AN £800,000 ADDITION to Torquay's coastal zoo at Living

Coasts has opened.

Torquay is now home to an underground forest, venomous fish

and dinosaur crabs thanks to the major new development funded

by the Regional Development Agency.

Jungle explorer Indiana Jones, in the form of a professional

actor — but not Harrison Ford — dodged giant boulders and

escaped poisonous snakes at the launch yesterday.

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And tomorrow Living Coasts chiefs will be sitting down to

decide what new attractions will be added next year.

Underground and previously under-used parts of Living Coasts

have been transformed with new exhibits, new species and the

latest technology.

Among the new animals are poisonous blue-spotted rays,

upside-down jellyfish and horseshoe crab.

Visitors leave the open air exhibits of penguins and fur

seals to plunge into a mangrove forest exhibit and fish

tanks.

Living Coasts director Elaine Hayes said: “The ramp takes

visitors from the top of the canopy, featuring firefly, bat and

proboscis monkey models and sound and lighting effects, down

into an underworld of roots and foliage.

“The visitor is immersed in the mangroves, exploring the

swamp and discovering exotic species.

“We have focused on mangroves because they are delicate,

complex, dynamic ecosystems.

“The destruction of mangroves has been dramatic, caused by

over-exploitation, human development and pollution.”

She said the devastating cyclone in Burma which claimed more

than 20,000 lives earlier this year would have been far less

destructive had not the natural barrier of mangrove been

destroyed to make way for development.

Mangroves have been described as the roots of the sea. They

are found in places as diverse as Bangladesh, Florida, the

Philippines, Thailand, Guyana and Sri Lanka.

Living Coasts, a registered charity, received a grant of

£800,000 from the Regional Development Agency to support the

work.

Ms Hayes said the planned developments will continue until

March 2009 – and the theme of constant change in the future

means that Living Coasts will have something new every year to

bring people back.

She said the meeting tomorrow is to thrash out what sort of

new species and attractions to bring to the site at Torquay

harbour-side.

It could be new mammal species, a new species of penguin, or

even a UK coastal exhibit which could feature sea-horses.

“That is what the meeting is about, to decide what we can

have, so that everyone agrees.”