It’s been far, far too long since my last blog post. It’s not that I’m short of ideas – quite the opposite – more that other things take precedence, like work, kids, donkeys (more about that soon).
So coming back with a blast, here is Scribbler in Seville on the city’s newest visitor attraction: the Aquarium.
Situated, appropriately enough, by the river, it opened last week, and I had a look around with all the other local press. The aquarium has 7,000 animals, from tiny fish to sharks, both freshwater and marine.
Taking the round-the-world voyage of Magellan, which departed from Seville in 1519, as its theme, the place takes us on our own journey from the waters of the Guadalquivir, via the Canary Islands, to the Amazon. At the oficial opening which I attended, we were also shown a video about the transportation of the star attraction, Margarita the bull shark (how fitting for Seville), from her previous home in Portugal.
The 400 species are well displayed in 35 tanks, although if you’re used to large-scale aquaria like the London one, this is small by comparison. I also think it’s somewhat overpriced, at 15 euros for adults and 10 euros for children. That said, it is fun, educational and interesting – information about each species in a tank is shown on small LCD displays for a few seconds, so if you spot something you like, you have to wait for it to come round again. Here are some inhabitants.
There’s one area, calle Touch Touch (sounds better in Spanish: Toca Toca), where you can, guess what, (very gently) feel the creatures – including sea cucumbers, starfish and sea urchins.
In the “nursery” you can see roe of skate, and egg cases.
But the main attraction of the Aquarium is the massive Oceanarium, nine metres deep and one of the largest shark tanks in Europe containing two female bull sharks, one of which is called Margarita, as well as tuna, grouper and mackerel. You can walk right underneath this tank, though the tunnel, as well as seeing it through many different windows.
One of my favourite features in any aquarium is the brightly-coloured tropical fish, which you can see in the Tropical Cove and Coral Reefs. Striped, spotted,
The non-fish inhabitants include anacondas (large aquatic snakes) and caimans (small crocodiles), but personally I don’t much care for them. Turtles, however, are wonderful animals. The Aquarium has a turtle recovery programme which will see the reptiles released into the wild in Almeria’s Cabo de Gata.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, the Aquarium is situated by the river, on Calle Santiago Montoro. This is close to the Puente Delicias, with the entrance off the roundabout by the 1929 Expo Pavilions of Morocco and Colombia, which sit on the corner Avenida de la Palmera and Avenida de las Razas.
Entrance prices are 15 euros for adults and 10 euros for children, disabled and OAPs. Opening hours in October are 10am-8pm Monday to Thursday and 10am-9pm Friday to Sunday. For more information see acuariosevilla.es
I struggle a bit with the idea of zoos and aquariums, but there is no doubt that kids love them and they are a great rainy day option as well as educational. We used to be regular visitors to the Alumñécar aquarium. It’s also great to hear about recovery programme for the turtles. Great turtle shot by the way!
Agree with you, cages and tanks aren’t really my bag either, but I guess there’s always the conservation angle. That’s one of the reasons why I didn’t put the caimán picture in there, as they were all squished up in a corner of their tank, which I found a bit alarming. The turtle was way easier to photograph than a constantly wiggling fish!!
Great shot of the turtle! I always struggle with snaps at the zoo/aquarium. Great place for a day out!
Thanks Josh 🙂 I still want to go to the Science Park in Granada.
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Welcome back! Looks like a great aquarium! Sea urchins are so beautiful aren’t they? 🙂
Thanks Emma! Lots of lovely and fascinating beasties, such as the sea urchins, but I missed seeing the jellyfish with UV lights which they have at the London Aquarium.
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