Too Many Fish In The Sea?

First there was one aquarium planned for Suffolk County. It was to be in Riverhead. Then there were two - the other one in Bay Shore.

Now there are three contenders, two of them in Riverhead, whose Town Board has given both until next Thursday to present their financial and environmental strengths so it can decide which to support.

"Both plans are fine, but whoever takes care of the town's $2 million liability will get it, as far as I'm concerned," Vincent Villella, Riverhead's newly elected Supervisor, said on Monday.

Three's A Crowd

The competition in Riverhead is growing fiercer because Bay Shore's $50 million Long Island Aquarium project is pressing ahead and gathering support.

And, while county planners say two aquariums can coexist, it's clear that three cannot. Not to mention that both Riverhead groups plan to use the same property.

In 1993, the Okeanos Ocean Research Foundation, known for its sea turtle and marine mammal stranding work, announced plans for a $50 million aquarium on East Main Street in Riverhead on the banks of the Peconic River.

When Okeanos was forced to reorganize after failing under the weight of debt, the Atlantic Coast Aquarium group took up the aquarium standard. It set its sights on the East Main Street property Riverhead Town already had purchased for the aquarium, and where the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation continues the stranding work Okeanos had started.

Glacier And Tundra

The same year, the vision for the Bay Shore Long Island Aquarium surfaced: a 97,000-square-foot, world-class facility where visitors could stroll across a simulated glacier and tundra, then step down between tanks as though descending into the undersea world. Architectural renderings of the 13-story aquarium look somewhat like a space station.

"When you build something like we are, a world-class aquarium, you have to go with the best around. Cambridge Seven Associates [of Massachusetts] built Baltimore, the new aquarium in Chattanooga; Long Beach, Calif.; Osaka, Japan; Lisbon, and Kuwait," said Arthur Drom er haus er, executive director of the project.

Mr. Dromerhauser said his group was progressing "like the tortoise," but that support was building steadily.

Atlantic Coast Project

The Long Island Association, Chambers of Commerce, and other business and tourism groups have debated whether Long Island could support two such destinations, but the debate seemed to have ended late last year when political and financial reality caused the Riverhead Foundation to scale back its dreams.

Riverhead owes about $2 million for its original purchase of Okeanos's East Main Street headquarters and for construction of its preview center. While originally gung-ho, with that debt over its head the Town Board has balked at guaranteeing a bond for even the scaled-down, $10-million Atlantic Coast Aquarium.

The $10 million would pay for phase one of the Atlantic Coast project. That would include purchasing the town property and renovating the two buildings now used by the Riverhead Foundation.

The long-term goal is a $30 to $40-million center, to be paid for with the help of grants for which nonprofit groups, like the Atlantic Coast Aquarium, are eligible.

Enter the Atlantis Seaquarium, a project conceived by James Bissett, owner of the Treasure Cove Marina in Riverhead, and Joseph Petrocelli, a Ronkonkoma contractor. Each has pledged $3 million to cover the $6 million cost of phase one of their project, which would be a profit-making venture.

Seaquarium Project

In July of last year, Mr. Bissett had offered to rescue the foundering Okeanos by replacing its aquarium plans with his own. At the time, Okeanos directors decided instead to stay the course - unsuccessfully, as it turned out.

Reported to have backing from the European American and Chase Manhattan Banks, the Seaquarium is a bit more "Disney" in approach, with later phases featuring "Reptile Island" and "Dino Park," the latter including a facsimile of an archeological dig.

Sharks And Polar Bears

A sand shark lagoon is also planned, a 120,000-gallon indoor shark tank, a tropical rain forest exhibit, a 400,000-gallon coral reef lagoon tank, and a 1,000-seat stadium for viewing marine mammals.

Seaquarium also plans to spread across the Peconic River to 12 acres now owned by the Goodale family. That property would be developed as a "wildlife refuge" featuring marine mammals, polar bears, and "Aviary World."

Mr. Bissett said on Monday that his group's big advantage to the town was its for-profit approach. Riverhead would receive approximately $350,000 each year in property taxes, he said, while his competitor would pay far less as a not-for-profit organization.

He said the Seaquarium also planned to turn back the $600,000 left of a grant from developers of the Tanger Mall that then could be used by the town for other infrastructure projects.

Mr. Bissett said he would like to pay the town's outstanding $2 million obligation by taking over the payments, with the final one due in 2005.

But Supervisor Villella said on Monday he would like to see the $2 million come back to the town up front. Seaquarium's competitor has promised to come up with the money and raised the stakes by deciding to float a $14 million bond, representing 100-percent financing for the $10 million first phase work plus the $2 million for the town.

In the absence of a town guarantee, Atlantic Coast has reportedly asked the Advest Corporation of Hartford, Conn., to peddle the bonds.

Two Pitches

Ken Gaul, vice president of the Atlantic Coast group, said Advest has had experience selling the aquarium "product," and was involved in a recent financing for the Mystic Aquar ium.

He said the company had put out feelers for potential buyers with promising results. As yet there was no timetable for the sale of the bonds, Mr. Gaul said.

Both groups made their pitches to the Riverhead Town Board on Dec. 10. Each calls for a modest start, but, with all phases complete, would evolve into $40 million, world-class aquariums, according to their would-be developers.

More Academic

The Atlantic Coast plans have not changed from those announced last summer and have already received favorable environmental review.

The two buildings now being used for the Riverhead Foundation's stranding operations would be renovated and an outdoor seal exhibit created. Forty all-season exhibits would fill the existing 10,000-square-foot building during the first phase build-up - about half as many as Seaquarium has promised in its first phase.

Mr. Gaul sees a far greater advantage in his group's not-for-profit approach. "It gives us more latitude; the intangibles like fund raising, endowments, and a volunteer base, and more directly there's public accountability, whereas if it's [private] schlock, it will schlock up the downtown area."

Mr. Gaul said the Atlantic Coast Aquarium would be more academically based, "collaborative with Stony Brook, Cornell, and Southampton marine programs, and with the Bay Shore aquarium if that is successful."

In Bay Shore on Tuesday, Mr. Dromerhauser said the Long Island Aquarium was deciding how best to use the valuable support of the Long Island Building Trades Council. The union group announced its commitment to the Bay Shore aquarium last summer.

"We may go to the unions and ask them for support for a bond issue, or go to them and ask for a construction loan. They use their pension fund to invest in mortgages," he said. In this case, he said, the aquarium would be an investment for the unions and put their people to work at the same time.

As for the competition, Mr. Dromerhaus er said that both Riverhead plans were different enough that he saw either one as complementary to the Long Island Aquarium, not as competition. He refused to name a preference.

"As a Long Islander, I see it as another reason for people to visit. I wish them both well."