Then known as the Honolulu Aquarium, its purpose was to entice travelers to ride the trolley all the way to the end of the line at Queen Kapiʻolani Park.

The aquarium opened in 1904 with 35 tanks and 400 marine organisms, and during its first year, biologist David Starr Jordan proclaimed it as having the finest collection of fishes in the world.

state-of-the-art at that time, the aquarium also received positive comments from such notable visitors of that era as William Jennings Bryan and Jack London.

Carlson had previously worked closely with Taylor and others to design new and more naturalistic exhibits that focused on the marine life of Hawaii and the western Pacific.

The $3.2 million investment from the Legislature enhanced the Aquarium's mission of research, education and conservation through greatly improved exhibits and visitor facilities.

His goal is to consolidate and build upon the existing exhibitory expertise and the solid foundation laid down by his two predecessors, and to modernize, diversify and expand the aquarium's facilities through a program of gradual renewal, renovation and replacement.

The Waikiki Aquarium developed the first displays of living Pacific corals in the United States in 1978 using water from a seawater well and natural sunlight.

1957; broadclub cuttlefish (Sepia latimanus) in 1978; a mahimahi hatchery and exhibit (Coryphaena hippurus) in 1991; and the giant clam (Tridacna gigas) in 1979.

The largest giant clam at the Waikiki Aquarium was acquired from the Micronesian Mariculture Demonstration Center in Palau in June 1982 and was estimated to be five-years old at that time.