Today, Tuesday 29 October, has seen the 8 millionth visitor enter Hull’s award-winning aquarium The Deep.
The Silburn family from Hull, made up of mum Karina, Grandma Sue and children Tilly and Daniel were the lucky ones to be presented with an exciting behind the scenes penguin experience by The Deep’s mascot Pebbles. This money can’t buy experience will allow the family to go inside the penguin exhibit, carry out a scatter feed, learn all about our loveable VIP’s from our experts and get up close to them.
We were delighted to hear that the penguins are one of the children’s favourite animals with Tilly exclaiming “I can’t wait for them to come up to me when I’m in there.”
Mum Karina said: “I’m just super excited – we can’t wait to meet the penguins. I can’t believe we’re the 8 millionth visitors.”
Grandma Sue also commented: “We were born and bred in Hull, and we think The Deep is a fabulous place to come. We’ve been lots of times over the years, in fact we visited within the first few weeks of it opening. We’re going to celebrate in the café with a coffee and a cake!”
Katy Duke, CEO at The Deep said: “We are thrilled to have reached our 8 millionth visitor. It’s a real milestone for us after 18 years of operation to have attracted so many visitors to the area. It is a testament to the fantastic team we have in place, many of whom have been here since day one and offer our customers a fantastic experience every day.
“We are constantly developing our exhibits for people to enjoy and finding new ways to engage our visitors with important environmental messages. Our visitors play a huge part in helping us achieve our conservation outputs so a really big thank you to everyone whose visit has supported our charitable work. We look forward to welcoming the next 8 million and seeing what we can achieve together for the conservation of the marine environment.”
Deep facts (since The Deep opened):
• The total volume of water in The Deep is 3,243,192 litres – that’s equivalent to 40,500 bath tubs
• Our Marine Red List Officer has assessed over 1,600 species for the IUCN Red List globally
• We have supported 67 BSc/MSc student projects through our Husbandry department
• Since opening we have used 2,500 tonnes of salt in our tanks
• Our guiding team have delivered 27,450 hours of presentations including dive shows, penguin feeds, scatter feeds and interactive shows
• Over 540,000 children have taken part in educational visits
• We have put on over 10,200 dive shows
• Donated over 9,000 family tickets to good causes
• We have sold 61,000 kilos of pick and mix – that’s the equivalent to two humpback whales!
• On our busiest day, we welcomed 5,484 visitors – that’s like filling Hull City Hall more than 4 times
• 47,561 children have slept over at The Deep – that’s 100,000 pieces of toast served
• Each of our divers has spent the equivalent of a month and a half underwater, that’s 24 hours a day!
