Does this exhibit still feature one of the world's largest viewing panels? Is it actually the largest? Of the 120+ species in the tank, which ones are the marquee animals? Would it be the manta rays and sawfish? Last question: is the room carpeted?
Does this exhibit still feature one of the world's largest viewing panels? Is it actually the largest? Of the 120+ species in the tank, which ones are the marquee animals? Would it be the manta rays and sawfish? Last question: is the room carpeted?
Certainly one of the largest; I believe it's now second to China's Chimelong Ocean Kingdom.
The mantas are the marquee animals, but I think the tank itself is the star, rather than any particular inhabitants. It's not my favourite of the major tanks, but still pretty impressive.
SEA Aquarium is very impressive and well worth a visit, but strictly speaking it now has the third largest viewing window, as Chengdu's Cube Aquarium took the record from Chimelong (both opened in 2014, but Chimelong a few months earlier and therefore had the record for a short time). Anyway, the differences between the three top spots are rather marginal and I doubt many people would be able to say which is largest without direct comparison: Cube 39.97 m long, Chimelong 39.6 m long and SEA Aquarium 36 m long. There's a much larger "jump" down to the fourth place, the 22.5 m long at Okinawa Churaumi, followed by Georgia's at c. 18.5.
EDIT: Forgot Dubai Aquarium with a 32.8 m long viewing window. In case people wonder, the windows at Cube, Chimelong, S.E.A. and Dubai are all c. 8.3 m tall, with the others slightly lower.
SEA Aquarium is very impressive and well worth a visit, but strictly speaking it now has the third largest viewing window, as Chengdu's Cube Aquarium took the record from Chimelong (both opened in 2015, but Chimelong a few months earlier and therefore had the record for a short time). Anyway, the differences between the three top spots are rather marginal and I doubt many people would be able to say which is largest without direct comparison: Cube 39.97 m long, Chimelong 39.6 m long and SEA Aquarium 36 m long. There's a much larger "jump" down to the fourth place, the 22.5 m long at Okinawa Churaumi (Georgia's slightly smaller at c. 18.5).
The numbers in my previous post, essentially matching yours, are the ones provided by the aquariums themselves. With the exception of Georgia, all have been confirmed by Guinness World Records. However, Georgia only provides size in feet and it appears I made a small conversion mistake: 63 ft = 19.2 m (not 18.5 m). I'm pretty sure there are no other contenders at present: Okinawa held the record from 2002 to 2008 (size confirmed by Guinness), taken by Dubai in 2008 (size confirmed by Guinness; at same time Georgia changed from calling theirs 2nd largest to 3rd largest, but they've not updated since and in some places they still use 2nd), then S.E.A. in 2012 (size confirmed by Guinness), then Chimelong in early 2014 (size confirmed by Guinness) and finally Cube in late 2014 (size confirmed by Guinness).
It is probably only a case of rounding up/down and it is reasonable to assume the numbers provided by Georgia itself are most accurate. The differences between the two are rather marginal and in any case the position compared to windows at other aquariums is the same. As mentioned in my previous post, the first four on the list are 8.3 m high and Okinawa is 8.2.
