The Ruby Lake Lagoon Society wants to expand its reach to the sea with a new aquarium and marine research centre planned for 2020.
The idea of a new Pender Ocean Discovery Station (PODS) was announced during a town hall meeting in Pender Harbour on Sept. 13 by Dr. Michael Jackson, of the society.
The Ruby Lake Lagoon Society is well known for its wetland research and environmental education efforts, as well as the building of the Iris Griffith Interpretive Centre and Nature Reserve and the running of a nature school program.
“Now we’re planning on embarking on a completely new journey because almost all of the work we’ve done so far has been with wetlands and lakes and freshwater ecosystems,” Jackson said.
“But obviously there is a huge ocean out there and we know from what’s happening already that there are major changes going on in the ocean and that’s almost certainly to do with climate change. But we have very little knowledge, baseline data, on what the situation is now, and you need that to compare in the future.”
PODS would provide a place to do that research and allow the community to see what’s being learned.
“This obviously will be a huge educational resource for the community,” Jackson said.
“We are aiming to partner with Simon Fraser University if we possibly can on this project.”
At an estimated cost of about $10 million, the new centre would sit on the waterfront by the Pender Harbour government dock, on land now owned by School District No. 46.
“We have already been in negotiations/talks with the school board and those are ongoing and they are positive,” Jackson said.
Currently the society has two potential concepts, the second featuring a series of inverted boat-like structures that Jackson is fond of.
“When they see this iconic building, they’re going to go and tell other people about it. You have to have an iconic building, which is really going to hit people,” Jackson said.
The centre would feature an interactive aquarium, outdoor children’s classroom, marine research laboratories, hands-on marine exhibits, a large conference room and a coffee bar. It would also incorporate an existing amphitheatre in the area.
“The idea of this is to create space that we can all access,” Jackson said, adding that he’s confident the society can raise the money needed between now and 2020.
“We’ve been incredibly successful in getting grants with the Iris Griffith Centre. We have an amazing track record for achieving what we’ve set out to do and coming up with the deliverables,” he said.
“I think over the years we’ve had about 50 different funders for the Iris Griffith Centre and a lot of them would be interested in this for sure.”
