Fishing Hall of Fame Museum to bid farewell to Dania Beach, Florida
By Susannah Bryan / Sun Sentinel
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his maritime museum is weighing anchor and setting sail — all the way to the backwaters of Missouri.
The Fishing Hall of Fame and Museum, housed in a distinctive, steel-sheathed building along Interstate 95, will soon leave Dania Beach, Florida for new digs in Springfield, Missouri.
But the 30-foot leaping swordfish, so visible to passing motorists, is here to stay.
The hall of fame and museum has been nestled against Bass Pro Shops, west of I-95 and south of Griffin Road for 16 years. It’s operated by the International Game Fish Association, and honors famous anglers, novelists Ernest Hemingway and Zane Grey among them.
But the $32 million museum couldn’t reel in enough visitors, even in fish-crazy South Florida. So it’s splitting from the IGFA and hooking up with a wildlife attraction in Missouri.
Dania Beach Mayor Marco Salvino was surprised by the new locale.
“Missouri?” he said. “They don’t even have saltwater fishing in Missouri.”
While the museum is moving, the IGFA and its impressive library, which boasts the world’s largest collection of fishing films, photos and publications on recreational fishing, is staying.
“A lot of people think we are closing up the building and moving it to the center of the country. And we’re not,” said Rob Kramer, IGFA president.
The non-profit’s headquarters will continue to operate from the building’s third floor even after the museum, which occupied the first floor, moves out. An exact moving date will be released in mid-April, Kramer said.
Heading to Missouri.
The museum opened to much fanfare in 1999, but failed to draw huge crowds despite inhabiting a spot next to the popular Bass Pro Shops. IGFA officials said the museum lures about 25,000 visitors a year here.
“The place is a bit boring, to be honest,” Salvino said. “We don’t have a lot of support in South Florida for museums. Up north you get a lot more loyalty for things.”
In Springfield, the hall of fame and museum is expected to pull in a million visitors a year. It will become part of a mammoth attraction being built by Johnny Morris, founder of Missouri-based Bass Pro Shops. Dubbed America’s Wildlife Museum and Aquarium, the $100 million destination is expected to open in spring 2016.
The museum and aquarium will showcase 35,000 fish, mammals, reptiles and birds and include several exhibits, including a two-story saltwater tank filled with live ocean fish; a hands-on saltwater tank where visitors can touch and feed stingrays; a flooded rain forest; catfish and turtle feeding pools; a large living coral tank; a bird aviary and nocturnal swamp.
“For us, it’s an opportunity to increase the exposure for our Hall of Fame and exhibits by forty-fold,” Kramer said. “That’s another reason we are making the move.”
The giant swordfish outside the Fishing Hall of Fame and Museum in Dania Beach will stay behind when the museum leaves for new digs in Missouri.
