Pacific Beach Hotel and Indoor Oceanarium Review
A 280,000 Gallon Ocean Wonder

Photo courtesy of the Pacific Beach Hotel
We had the opportunity to travel to the island of Oahu, Hawai'i in January of 1998 from our island of Moloka'i and stayed at the Pacific Beach Hotel in Waikiki for three days. Being saltwater aquarium fish collectors with our Hawaiian Quality Fish business since 1989, our reason for wanting to stay here was because of their 280,000 gallon indoor oceanarium. It stands three stories high, making it about 30 feet deep, is 52 feet long, 32 feet wide, and sits right inside the middle of the hotel. It was originally built in 1979, and in 1985 was emptied and remodeled as you see it today. The Oceanarium is the centerpiece of the hotel. It is a spectacular site when viewed from the lobby, but even more impressive when enjoying a meal in one of the hotels three dining rooms, each specializing in their own award winning cuisines.

About the Inhabitants

The residents of this Oceanarium consists of about 500 fish. There are over 60 different species of marine life represented, all from the Indo-Pacific and most of them native to Hawaiian waters. The larger of the two Hawaiian Sting Rays is a female named "Big Girl". She is four years old, about five feet across and is a joy to watch when the diver is in the tank during feeding time. She loves to play and look for the food the diver has to offer. She'll swim along with the diver the full length of the tank and back putting on quite a show. There is one smaller Pelagic Ray, a male, that is about two feet across and is as large as he will get.
 

"Big Girl" at feeding time photo by Debbie Hauter

Another large resident is the HUGH Napoleon Wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus) that weighs 50+ pounds. Unfortunately, because of the lighting we were unable to get a good picture of this big guy, but through the link above you can get an idea of what this fish looks like. The rest of the inhabitants in this tank are fish that range in a variety of sizes. The Kahala's and Batfishes weigh about 30 pounds each. Most of the Palani, Naso, Kala (Unicorn Fish), Sailfin Tangs and other Surgeonfishes are very large showsize specimens averaging about 10-20 pounds each. The Yellow Tangs along with other species such as the Raccoon, Auriga, Blue-Striped, Lined, Lemon (Milletseed) and other Butterflyfishes, Moorish Idols, numerous Humu-Humus (Triggerfishes) and assorted Wrasses are of large to medium in size. There was such a great variety of fish life to see that we cannot cover them all here, but you can learn about all the others when you visit the Oceanarium yourself.

The fish are hand fed by a scuba diver four times a day. Once at 11:30am and 12:00 noon during lunch hours, and once at 6:30pm and 8:15pm during dinner hours. On Sunday's they have an extra feeding at 10:45am. For a special treat, you can pay to have the diver stop in front of the window you are dining at inside the Oceanarium Restaurant and hold up a sign with your requested personalized message, such as Happy Birthday Stan, and receive lots of friendly shakas along with the greeting.

We had the opportunity to talk with one of the divers, Jeanna. She has been with the Oceanarium staff for a year and a half. Prior to working with the fish here she worked at Marineland in Florida diving in their large tank. Rays are her favorite marine animal, so when she heard about the opportunity at the Oceanarium to dive with their rays she jumped at the chance. It was fun talking with Jeanna as she truly loves to dive and interact with marine animals up close and in person!

During our interview with Jane See, the curator for the Oceanarium, she told us the animals diets consisted of romaine lettuce (which the Butterflies, Tangs and Surgeons were gobbling up), kind of a paste mix of fish and krill, and large fish chunks for the rays and the bigger fishes. Just looking at the fish you can see that they are very fat and healthy. Jane has been with the Oceanarium staff for 10 years now and was offered the position as head curator about a year ago. From our conversation with her you can tell she enjoys her job and cares for her saltwater friends with great enthusiasm.

Saltwater for the system is pumped from a supplemental 235 foot deep seawater well and is sent through two very large high-rate sand filters and oxygenated before being returned to the tank by way of a waterfall at the top level which is viewable from the top level restaurant. This highly efficient system cycles approximately 3,500 gallons of water per minute, conditioning the entire tank in less than 90 minutes. The lighting consists of four metal halide lights, as well as some natural daylight exposure during the afternoon hours of the day.

~Debbie & Stan Hauter

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