Gibbons Aquaria, Inc. (GAI) was founded in 1995 by President and owner, Warren M. Gibbons. Mr. Gibbons is an experienced aquarist, fisheries biologist, aquaculture and fisheries management professional since graduating from University of Maryland (College Park) in 1985.
Gibbons Aquaria is a direct byproduct of Warren’s eleven years in the fields of marine biology, aquaculture and fisheries management, four of which were at the New England Aquarium (Boston, MA) where he managed the New England Aquarium’s Jellyfish Breeding Laboratory.
From the very beginning Gibbons had a consuming passion for saltwater ecosystem aquariums. For years, he spent practically every waking moment thinking about what it takes to create a thriving and stunningly beautiful saltwater reef tank. This was his passion, and in 1994, his dream job had come true.
At the New England Aquarium (NEAq), he maintained his passion for saltwater ecosystems by consuming every book, periodical and bit of information he could get his hands on. He attended every conference he could find (national and international) where he met with authors and gurus in the aquarium field and developed a wide network of colleagues and experts who, now, are his peers. At the New England Aquarium, he was known among his colleagues as the “go-to person” for anything pertaining to keeping live corals – and state-of-the-art filtration methods and technology of any kind. Warren was a hardcore fish nerd and proud of it.
Gibbons Aquaria’s first project came when a local family called the NEAq to find someone to install a reef tank in there home. Warren was asked if he was interested in taking on the task. He had built these aquariums a thousand times in his head and on paper and knew exactly what to do.
Within a few weeks, the family had a beautiful, thriving coral reef ecosystem aquarium in their living room. They were thrilled and so was Warren. Gibbons was in business and the word of his success was out.
Shortly afterwards, Warren was contacted by a local seafood restaurant chain to redesign and renovate 2 aquariums. The first was a 12′ 700-gallon saltwater coral ecosystem aquarium and the second, a 600-gallon freshwater flooded Amazon rainforest display. The owner was frustrated with his existing service company and asked Gibbons to identify and then fix the problem. In addition, he was asked to takeover the maintenance responsibility.
The saltwater aquarium was the first to be renovated. Within two months of design, preparation and renovation, the 700-gallon saltwater coral reef ecosystem aquarium was operating flawlessly and teeming with life. The response was dramatic and immediate. The restaurant had been inundated with complements about their aquariums. Gibbons’ customer was thrilled as people were coming into the restaurant just to see the aquariums they had heard about. Due to the uniqueness of the aquarium displays which were created and the high volume of foot traffic, the phone began to ring.
By the end of 1996 Gibbons was in business as GAI, and working at the New England Aquarium where he had been promoted to manage the Jellyfish Breeding Laboratory. The New England Aquarium’s special exhibit JELLIES was a smash hit and other public aquarium institutions were developing their own jellyfish aquarium displays. For the duration of the exhibit, he ran “Jelly Camp” – a program he designed to train husbandry staff from other public aquarium institutions around the country and the world to breed, maintain and display many species of jellyfish. This program allowed him to continue developing a wide network of contacts in the public aquarium field.
One of those contacts was building OCEANARIO DE LISBOA in Lisbon, Portugal at the WORLD EXPO ’98. They soon hired Gibbons to redesign two of their jellyfish exhibits, plus a 5,000-gallon living coral reef ecosystem aquarium, and to design a jellyfish breeding laboratory. GAI was growing, and by the fall of 1997, Gibbons decided it was time to focus 100% on GAI.
Gibbons Aquaria continued creating and installing commercial and residential Marine Ecosystems. Additionally, Warren undertook consulting contracts for public aquariums the following year for the Newport Aquarium (Newport, Kentucky) to design an entire gallery of jellyfish exhibits, and for the New England Aquarium to design and install life support for their seasonal satellite aquarium in Newport, Rhode Island. Once again, Gibbons was chosen to provide the feasibility design for the Cape Verde Aquarium’s 60,000-gallon living coral reef display.
The rapid growth of GAI was helped with additional staff. The first to join the GAI team was Gibbons’ former supervisor from the New England Aquarium. Later another aquarist from the New England Aquarium and a very accomplished professional aquarist from Sea World Australia joined the team. Gibbons Aquaria grew because it distinguished itself as a company that is able to deliver state-of-the-art, museum quality custom aquarium displays.
Leave a Reply