{"id":222416,"date":"2026-04-07T19:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T19:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/222416\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T19:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T19:48:11","slug":"tampas-florida-aquarium-unveils-aquafence-to-protect-against-hurricane-surge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/222416\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa\u2019s Florida Aquarium unveils \u2018AquaFence\u2019 to protect against hurricane surge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida Aquarium staff braced for the worst as Hurricane Helene barreled toward the Gulf Coast in 2024.<\/p>\n

They chopped lettuce and fish to prep meals in bulk for the animals. They ratcheted down air tanks and equipment that could be thrown by high winds. They moved penguins, jellyfish and alligators to higher floors, where they would be safe from rising water.<\/p>\n

If Tampa were to suffer a direct hit from a hurricane, it would be impossible to evacuate all 20,000 animals from the downtown aquarium\u2019s waterfront location. Luckily, Helene\u2019s floodwaters stopped short of the building\u2019s doors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to think we are doing our part to protect the blue planet and marine life, so maybe Mother Nature gives us a little bit of a pass every once in a while,\u201d said the aquarium\u2019s CEO, Roger Germann. \u201cWe took those signs to say, let\u2019s not just leave our goodwill up to Mother Nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to do a little bit better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The aquarium announced Tuesday morning that AquaFence, a flood barrier company that garnered local and national recognition after its barriers protected Tampa General Hospital<\/a> from Helene\u2019s 7-foot storm surge, would be donating barriers ahead of the 2026 hurricane season.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s donation was a sign of goodwill to the community it would soon be joining \u2014 AquaFence is moving its U.S. headquarters to Water Street, where it opened an office last year. Tampa General Hospital and Strategic Property Partners, alocal commercial real estate firm, will help pay for installation of the barriers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt became clear that the aquarium is very vulnerable. It needed additional layers of protection to safeguard the animals, the habitat, the staff, and, of course, its mission,\u201d said Patrik Hansson, chief revenue officer for AquaFence. \u201cProtecting the aquarium means protecting a piece of Tampa\u2019s identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other local infrastructure has come to rely on the company\u2019s flood barrier technology.<\/p>\n

Last year, St. Petersburg spent $700,000 on its own AquaFence<\/a> to protect a key wastewater station that was taken offline during Helene. The city told thousands of residents to limit water usage and flush toilets only as necessary, since toilets might not drain.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The city of Tampa, which owns the aquarium building, has been looking to other ways to harden its infrastructure against human-caused climate change. The addition of the AquaFence on Channelside will strengthen flood mitigation in one of the city\u2019s riskiest zones.<\/p>\n

Tampa Mayor Jane Castor and Tampa General Hospital CEO John Couris \u2014 flanked by other business leaders along with animals like penguins and skunks \u2014 spoke about the city\u2019s vulnerability across its 126 miles of coastline.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live in paradise, but there are a few costs that come to that,\u201d Castor said. \u201cWe are always focused on sustainability and resilience in our city.\u201d<\/p>\n

She praised the partnership across Tampa\u2019s business community to protect the marine research hub and tourist attraction.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat makes this area and this region so wonderful is the way that everybody comes together and works toward the same goal of growing our city,\u201d Castor said.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n

The Tampa Bay Times launched the Environment Hub in 2025 to focus on some of Florida\u2018s most urgent and enduring challenges. You can contribute through our journalism fund by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida Aquarium staff braced for the worst as Hurricane Helene barreled toward the Gulf Coast in 2024. They…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[100710,100709,100711,1351,3125,1847,100712,135,3871,137,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-222416","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-aquafence","9":"tag-flood-barrier","10":"tag-flood-barriers","11":"tag-florida-aquarium","12":"tag-hurricane-helene","13":"tag-hurricane-season","14":"tag-roger-germann","15":"tag-tampa","16":"tag-tampa-general-hospital","17":"tag-tampa-headlines","18":"tag-tampa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}