Aquarium of the Pacific

Have you ever wanted to get up close and personal with sharks, jellyfish or sting rays? If you have, head to the Aquarium of the Pacific which is spread over 2.5 hectares on Rainbow Harbor in Long Beach. Here you will find over 11,000 ocean animals, representing over 500 species, some of which you can actually touch.There are three major permanent galleries about the Pacific: sunny Southern California and Baja, the frigid waters of the Northern Pacific and the colourful reefs of the Tropical Pacific. The Southern California/Baja Gallery includes the impressive Honda Blue Cavern, a 646,000-litre, three-storey high exhibit which features ocean inhabitants found off the coast of Catalina Island. Look out for California’s state fish, the colourful garibaldi, giant spined sea stars and scorpion fish. Visitors flock to the 959,000-litre Seal and Sea Lion Habitat where its inhabitants ham it up for the audience, and at the Ray Touch Pool, you can interact with the aquarium's family of sting rays.In the Northern Pacific gallery, the highlights are the family of three otters and the mysterious giant Pacific octopus. The largest species of octopus in the world, these intelligent and mysterious creatures grow to over 6 metres in size and can weigh more than 45 kilos.The most colourful part of the aquarium is the Tropical Pacific gallery, where the 16 exhibits show off the incredible diversity of marine life found around the islands of Palau in Micronesia. Holding over one and a half million litres of water, Tropical Reef, the Aquarium’s largest exhibit, features over a thousand colourful fish and coral, including sea turtles, zebra and blacktip reef sharks, porcupine puffers, and a large blue Napoleon wrasse.For an extra charge, you can go on a behind-the-scenes tour. This gives you the opportunity to venture above Tropical Reef and feed the fish and you can also explore normally off-limits areas of the building and learn about how the aquarium is maintained.The aquarium is open from 9 am – 6 pm every day, except Christmas Day and during the Grand Prix of Long Beach. There is plenty of parking and public transport options to the Transit Mall in downtown Long Beach, which is a 10 minute walk to the Aquarium.