During a recent trip to Japan to attend the 10th Anniversary of Aquamarine Fukushima, a state-of-the-art aquarium in Japan which Palau Aquarium maintains a Friendship Agreement with, Kesolei and Fabian Iyar, CEO of the Palau International Coral Reef Center (PICRC), presented some of the things that Palau Aquarium does to mitigate the difficulties of maintaining an aquarium.
“In his presentation, Iyar cited an example of getting training for free from Sam’s Tours,” Kesolei said. “We didn’t have the money, but we needed the training. So we go around and try to develop relationships with the business communities. In return, Sam’s Tours’ customers come and visit the Palau Aquarium.”
Kesolei said it’s a give and take relationship.
“We at the Aquarium are doing everything that we can to sustain the operations on the technical side. Now, it’s only up to us to work hard to attract customers to come,” Kesolei said.
He added that it is hard to do because if the overall tourists’ outlook in Palau is good, then the Aquarium is good. “But when tourism goes down, we go down, too,” Kesolei said.
The Palau Aquarium captures 30 percent of the tourists that comes to Palau. “We’ve been consistently hitting that target,” Kesolei explained. “But the capture ratio remains consistent. It’s the number of tourists that come to the country that fluctuates, it is going down.”
Kesolei is positive that they can still attract some tour companies to bring tourists to the Aquarium, but they don’t see more locals and the residents visiting the aquarium. “We don’t really see them coming. Rarely do they come. Maybe they will come just once and that’s enough for them. They would stay for 15, 30 minutes, and that’s it,” he said.
They have done work and some business plans to improve the Aquarium’s attractions. “We have some ideas. We plan to open a restaurant, expand the number of aquariums, do some price adjustments,” Kesolei said.
During their visit to Japan, Kesolei said they learned a lot from the Aquarmarine Fukushima, not just on the technical side, but also in terms of knowledge transfer.
Aquamarine Fukushima’s strong points, according to Kesolei, are not just about its being state-of-the-art, but the fact that it is not just meant to showcase particular species, it showcases the habitat and the species within that habitat.
“They’re also very good at children’s educational programs,” Kesolei said. “So they’re very strong on those aspects.”
Aquamarine Fukushima opened in July 2000. They opened six months before PICRC opened. PICRC has signed a Friendship Agreement with Aquamarine Fukushima in 2003.
From then on, both have been exchanging trainings, knowledge and assistance with each other. “They have donated an aquarium tank which they sent over from Japan. In return, they’ve been sending a group of researchers to come down to Palau. We provide them with assistance,” Kesolei said.
In September, the Aquamarine Fukushima will be hosting for one month one of Palau Aquarium’s aquarists. “We’re really appreciative of the level of assistance that they gave us. I think they’ve given us so much more than we’ve given them,” Kesolei said.
