Public Aquarium

A public aquarium is an establishment open to the public for the observation of the watery species in Aquarium S. Certain aquariums specialized in the presentation of fresh water species, others in the exhibition of sea water species. A public aquarium can be also part of zoological garden or scientific Musée (oceanographical museum, Muséum of Natural history,…).

General information

The public aquariums developed on the same model: galleries of basins of variable size, designed like windows open on the watery world. The majority of the public aquariums comprise a certain number of small tanks and one or more larger basins. The largest basins can contain several million liters of water and can place great species, like the Dauphin S, the Requin S or the Baleine S. Of the aquatic animals and semi-watery, like the Otarie S and the Pingouin S, can also be maintained by the public aquariums.

Description

Technically, a public aquarium is similar to a zoo or a Musée. A good aquarium will have special and temporary exposures to attract the visitors, as well as a permanent collection. Moreover as for the zoos, the aquariums have usually researchers who study the practices and the biology of their specimens. These last years, the large aquariums had tried to acquire and to increase the various fish species of the oceans, as well as jellyfish S, a difficult task since these creatures do not have the concept of limits like the walls of a tank and do not have thus the Instinct to circumvent them.

Certain public aquariums have tactile basins (where the visitors can cherish the skin of the fish which pass in front of them) which constitute the watery version of a “zoo for children”.

A public aquarium can contain a Delphinarium.

History

The first public aquarium opened with Regent' S Park with London in 1853. Phineas Taylor Barnum quickly followed with the first American aquarium, opened in 1856 on Broadway with New York. Then from many cities the same examples followed, to Europe and America, and had then their public aquariums.

in Europe : Concarneau ( Marinarium , 1859), Paris ( Zoological gardens , 1861), Hamburg (1864-1930), Arcachon (1865), Berlin (1869), London ( Hook De luxe hotel , 1871), Blackpool (1872), Brighton (1872), Naples (1874), Frankfurt on the Hand (1877), Paris ( Trocadéro , 1878-1985), Amsterdam ( Artis , 1882), Banyuls on Sea (1882), Plymouth (1888-1998), Lisbon (1898);
in America : Boston ( Acquarial Gardens , 1859), Washington ( National Aquarium , 1873), San Francisco ( Woodward' S Garden , 1873-1890), Wood Hole ( Science Aquarium , 1885), New York ( Battery Park , 1896-1941), La Jolla ( Scripps , 1903), Strait ( Beautiful Isle , 1904-2005), Honolulu ( Waikiki Aquarium , 1904), Philadelphia ( Fairmount Toilets Works , 1911-1962), San Francisco ( Steinhart Aquarium , 1923), Chicago ( Shedd Aquarium , 1929).

The majority of the public aquariums are located close to the Océan, for a regular supply natural sea water. A pionnière city was Chicago which received sea water embarked by the railroads in special coaches.

The important public aquariums are often affiliated with oceanographical establishments of research or undertake their research personal programs and often are specialized for a species or an ecosystem. Thus, it is that of the Oceanographical Institut of Monaco, open in 1910, which one can regard as the first modern scientific aquarium.

Principal aquariums of the world

Europe counts prestigious aquariums, like Germany with those of Berlin, of Stuttgart or of Düsseldorf, Spain with Oceanogràphic with Valence or Portugal with Oceanário in Lisbon. But, it is in the United States and Japan where the large spectacular aquariums are met.