Dive in to the Sydney Aquarium!

By Drew Rigefsky // 27 September 2010 // Comments: 0 // Related Categories: museums, shark, sydney, Traveller blog

The Sydney Aquarium is perhaps one of the greatest collections of marine wildlife in the world, housing fish and water mammals from around Australia and other parts of the world. I was excited to go see many different species, but I was definitely excited to go see some of my favourite creatures: seals. I also heard that the aquarium housed many different types of sharks, so I was pumped for that as well.

Located on Darling Harbour next to Wildlife World, it is a few minutes' walk from the city, allowing me to save on transportation costs instead of having to take the train, a ferry or a bus. The facility consists of a main building housing different aquariums filled with different species, and then two pavilions connected to the main building and floating in the water. These were where the big exhibits where, namely the sharks and also where the seals were supposed to be (more on that in just a second).

I found myself staring at some of the most interesting wildlife I had ever seen; Sydney's Aquarium did not disappoint on that front. Turtles with really long necks kept swimming up to the glass to look at passersby, and there were so many different types of seahorses - even a black one that looked incredibly unusual. But I was holding out my excitement for the seals...I was so excited. Alas! I came to realize that the seal exhibit that I wanted to see so much was removed, and the seals went back to Sea World in the Gold Coast. Instead, the exhibit was reopened as Mermaid Lagoon, featuring the two friendliest dugongs I had ever seen. Pig and Wuru were swimming around a giant ocean-water filled pool, happily avoiding crashing into manta rays, regal tangs (think Dory from Finding Nemo), and other cool species. These were definitely great to see, and by the time I left Mermaid Lagoon I didn't care about the seals.

The sharks didn't have an above-ground viewing spot, but the glass tunnels lining the bottom of the tank allowed us to get as close as possible to these behemoths without getting into danger. Many of these sharks are endangered, and I was glad to learn that the Sydney Aquarium is on the forefront of Australian efforts to protect these rare creatures. They also have a shark nursery, a concept I had never heard of before, and an exhibit on what creatures of the sea could look like in the future.

All in all, it was definitely worth the amount of money that I had spent getting in. Single tickets cost $39.99 which I thought was a bit ridiculous, but for just $10 more, you could get the "Explore 4 Pass" which allows me to now go to Sydney Wildlife World, the Sydney Tower, and Oceanworld in Manly, so I picked up one of those. The aquarium is great, but I can't wait to see the rest of the attractions on the pass!