The Deep The world's 2nd best aquarium, really?

Lists like these about the "best" zoos and aquariums pop up with some frequency in the U.S., usually on travel websites. They often have really weird "rankings" based on no discernible logic other than maybe a chamber of commerce or tourism office in a given city is paying to publicize their facility in the list. As a result the list often is full of obscure zoos that nobody would usually consider a destination.

From a professional perspective of aquarium people and probably from a majority of zoo and aquarium nerds the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Shedd Aquarium in Chicago would be at the top of the best of aquariums in the world. Other than the spectacular whale shark-manta ray tank the Georgia Aquarium does not seem to be all that well respected.
 
Last edited:
I'm struggling with the quote, "3,500 different kinds of sea animals and creatures" myself (unless maybe they're extreme "splitters" or including life down to a nano level:D).
 
#1 - Dubai: it has a mammoth introductory tank but after that it is apparently not world-class at all. "America's Best Zoos" co-author Allen Nyhuis was just there last year and he gave me a full report.

#2 - The Deep: really? Is this list a bizarre joke?

#3 - Georgia: the Ocean Voyager tank on its own is better than most entire aquariums, plus there are beluga whales, dolphins, sea otters and thousands of other critters and thus it deservedly places very high.

#4 - Aquadom (Berlin): a single spectacular, gimmicky tank.

#5 - Turkauzoo: only 4 years old but also only 30 exhibits in total.

#6 - Valencia: Europe's best aquarium? Quite possibly true!

#7 - Monterey Bay Aquarium: This establishment should be higher on the list.

#8 - Shanghai Ocean Aquarium: I admit that I don't know much about this place.

#9 - uShaka Marine World: seriously?

#10 - Okinawa Churaumi: renowned as being a great facility.

No Lisbon Aquarium? I know a seasoned zoo traveler who claims that of the 700+ facilities that he's visited the #1 aquarium on the planet is Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. Of the 45-50 aquariums that I've been to I'd have to also say that Shedd would be #1 and it didn't even make the list. Bah humbug!
 
I wouldn't give much authority to this list at all. From my recent experience, both the Deep and Turkuazoo shouldn't be on there, and there are several glaring omissions. Clearly just another travel-blog-style list.
I'm pretty sure Turkuazoo has more than just 30 exhibits though.
 
I suppose SEA Aquarium in Singapore is still fairly new and unfamiliar to many, but the article writer really should have verified facts. Dubai Aquarium had the biggest acrylic panel until SEA Aquarium opened in December 2012; the latter's viewing panel has been certified by Guinness World Records as the largest. In fact SEA Aquarium also lays claim to Guiness certification as the "world's largest aquarium", although I have no idea what criteria was used (size? water volume? number of species?).

And I agree with snowleopard, any top 10 list of aquariums that omits Shedd and Lisbon looses all credibility.
 
Snowleopard said it perfectly: humbug! (Funny that this word also exist in German with the same meaning).
 
Wow!Too big a subject to comment on in detail, but ive been to Dubai Aquarium(3 years ago) and unless they've got Giant Squid now I wouldn't place it in my top 50 aquariums!- perhaps "those in the know" shouldn't rise to these things as they are not done for the likes of ourselves.Interestingly,as I visit Berlin at least once a year, just this weekend i made my first visit to the Aquadom after years of boycotting the place due to their competing with the wonderful aquarium in the zoo (which had SeaLifes flyers in a rack,hence my turnaround).Ive got to say its rather impressive and certainly unique,although going up and down through the middle is not conducive to species spotting.As you might imagine my friends and I were the only ones to go and check out the many labels on the adjacent wall.The SeaLife it belongs to is across the street-I don't know whether the pirates room in there is worse than Blankenberges jellyfish disco or not...and you wonder why I boycotted it for so long?
 
Last edited:
Which one the Best Aquarium of the World ? A very good question only one Person in the world is able to answer it-the Person, who has already seen ALL extisting Aquariums in the World !

By the way- the best Aquarium in the World is defenitely Churaumi Aquarium Okinawa-it has the best Quality in animal welware in the visitors area AND behind the Scenes, which makes that place defenitley to the Best Aquarium in the World !
 
@Bib Fortuna: So you have been to ALL Aquariums in the world - congratulations:)

To be serious: It will allways be a matter of personal taste, say, if you prefere huge tanks, a huge collection, rarities, special animals like big sharks or deep sea fishes, architecture, immersion exhibits and/or - of course and as you mentioned - animal welfare. The last is a basic that is valid from ant to...hmh, say: Zebraduiker.
 
zoomaniac said:
@Bib Fortuna: So you have been to ALL Aquariums in the world - congratulations:)

To be serious: It will allways be a matter of personal taste, say, if you prefere huge tanks, a huge collection, rarities, special animals like big sharks or deep sea fishes, architecture, immersion exhibits and/or - of course and as you mentioned - animal welfare. The last is a basic that is valid from ant to...hmh, say: Zebraduiker.
Click to expand...

Of Course and( maybe unfortuantely) not...:)Unfortunately all Aquariums are to diffrent, to compare them to each other ( with the exception of Sealife-you've seen one, you know all:):)Bad Example-Sealife has so much do do with an aquarium like Mc Donalds with a Restaurant.

Of Course it is always the matter of personal view, but my opinion is:There is no best zoo neither a best Aquarium-you know, all of them have their good sides and bad sides, but whats makes a zoo or an Aquarium the best ?

For some People surely the"Collection"...but I don't want to start that discussion again.You want what I mean.

By the way-as you know , I hate Zoo Rankings-they all, including Sherdians Book,( waht makes him a"Zoo expert", by the way ? As far as I know, he never worked in zoo, did he ? ) say absoulty NOTHING about the Quality of a Zoo or an Aquarium.

So within the countless Zoos, Aquariums , etc., i've been to,there is no best zoo or best Aquarium-but of course I have my personal favorites-which is normal;)Mostly I like the more unknow "collections", because too many of the big, famous ones have dissapointed me in many ways-mostly in the fact of their animal welfare on both sides...

So what I can tell you is, to come back Topic, I've been to defenitely much better Aquariums than Georgia Aquqarium or Sheed. But i can't say nothing about"The Deep"-I've not been to that place yet.

Ps.:The best offered Quality in the Animal Welfare is excactly the most important Point to judge a Zoo or an Aquarium.......;)
 
Shorts said:
I'm struggling with the quote, "3,500 different kinds of sea animals and creatures" myself (unless maybe they're extreme "splitters" or including life down to a nano level:D).
Click to expand...

Not that I'm supporting the decision in particular, but I used to have a small saltwater tank that topped 50 species, 5 kinds of starfish alone, none of which I put there on purpose, there's a lot of stuff in the sea and a lot of it isn't huge.
I can easily believe 3500 in a hundred or so tanks.
 
Bib fortuna is being a little naïve in supposing that you have to have worked in a zoo to be a judge of them...ive met hundreds of zoo professionals who have visited very few zoos and know very little about them overall-they may know how to ring a flamingo or how to clip its flight feathers but the subject of,say,small zoos in the former DDR or who has the lawesii ssp of Short-beaked Echidna they would be totally lost on.Sheridan is nearer the mark than you might think in embracing ALL factors of a zoo visit even though I hardly ever agree with his rankings(I happen to like such things however flawed) and what other book on European zoos is there at the moment?Better something than nothing I would say.
 
Oh..and by the way,ive worked in a zoo, but my judgement of them is by talking to people(and ive definitely picked up as much from "amateurs" I would say,with all due respect to the many great zoo folks ive met),reading books and getting on a plane-running down a field trying to catch a crowned crane had little or nothing to do with my writing on the subject!
 
Tim Brown said:
they may know how to ring a flamingo or how to clip its flight feathers but the subject of,say,small zoos in the former DDR or who has the lawesii ssp of Short-beaked Echidna they would be totally lost on.
Click to expand...

Quite; working in a zoo doesn't magically imbue one with knowledge about all zoos everywhere :p Equally, just because one has never worked in a zoo does not mean your knowledge is, ipso facto, inferior. Just like with zoonerds, you get people who are knowledgeable about a wide range of collections, and people who only know their home collection - and everything in between.

As an illustration of my point, a year or so ago I visited one collection where a staff member - having recognised me from a conversation we'd had the previous time I visited - spotted me at the enclosure for a particular species as he walked past talking to some members of the public about the species, and asked me to remind him what other UK collections held said species!

In short, everyone has their own knowledge base, and no one is automatically superior purely due to their profession.
 
I'm not the best person to judge, as I've never visited any of the overseas aquariums, but I have been to almost all of them in the UK, and I would say that The Deep is my personal favourite of those in Britain. The ubiquitous SeaLife aquariums are all much of a muchness, whilst the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth was let down for me by the labelling. The worst aquarium I've visited is probably the small one on Clacton pier. Is The Deep the best one in the world? No, of course not. A world-class aquarium is not to be judged on the size of their tanks, or how elaborate they are, but on the variety of species it holds. A world-class aquarium does not restrict itself to fish and marine invertebrates (just as a nocturnal house should not restrict itself to mammals, as so many seem to do), but should have pinnipeds (not just common and grey seals or Californian and Patagonian sealions), marine and aquatic birds (not just penguins), otters (not just short-clawed), and other marine and aquatic animals, perhaps even sirenians. (The absence of cetaceans from this list is deliberate, as the whales - even relatively "small" ones like pilot whales and beluga - and dolphins and porpoises are among the very few animals I don't think should be in captivity.)

Incidentally, for those interested, a 96 page paperback book, called "The Deep: The world's only submarium", about the creation of this place, was published a few years ago, with a foreword by that well-known ichthyologist John Prescott! (Actually MP for Hull at the time.)
 
zooman64 said:
A world-class aquarium is not to be judged on the size of their tanks, or how elaborate they are, but on the variety of species it holds. A world-class aquarium does not restrict itself to fish and marine invertebrates (just as a nocturnal house should not restrict itself to mammals, as so many seem to do), but should have pinnipeds (not just common and grey seals or Californian and Patagonian sealions), marine and aquatic birds (not just penguins), otters (not just short-clawed), and other marine and aquatic animals, perhaps even sirenians. (The absence of cetaceans from this list is deliberate, as the whales - even relatively "small" ones like pilot whales and beluga - and dolphins and porpoises are among the very few animals I don't think should be in captivity.)
Click to expand...
a public aquarium can only be world-class if it has every sort of marine life except cetaceans, purely on the basis that you don't like seeing cetaceans in captivity? That is a rather odd assessment of what makes an aquarium world-class!



p.s. of the ones on that list the only one I've been to is the Shanghai Ocean World.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top