Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Macduff Aquarium gets refilled after revamp

Macduff Marine Aquarium.
Macduff Marine Aquarium.

There is water back in the aquarium – and light at the end of the tunnel.

A north-east visitor attraction is one step closer to re-launching after workers flushed sea water back into its main holding tank.

Macduff Marine Aquarium has been closed for all of the summer holidays as efforts continue to refit the popular tourist attraction after 20 years of service.

And although staff have had to turn away visitors to the port this season, the attraction’s manager has said that workers are finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

Claire Matthews was on-hand yesterday as water was pumped back into the aquarium in preparation for the return of sea life.

She said: “We’re thrilled to see water going back in it again today.

“The water had to be pumped from the sea, up and over the roof and straight into the tank. We had a huge pump doing the job – and it still took over five hours to fill with 400,000 litres. The water will take a few days to settle out and we’ll get it circulating around our filtration systems to clear it up.

“Next week the aquarium’s dive team will be out collecting kelp and will dress the tank with seaweeds, creating the perfect environment for the fish to move back into.

“It’s been a mammoth project so far and everyone working on it has put in a huge effort, but we’re beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

It is hoped that visitor numbers to the aquarium will spike over the next three years following the refurbishment.

The local authority’s head of lifelong leisure and learning, John Harding, said the 12-week closure would cause a “hiccough” and drop in visitors this year, but anticipated footfall to continually increase from when the doors reopen at the end of the summer.

In the past 12 months 51,298 visitors have toured the aquarium.

And Mr Harding and his team anticipate the annual numbers can be boosted to 56,000 by 2020.