLM asked Aaron Sprowl, general curator for the St. Louis Aquarium, about some of the coolest aquatic animals St. Louisans will get to view once the entertainment destination is open. Devil rays, a type of ray with a 6-foot-wide wing span, are currently only in three aquariums in the United States. St. Louis is getting eight of them. Sprowl is also excited about the bowmouth guitarfish, a very distinct-looking creature covered in little spikes. zoOceanarium Group, the privately owned company operating the aquarium, designed its shark tank so that the animals would have an extra large run—they won’t have to swim in small circles.
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The aquarium will also feature a Global Rivers area with otters and piranha, as well as a touch area where guests will get to feel pincushion urchins, horseshoe crabs, and more. Sprowl said a major goal of the aquarium is to allow St. Louisans to know the animals one-on-one and to inspire people to live greener lives having met some of the creatures in the wild affected by humans’ habits.
The group that owns Union Station, Lodging Hospitality Management, is also opening in 2019 a 200-foot-tall Ferris wheel, a merry-go-round, an 18-hole mini golf course, a ropes course, and three restaurants: The St. Louis Union Station Soda Fountain (formerly in the Hard Rock Cafe space), the Train Shed, and the 1894 Cafe.
