Aquarium of the Pacific

100 Aquarium Way, Long Beach, CA 90802, USA

Address:	100 Aquarium Way, Long Beach, CA 90802, USA
Phone:	+1 562-590-3100
Site:	aquariumofpacific.org
Rating:	4.5
Working:	9AM–6PM 9AM–6PM 9AM–6PM 9AM–6PM 9AM–6PM 9AM–6PM 9AM–6PM

Location

Photos 100

Reviews 4

Chelsea Madren

Aquarium of the Pacific is conveniently located right off of Shoreline Drive in Long Beach. The building itself takes the shapes of the waves and sea in the architecture. Once you enter, the main hall greets you with entrances to the various exhibit areas and a 3-story window view into the Blue Cavern. In the morning, divers clean the glass and rocks inside the exhibits as the groupers and other fish curiously swim around them. * Travel tip for the kids: The Aquarium guide book has a scavenger hunt in it. In each gallery and exhibit, the kids can collect stamps. Its a great educational souvenir. Jellies are fascinating and they have their own experience at the Aquarium of the Pacific. Moon Jellies are a favorite. You can even touch these in a special touch pool inside the exhibit. Other jellies you might see are Umbrella Jelly, Japanese Sea Nettle, Unside-down Jelly, Comb Jelly, Purple-striped Jelly, Lagoon Jelly, Pacific Sea Nettle, Indonesian Sea Nettle, and Flower Hat Jelly. Southern California / Baja Gallery has 18 exhibits featuring animals ranging from Oregon to Mexico. Sea lions and seals can be seen both below and above water, swimming and playing. One of the younger sea lions can actually see through the underwater plexiglass and will come up to the glass to check you out. The Ray Touch Pool is available for adults and children alike. Using the two-finger touch method, you can touch rays and small sharks in these shallow pools. They feel like slimy velvet. Shorebird Sanctuary has a few wetland birds like Black-necked Stilts, Black-bellied Plovers, Western Snowy Plovers, Killdeer, and Ruddy Ducks. A new exhibit is the Southern California Steelhead Story. The Southern California Steelhead is part of the salmon family and reproduces in Southern California streams. Just like other salmon, they travel up and down the local rivers to spawn and return to the ocean. In 1997, this fish was listed on the endangered species list. The Southern California Steelhead is also an indicator fish, meaning that their survival depends on a healthy ecosystem. The exhibit shows the growth process of the steelhead and how we can help to maintain a healthy ecosystem for all of us. June Keyes Penguin Habitat is outside near the Shorebird Sanctuary. The penguins love to play and a few of them will swim right up to you along the glass and pose for some awesome photos. Northern Pacific Gallery explores the habitats found in Alaska, Siberia, the Bering Strait, and the Aleutian Islands. You can view more jellies along with puffins, and a touch pool with starfish, sea anemones, and sea urchins. If you time it just right, you can watch the trainers work with the sea otters. Some of it is playing but a lot of it has meaning behind it, like checking eye health and general health examinations. They are so cute and playful. After the trainers left, they were all rolling around and crunching on ice piles inside the enclosure. The Tropical Pacific Gallery is home to over a thousand colorful fish and sea turtles. If you happen upon the Mandarin Fish, it will take a liking to your camera lens and pose for you. There is also an observation tube that passes through the Aquariums large 350,000 gallon tank. You can see sharks, sea turtles, and the underbelly of large rays as they swim over you. Iridescent anemones that look like night lights set the exhibit aglow along with more jellies whirling around in circles.

Bruce

In addition to visiting this attraction, we also toured the Queen Mary Museum which is anchored in Long Beach Harbor and close to the Aquarium of the Pacific. Anytime we visit the many aquariums from Hawaii to the numerous ones here on the "mainland" we are always excited to see the exhibits and its inhabitants. We enriched our childrens curiosity and knowledge base with exhibits to the inhabitants of the Pacific Ocean which comprises of three major permanent galleries, sunny Southern California and Baja, the frigid waters of the Northern Pacific and the colorful reefs of the Tropical Pacific. Our kids were mesmerized at the 142,000 gallon, three-story Blue Cavern tank, which houses animals that live in the waters surrounding nearby Catalina Island. I got a kick out of viewing the "Amber Forest exhibit," which replicates a Giant kelp forest with Garibaldi, California scorpion fish, and other representative organisms. We were equally fascinated with viewing their 211,000 gallon, Seal and Sea Lion Habitat, Ray Touch Pool, and Shorebird Sanctuary. In the Northern Pacific we observed the Sea Otter Habitat, a giant Pacific octopus tank; and Diving Birds, where puffins and auklets live. Other species on display included the Japanese spider crabs, jellyfish, and sea anemones. At the Tropical Pacific Gallery, which represent animals off the coast of the islands of Palau and has the aquariums largest tank (350,000 gallon Tropical Reef Habitat). This tank houses the olive Ridley Sea Turtles, Zebra Sharks, Black tip Reef Sharks, to name just a few. I think one of our favorite exhibits was the Shark Lagoon, where there were over 100 sharks and rays. The main tank houses larger species such as rays, white tip reef sharks, nurse sharks, and sand tiger sharks, while the more docile Bamboo and epaulette sharks live in the three touch pools. Im not sure of the exact order, but after lunch and numerous other exhibits, running in and out of the souvenir shops, cafeteria, etc., I can say that we all enjoyed a great time here at this attraction.

Jay G

A great aquarium to visit. My family went shortly after opening time and the area was not crowded at all. Some of the employees in the beginning were not the greatest information or first impressions, they didnt even tell even try to hand us the little brochure or explain that there are imprint stations throughout the aquarium where you could get the corner pages imprinted with that local animal symbol, and the guy at the podium with the brochures looked like he got bothered when I took one them from his nicely filled stacks. There were several areas setup around the aquarium where the employees were doing exhibits and stuff but no one offered to show or explain any of it unless we walked up to them to ask them what they were standing there for... But after that first impressions area the overall experience was great, the manta ray and shark touch pools were very fun to experience. The lorikeet aviary was a fun area to walk through, the birds love to land on anyone that is there, especially is you buy one of the expensive tiny little cups of the drink mix for the birds, but the entrance fee for the aquarium was very reasonable to compensate. The different trainers and staff in the tanks and exhibits were great at their jobs and very informative and interactive with the audience. Once the school/camp groups showed up those little hallways were extremely crowded, the supervisors for the kids were greatly outnumbered and in no way in control of the kids and my family felt like it was time to leave by then.

Joseph Darling

I always heard how awesome the AotP was from my SoCal friends and how disappointing it was from my NorCal friends. I finally had to see for myself if AotP was indeed awesome. The exhibits were pretty with their tropical fish. I enjoyed the otters a lot! The jellyfish are always my favorite and it was cool to get the underside view of the seals and sea lion. The shark tank was cool, but to me the tank looked too small and the tails of the sting rays looked so sad. I was impressed by the huge crabs that looked really old. The lorikeets were my favorite part! I was not initially sold on going to feed the lorikeets. We got there right before it opened and I thought the nectar prices were pretty expensive. I bought two anyway and braved the cage. Right when I walked in, I was swarmed. I had one on each shoulder and one on my head. I would have had more, but I ducked out of the way of the possible fourth bird. They were hungry, friendly, and kept pecking at my shirt. Overall, its a good aquarium. There are a couple things that made me sad. The air circulation was not great because the glass on the exhibits would fog up. A couple of times, I saw hands reaching into tanks to clean them. That freaked me out, especially when it looked like they were using a Mr. Clean magic eraser. There also did not seem to be as much edutainment compared to the MBA. I am a NorCal person, so I do love the Monterey Bay Aquarium, but AotP is not bad. When they make the expansions, I cant wait to go again.