As spokeswoman Melissa Lee moved through the Audubon Aquarium of Americas pointing out the freshly restocked Gulf of Mexico exhibit, she paused and fell silent.It's so quiet in here, she said as a large sand shark glided past her head, its partially open mouth exposing a mash of crooked teeth.Normally with all the children it's so loud you have to shout to be heard. That's what we all really miss, seeing and hearing the kids. But for the first time in a long time we know for certain that there'll be children in here again.After nearly nine months and $3.5 million in repairs, the Aquarium of the Americas and the Entergy Imax Theater will reopen at noon Friday. On the Monday before the reopening, a chartered Federal Express plane arriving from Monterrey, Calif., will land in New Orleans at 2 p.m. The passengers are the aquarium's guests of honor and returning heroes - the 19 penguins and two sea otters that survived Hurricane Katrina.I've had people from all over the country e-mail and call me and they all want to know what happened to the penguins and otters, Lee said. When I was in Panama City, (Fla.), after evacuating, a man came up to me in a Kmart, asked if I worked at the aquarium because of a hat I was wearing, and said his daughter has been hysterical since the hurricane wondering how the penguins are and I told him that they had been safely evacuated.

Animal lossesMost Audubon animals were not so lucky.When the levees broke, the Audubon Institute instructed the staff that had stayed behind at the aquarium to leave the city. They were gone only three days but it was time enough for tragedy.A fuel line clogged in the backup generators, which decreased power and affected water quality in the tanks. By the time the staff returned on Friday following Katrina, more than 6,000 animals - nearly the entire collection - had died.It was absolutely heartbreaking for the staff to have to leave the animals and more heartbreaking for them to return, said Karen Noles Bewley, managing director of the Aquarium. I'll never forget the moment I talked to John Hewitt, our director of husbandry. The devastation in his voice, I could feel it.The only animals that survived were the penguins, otters, sea turtles, sea dragons, the white alligator, a handful of saltwater fish, the bird collection and the tarpon, which can breathe by gulping air.Though the pain of the staff was immense, their desire to restore the aquarium was even greater. They began cleaning the facility and repairing minor roof damage. By Jan. 1 the aquarium was ready to begin repopulating its tanks. The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago called to offer a boat, their captain and crew, which facilitated a trip to the Bahamas to begin collecting new animals. Ripley's Aquarium in Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Sea World in Orlando, Fla.; and the New England Aquarium in Boston, among others, donated fish from their own exhibits, including sharks and stingrays.Meanwhile, empty fish bowls appeared at the entrances of zoos and aquariums from California to New York asking for donations to help the Aquarium of the Americas. Visitors dropped nickels, dimes and dollars into the bowls and more than $1 million was raised in a short time.Kids all over the country held lemonade sales, Lee said. They gave us their allowances and birthday and Christmas money. People who had never even stepped foot in this building came forward to help us.

New fishBy the time the aquarium reopens, nearly the entire collection will have been replaced, said Bewley.We believe the reopening of our facility is so important to the recovery of New Orleans and gives people hope that one day things will be back to normal, said Bewley. The aquarium budget fell 49 percent from $17.6 million last year to $9 million.Ron Forman, president and CEO of the Audubon Nature Institute, said the reopening feels like its original opening 15 years ago.Back then it was a chance to build an economic engine for the city and create jobs, Forman said. The opening of the aquarium this time is similar because we have a lot of small businesses downtown and throughout city that need tourists in town. We need to jumpstart this community by opening facilities like the aquarium, getting families back in town and creating foot traffic.The aquarium is the top family attraction in New Orleans averaging more than 900,000 annual visitors. It's followed by the Audubon Zoo with 800,000 visitors and the Imax Theater with 425,000.Before Katrina the aquarium employed 267 full- and part- time staff members. It now has 65 people on staff and hopes to bring on another 50 before opening day. Despite the shortage, it will operate approximately the same hours from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, instead of 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.