Long Island Aquarium celebrates 25th anniversary with discounted admission days

John Yaiullo was born two months after the Long Island Aquarium opened in June 2000 in downtown Riverhead. Through the decades, he’s had sleepover birthday parties there, swum in the snorkel tank with the stingrays and the whitespotted bamboo sharks and interned in the education department during his teenage summers.

Now, Yaiullo works at the aquarium hand-feeding the nurse sharks and other fish as both he and the venue that was co-founded by his father, Joe, celebrate a quarter century this year. In the past 25 years, the aquarium has "probably tripled in size" says Bryan DeLuca, executive director of the resort property. The surrounding resort complex now includes a 100-room Hyatt Hotel, a 20-room boutique Preston Hotel, Atlantis Banquets and Events, and 100-slip marina.

"We did an estimate a couple of years ago," says Candyce Paparo, senior curator of mammals, birds and reptiles. The aquarium has between 500 and 600 species and thousands of animals in at least 48 aquatic habitats, Paparo says.

The aquarium is celebrating the milestone anniversary in a variety of ways for 25 weeks beginning the first week of April and continuing through September.

DISCOUNTS AND GIVEAWAYS

On the 25th of each month, admission will be discounted to $25 per person, from the regular price of $34.99 for children older than 2 and $48.99 per adult, says Darlene Puntillo, marketing director. The first 25 families who arrive each of those days will get a swag bag that includes a coupon sheet with more than $125 in savings at the aquarium’s Scoops Ice Cream Shop, LI Canoe Kayak Rentals and more. (Visitors who would like the coupon sheet can also purchase one for $25.) For the entire summer, rides on the Atlantis Explorer Tour Boat and Snorkel Adventure sessions will each be discounted to $25 from $40, Puntillo says.

The aquarium is asking visitors to submit "then and now" photos — recreating shots taken previously at the aquarium and entering them for a chance to win admission tickets and be featured on social media. Historic photo displays will be posted through the aquarium to show how it has developed.

Just as his son’s growth shows the passage of time, so does the aging of some of the aquarium’s popular creatures, says Joe Yaiullo, who is still a curator at the venue. When aquarium’s sand tiger sharks arrived, they were "probably 30 inches long, as big as a thigh at most," the senior Yaiullo says. "Now they’re 10 feet long and 400 pounds each."

The penguins also tell the tale of the aquarium — the elder generation, named for "Seinfeld" characters Jerry, Elaine and Newman, gave birth at the aquarium to a new generation, named for Pam, Kevin and Angela from "The Office."

The penguins are what keep Jamie and Jason Schneider, of Riverhead, returning to the aquarium an average of two times a week — their daughter, Eve, 8, is on the autism spectrum and has a special interest and affinity for the birds. "It's an escape for my daughter," says Jamie, 45, a substitute aid for children with disabilities from Riverhead. "It's just a magical place for her." Last year the family did the Penguin Encounter for Eve's birthday; a caregiver joins the participants in a room with one penguin for half an hour, Puntillo says.

SO MANY MORE OPTIONS

Paparo started working at the aquarium when she was 23 years old and recently out of college — she’s now 48 and still there. "I got a job in the education department and worked my way up to where I am now," she says.

"There’s so many more animal habitats," she says of the aquarium growth. "There’s so many more things for our guests to do here than when we first opened. We didn’t have our North American river otters when we first started. We didn’t have our reptile room. There were no penguins. We didn’t have our snorkel habitat with tropical fish."

The North American river otters, in fact, just gave birth to four pups, the second generation born at the aquarium. The mother, Flo, had been with the pups indoors until late March, when she brought the pups into the outdoor Otter Falls habitat where the public can see them. 

Paparo has worked for decades with the same four California sea lions at the aquarium. "They arrived in the fall of 2002 at a little over a year old," she says, after being rescued from a beach in Santa Barbara, California.

NO CUPCAKES, PLEASE

Educating people about sea life has been rewarding, and part of the aquarium’s mission, Paparo says. "One time quite a few years ago there was a women throwing piece of cupcake into the seal pool. She didn’t know that wasn’t a good idea. It’s not like a duck pond," Paparo says. "I just scooped it out of the pool and let the person know that they don’t eat cupcakes and let them know what they do eat."

Yaiullo says being able to create an aquarium from scratch has been "the opportunity of a lifetime." Yaiullo's co-founders include Joe Petrocelli, who still owns the aquarium, and Jim Bissett, who died in 2011. The aquarium was originally called Atlantis Marine World.

What’s ahead for the next 25 years? The Town of Riverhead has a $10 million state downtown revitalization grant, DeLuca says. "The core of the downtown is going to take a new shape," he says. "We’re going to be involved."

By Beth Whitehouse

beth.whitehouse@newsday.comBethWhitehouse1

Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.