Forty years ago, Walt Disney World introduced the Epcot Pavilion known as Living Seas. In 1986, the company reportedly spent $90 million on the project, which the Orlando Sentinel called “its most ambitious and expensive pavilion ever.”
A Disney spokesperson called it “the world’s sixth ocean.”
All of this happened before fish with short attention spans appeared on the big screen, and park visitors knew nothing about what was called a “cramobile.” Things changed, and half a lifetime ago in 2006, the area was rethemed and renamed “She’s with Nemo & Friends.”
Other things remain unchanged, including the 5.7 million gallon saltwater tank, which is said to have enough capacity to house Epcot’s iconic Spaceship Earth and parts of it. There remains a strong focus on animal care and protection.
Disney World recently invited the Sentinel and other members of the media to see the latest version of The Seas from both the visitor side and behind the scenes. Here are some points.
take care of manatees
Visitors to The Seas can see two manatees on the first floor, but they are not long-term residents Little Joe and Inigo, who were moved to another facility in Florida last year.
“We changed the focus of the program to only short-term rehabilitation animals, and it’s been very successful,” said Dr. Jeff Pye, director of animal operations.
“We keep them fairly small and grow them until they are a suitable weight to release back into the wild,” he said.
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There are three more manatees in the backstage area, one of which underwent major surgery last year due to an infection. She had to be transported to Disney’s Animal Kingdom where a major medical operation was to be performed. I have a tough job.
Coming soon: Sea Dragon
Change is coming upstairs at The Seas. The appeal, Pai said, is that it provides additional space for Weed Sea Dragon. Thirteen of the animals were transferred from an aquarium in Ohio.
“When they got here, they were only 2 inches long. They looked like little twigs in the water. Now they’re about 7 to 8 inches long, and they’ll end up being about 18 inches long,” he said.
“As they get older, their characteristics start to appear, and when they are fully grown, they take on some very impressive hues – yellow, green, purple, brown, black, etc.,” Pai said. “It’s all about creating camouflage for them in the wild.”
He expects visitors will be able to see the new creatures within the next few weeks. In response, physical work is being done to the habitat, such as cooling the water.
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“They come from southern Australia, so their water comes from Antarctica, so they live in much colder water than other animals here,” said Pai, who is also from Australia.
They will live in temperatures of about 54 degrees. He said there are usually about 74 other tanks in the area.
The exam is going smoothly
Behind-the-scenes details included regular health checkups for Apollo, a bowmouth guitarfly. (“He’s a ray that resembles a shark,” said Pi.)
To take Apollo’s vitals, the animal care team has him swim to a regularly fed target. He slides from a large aquarium into a partially inflated pool within that pool. Add anesthesia to the water after it is fully inflated. It takes a village in wetsuits, a pool, medical equipment, and over 20 cast members to wrestle with Apollo.
“He will undergo ultrasounds, blood draws, veterinary examinations there and other sampling as well,” Pai said. “We hope to use all this information to try to better understand this species so we can better care for it and one day breed it.”
“There are species that are highly endangered, and we’re learning more and more about them every day,” he says.
“They’re threatened by fishing. They’re threatened by ocean plastic, the same thing we’re facing with many species in the ocean,” said Claire Martin, senior manager of biodiversity conservation at the Disney Conservation Fund.
Guitars are a cool species, she said.
“It’s like this dinosaur on Earth.”
animal attraction
The Seas is a magnet for kids at Epcot. Manatees and sharks are crowd pleasers, said Education Director Dario Silva.
The young visitors are “learning so much,” Silva said. “A lot of times it’s animal behavior. Why do fish swim the way they do? Why do rays eat the way they eat? Our main goal is that no matter what they’re learning, they have a kind of attachment, an emotional connection, to these animals that inspires them to take action once they get home.”
One important point concerns rescue.
“Our veterinarians and animal care team are currently working to rehabilitate the sea turtle,” Martin said. “We rehabilitated 350 of them and released them back into the wild.”
He also promoted DiveQuest, an in-tank experience available to certified divers.
“The real goal is to get more people to come to the aquarium. So can more people get scuba certification? Can more people find out about us?” Silva said. “It’s shocking that people come to Epcot not knowing there’s an aquarium here. In fact, it’s the second largest mixed-environment aquarium in North America.”
Image: Epcot, 1986
Step aboard the Orlando Sentinel Wayback Machine, scheduled to open in 1986.
Frank Wells, then president of the Walt Disney Co., swam into the aquarium for the ribbon-cutting on opening day, as did Mickey Mouse (wearing a custom-made face mask) and 15 divers in sequin-covered wetsuits.
Chairman and CEO Michael Eisner remained on shore.
Disney’s ad says it will feature 200 species of coral reef marine life, a “real marine biologist,” educational video games, and working underwater robots. The depth of the aquarium was listed as 27 feet, and the seating capacity of the seafood restaurant was 260 people.
Also on site was the Hydrolator, an elevator-like device that magically/allegedly transports visitors to different levels of the Seabase.
A one-hour special then aired on NBC (this was about a decade before ABC became part of Disney). The host of the show was John Ritter. Singer Laura Brannigan (“Gloria”) and Duran Duran lead singer Simon Le Bon also participated.
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