Saudi Adventures 3.0

The first two weeks of 2026 took us back to Saudi Arabia for our third visit – and our second collections trip – for what is shaping up to be a truly remarkable new aquarium focused on coral conservation and restoration.

Watching this project come together has been immensely rewarding, and with construction now very close to the finish line, the scale of what’s being built is impossible to ignore. One of the highlights was visiting the main exhibit, right on the edge of the Red Sea, and seeing the fish we collected back in October doing exactly what we hoped they would do: thriving, growing, and settling beautifully into their new, spacious home. Surrounded by stunning captive-bred corals, impressive engineering solutions, and a highly motivated team, this project continues to raise the bar at every turn.

This particular trip didn’t quite deliver the collections output we had originally planned, largely due to a few permitting details that still needed ironing out – but those wheels are already in motion. More importantly, the visit gave us the opportunity to fine-tune our strategy, adjust a few key details, and put a solid, realistic plan in place. With another collections trip just days away, we’re feeling energized, aligned, and very confident that the next round will be our most productive yet. We’re proud to be part of a project of this magnitude, and genuinely excited about what lies ahead.