A Visit to the Georgia Aquarium

The week before the boys went back to school, we decided to have a couple of day adventures so the day following our trip to the Atlanta Zoo, we went to the Georgia Aquarium. It had been several years since our last visit so we were excited to go back. Admission is $36.95 for ages 3 and up but it does include the different shows and 4D theater. I originally just bought our tickets (with timed entry) but while we were there I decided to go ahead and get the family year membership since I figured I could take my brother and family as well as at least go a few times during the year. Just going twice makes up for the price of the family membership. The membership is only for 4 people so I added an extra person and it came with 2 guest passes. With the membership, you do not have to worry about timed entry which is a plus: we ended up being stuck in traffic on the way there and our ride took 2 hours instead of 45 minutes! Thankfully the timed entry has a 1 hour window.

Ocean Voyager Exhibit

One of the impressive things at the Georgia aquarium is the size of the tanks. The Ocean Voyager tank that holds the whale sharks and a multitude of other fish is 6.3 million gallons of water! It holds several thousands of fish. It started with 4 whale sharks with 2 now. The aquarium opened in 2005 and I remember going there when it first opened.

We love sitting in front of this tank and see the whale shark, manta ray (and other rays) and fish go round. The manta ray is so large! There is a stadium type seating area with 3 or 4 rows of seats. In the 2 pictures above you can see the plastic partitions that are now placed in front of the glass. This was nice as the aquarium was busy and it gave families some space to sit/stand right up close. Masks were required and enforced throughout the aquarium. With the number of people there, I was very glad that they enforced that rule.

You arrive at this tank by going in and 100 ft underwater acrylic tunnel. This was the one part of the aquarium that made me feel uncomfortable covid wise, just a lot of people in that space. Below is a view from the tunnel: it is pretty neat to see the animals from under.

I always feel like the rays are a little creepy from underside: beautiful from above, strange from below.

Shark Exhibit

The Sharks! Predators of the Deep is the newest gallery (2020). We spent some time admiring the different sharks (hammerhead, sand tiger, tiger, silvertip, zebra sharks).

I really tried to get a picture of the hammerhead sharks but they all came out blurry. One thing we really enjoyed in this area was an interactive station that allowed you to manipulate a shark: the views could be turned 360 degrees, you could choose to see the skeleton or the muscles or organs of the shark.

This was really neat! We actually spent more time manipulating the shark than looking at the actual sharks I think!

Some of our favorites

Jellyfish are just amazing creatures! Here are some of my favorite shots.

Everyone’s favorite was the dolphin show! Photography was not allowed but just take my word for it: the show was awesome. We sat in the front row on the side so we did get wet but not soaked to the core as the two guys in the front row center. The Sea Lion show was pretty good too!

We managed to capture a dolphin in the background! We also really liked the belugas (in a 800,000 gallon tank) and the eel.

I did not take any pictures in the Tropical Diver nor the Cold Water Quest nor the River scouts exhibits. As you can tell from these descriptions this is a very large aquarium! Below is the one picture I took in front of the Tropical Diver Tank: you can see a couple colorful fish. The reef habitat is made of 30-35% live coral.

I did take a picture of the sea dragons!

And the potbellied seahorse:

Another new area was on the 2nd floor: the Aquanaut Adventure whish had some smaller exhibits with hands on activities. We were able to have a peek at the top of the Ocean Voyager tank and see them feeding the whale shark.

We also were able to see the River Scout exhibit from above which was kind of neat.

I sure like ocean animals much better behind glass than encountering them in the ocean itself: I am glad we are able to learn and observe these creatures in aquariums. I know a lot of them devote themselves to research and many of their mamals are rescued such as the sea lions and dolphins.

So if you are in Atlanta: take the time to visit the Georgia Aquarium! Parking was $17 for 4 hours in a covered parking lot right next to it. Of course, you can probably find parking for about $10 a little further. You cannot bring food inside the aquarium but there are one or two restaurants in it. We brought our lunch and returned to our car to eat. It was actually a great idea as the lighting in the aquarium makes you think of a casino and is not natural light: a break was welcomed!

A bientôt!

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