 It is owned by Napier City Council.In addition to many fish species, exhibits include kiwi, tuatara, American alligator, turtles, little penguins and some lizards.In 1957, members of Napier's Thirty Thousand Club and the Hawke's Bay Aquarium and Water Garden Society decided to create a public aquarium with tropical fish and unusual specimens of local fish in the basement of the War Memorial Hall that was being built on Marine Parade.