9 The planning and construction of the oceanarium had taken more than two years and the opening was to coincide with the nation’s silver jubilee. 8 Costing over S$20 million, UWS finally opened its doors on. The oceanarium project was introduced in 1988, with a scheduled date of completion of 1989. 6 Subsequently, the government established a joint venture with Underwater World International (a subsidiary of the Western Australia Development Corporation) and New Zealand company, Marinescape Corporation, to build and operate the new attraction. In August 1983, the SDC invited proposals for an oceanarium to be built on a three-hectare site on Sentosa. A request to relocate VKA was raised to the MND in 1981. At the time, the only similar attraction in Singapore was Van Kleef Aquarium (VKA). 4Īlthough the idea was not taken up, the Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC) became interested in building an oceanarium as part of plans to attract more visitors to Sentosa. The idea of an oceanarium or marine park was proposed as early as 1978, when the operators of Ocean Park in Hong Kong submitted a proposal to the Ministry of National Development (MND) to build an oceanarium where visitors could observe marine animals in their natural habitat. 1 Its key features included the Dolphin Lagoon housing endangered pink Indo-Pacific humpbacked dolphins, 2 and an 80-metre moving walkway through an observation tunnel offering a panoramic view of the oceanarium’s marine creatures and corals. Considered Asia’s largest tropical oceanarium when it opened in 1991, UWS was one of Singapore’s popular tourist attractions. Underwater World Singapore (UWS) was an oceanarium located at 80 Siloso Road on the island of Sentosa.
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