The Pacific Regional Center in Hawaii is a $240M facility that consolidates various NOAA offices and research activities spread across Honolulu. The Center is located on the historic Ford Island in Pearl Harbor and will preserve and restore historic World-War-II era Navy hangars.

Ardurra designed thirteen aquatic life support systems for 100,000 gallons of marine animal tanks at the Center. These tanks house critically endangered Hawaiian monk seals, endangered green turtles, overfished big-eye tuna, and depleted coral species.

NOAA’s research activities require simulating the water quality of the open ocean on a site that is surrounded by the impacted harbor. Several of the tanks require nitrate levels that are well below those normally found in marine aquariums and will employ intensive denitrification and nitrate removal systems.

Prior to design, Ardurra prepared a comprehensive Seawater Study of life support system options for the animal tanks. The study benchmarked the Center against other coastal aquariums, compared open, semi-open and closed design approaches, and evaluated seawater source and discharge alternatives.