Something fishy in Long Beach

New aquarium lures tourists

Author: By Adam Pertman, Globe Staff

Date: SUNDAY, August 16, 1998

Page: M1

Section: Travel

Then the Cold War ended. The aerospace and military industries that had sustained the local economy for generations began to retrench; and officials here decided a few years ago that they'd better move fast, or their community would become just another example of American urban decay.

So, of course, they decided to turn Long Beach into a tourist mecca. And this time it looks like their efforts just might succeed.

Why? Our son put it succinctly and eloquently when he walked into the just-completed, state-of-the-art Aquarium of the Pacific.

``Wow,'' said Zack, who just turned 4. ``This is great.'' His 1-year-old sister, Emilia, clearly agreed: She shrieked in delight when she saw her first tankful of luminous, colorful fish.

Inside and out, the $117 million aquarium really is that impressive.

It forgoes the seemingly inevitable huge central tank, like those in Boston and Baltimore, and opts instead for large, elaborate presentations throughout the facility. And even more than the wonderful aquarium in Monterey, the one here capitalizes on one of the region's major assets -- its year-round good weather -- by placing fully 20 percent of its displays outdoors.

Perhaps the best news, since the aquarium is mostly what brought us to Long Beach, is that the city has many other appeals. They range from the Queen Mary (a magnet-like attraction because of the hoopla over ``Titanic'') to the gondola rides along the city's canals (the gondeliers even sing) to the renovated shops along Pine Avenue (mighty fine eating) to the city's lovely, long beaches (where do you think it got its name?).

But it's the fish that local leaders hope will become the biggest tourism lure.

The concept of the aquarium, situated on five beautifully landscaped, waterfront-facing acres on Rainbow Harbor, is that it's the only one in the world that exhibits the full spectrum of sea life from throughout the Pacific Ocean. Indeed, as you walk into the cavernous entry foyer, the first things you encounter (apart from the 88-foot whale model and its 22-foot baby overhead) are three large tanks that provide a preview of the wonders to come: the flora and fauna of Southern California and Baja; of the Pacific's icy northern reaches, stretching to Alaska and beyond; and of the ocean's tropical region found to the west, past Hawaii and into the waters of Indonesia.

``We're trying to provide a full view of what's out there,'' explained our guide, Michell Nachum, a spokeswoman for the aquarium. ``We think that in that way, at least, it's unique.''

Maybe in other ways as well.

In addition to choosing a diverse, visually stunning collection and creating habitats to match, aquarium officials decided none of the marine mammals here would be captured from the wild; instead, they come from other aquariums, research facilities, and even rehabilitation centers for ailing or impaired animals. That's where they found one of their favorites, Obadiah, a blind seal that glides through the water like any of her mates by using her sense of smell and by utilizing her whiskers as feelers.

As part of the museum's educational component, each of the three regional exhibits also will try to teach viewers about the ecological problems facing their respective areas. The Southern California/Baja display, for instance, will focus on pollution; the Northern Pacific will explain the consequences of overharvesting of fish; and the Tropical Pacific will present arguments for maintaining and protecting its extensive coral reefs.

To locate Long Beach's other major attraction, the Queen Mary, you need only look across the harbor. It's just a few minutes' drive away, and would be worth the trip even if the distance was far greater.

Short of spending thousands of dollars for a cabin on one of the vast new cruise liners that are soaring in popularity (the Love Boat thanks you, James Cameron), this is the closest you're likely to get to feeling and understanding the grandeur of the Titanic. The ship, that is, not the movie.

The stunning combination of perfectly polished mahogany banisters, weathered teak floors, and burled maple walls provides just a taste of the intensely Art Deco decor throughout the ship. It's considered by many aficionados to be the most luxurious ocean liner ever to sail the Atlantic.

Dine in the elegant, oversized Grand Salon and you feel like you've been thrust back to the 1,000-foot vessel's first voyages in the 1930s. Walk the elegant decks of the onetime Cunard flagship and you wish only that it would sail again.

But it won't. After 1,001 trans-Atlantic trips from 1936 to 1967, including many in military service during World War II and then as a transport for war brides and their children afterward, the ship was purchased by Long Beach. And five years later, in 1972, it was renovated to become a very unusual hotel.

So, today, you can rent a stateroom for the night. Or you can take a tour of the engine room, or hold a wedding in the ship's chapel, or rent a lavish stateroom for a birthday party or reception. A very cool place to see and to be, especially if you're a ship/sailing/ocean fanatic, a kid, or even just a breathing human who likes to explore.

As luck would have it, there's more: Even before ``Titanic'' hit the big screen, a traveling exhibition of artifacts from the world's most famous sunken ship was being presented on the Queen Mary. Not many visitors were expressing interest in paying a separate admission to see it, however, so the extensive display was to have closed early last year.

Then the movie opened in December 1997. And then people started streaming onto the Queen Mary to see items including still-corked champagne bottles, a telegraph bell, and unopened letters that were recovered from the real Titanic. Then the exhibition was extended through April. And then through Labor Day . . . you get the idea.

``It's been packed,'' said Karen Herrera, an official of the Long Beach Visitors Bureau, who added with deliberate understatement: ``The movie was a very nice coincidence for us.''

Suffice it to say that, by some accounts, daily visits to the Queen Mary have skyrocketed and occupacy in the hotel has soared by several hundred percent. There are lots of hotels of every price nearby, including some lovely upscale ones, but it's worth trying the Queen Mary if you're game to sleep on a ship -- though the erstwhile staterooms can be smaller than typical hotel rooms.

Recognizing that many visitors are likely to travel to Southern California for reasons other than just seeing the sites of Long Beach, regardless of how tempting they may be, officals here have devised a campaign essentially -- and perhaps a bit hopefully -- designed to make this city the hub of the region's tourism universe.

A full-color advertisement in a packet distributed by the tourist bureau marks the city with a big red and gold star. Emanating from it are dotted lines leading to some of the prime attractions of Southern California, like Universal Studios, Santa Barbara, Disneyland, and Palm Springs. And next to each site is the time it would take to drive there from here, or, in the case of Catalina Island, the hourlong duration of a ferry ride.

The concept led me to recall a joke that staffers at a defunct newspaper in Worcester used to tell when I worked there nearly two decades ago. Like Long Beach, the Central Massachusetts city was then trying to emerge from the shadow of its more-famous neighbors and create its own identity -- and, like Long Beach, it ultimately did so with determination and new attractions.

At the time, though, the future was less clear. The paper was trying to find an appropriate name for its weekend-activities insert, akin to The Globe's Calendar section, and we kiddingly suggested that it should be called ``Sixty Minutes from Boston.''