Autumn holiday 2023 at the museums
Published 29 September 2023
Are you looking for fun activities for families during the autumn holidays? Look here!
19 July 2023
For many people, corals are associated with South Sea islands and palm trees. But there are also coral reefs along the coast of Norway. This is what you can learn in the new exhibition of the Lofoten Aquarium.
In June, the Lofoten Aquarium opened a brand new exhibition about cold-water corals. Many of the visitors are surprised. Are there coral reefs in the Norwegian Sea? In fact, it does, and just letting more people get to know a fantastic and colourful world deep down in the ocean was the starting point for the exhibition.
The Coral Exhibition
The coral exhibition has been developed by the research and dissemination company SALT in Svolvær, in collaboration with the Lofoten Aquarium/Museum Nord and the Institute of Marine Research. In the exhibition, the audience learns, among other things, that the world’s largest known cold-water coral reef, Røstrevet, is located just outside Lofoten. Røstrevet is 35 kilometres long and 2.8 kilometres wide and covers an area of over 100 square kilometres. The reef is located at a depth of 3-400 meters.
The exhibition builds on the knowledge of researchers with unique knowledge of cold-water corals and is also aimed at a broad audience. It appeals to many senses and draws visitors down into the depths and into the unique and vulnerable ecosystems of coral reefs through sound, images, animations and play.
The Lofoten Aquarium already displays and disseminates knowledge about fish and marine animals in the waters around Lofoten. With the new exhibition, visitors gain even greater knowledge about what lies beneath the sea surface around the archipelago.
The exhibition has received funding from the Research Council of Norway, the DNB Savings Bank Foundation and Nordland County Council.
The exhibition is made with assistance from the Lofoten Aquarium’s employees and Museum Nord’s operations manager and carpenter in Vågan. A number of local companies have contributed to the exhibition: Sisu Design, Signal, Back, Lucjan Golas, Mads Sæther Juul, Malerservice Nilsen, Lofoten Elektro, Lofoten Woodworks, Rent a biologist and many more.