Great Aquarium Saint-Malo

The Great Aquarium – Saint-Malo is an aquarium in Saint-Malo, France. It opened in 1996 and now belongs to the group Compagnie des Alpes, which also owns many other parks in France and Europe. The aquarium houses 11,000 marine animals representing 600 species. It covers 4,000 square metres (43,000 sq ft) and holds 2,500,000 litres (660,000 US gal) of water (The largest aquarium, Nautibus attraction excluded, contains 600,000 litres (160,000 US gal)). 360,000 people visit this site each year making it the second most visited tourist site in Brittany.

Great Aquarium – Saint-Malo
Aquarium entrance
LocationSaint-Malo, France
Coordinates48.6195°N 1.9945°W / 48.6195; -1.9945
Floor space4,000 m2 (43,000 sq ft)
No. of animals~11,000
No. of species~600
Volume of largest tank1,500,000 litres (400,000 US gal)
Total volume of tanks2,500,000 litres (660,000 US gal)
Annual visitors360,000
MembershipsEAZA[1]
OwnerLooping Group
Websitewww.aquarium-st-malo.com

History
  • 1996 – Opening of the aquarium, the project was initiated by Maurice Chicheportiche.
  • 1997 - Launch of the 3D movie.
  • 1998 - Creation of the touch pool
  • 1999 - Acquisition of the Great Aquarium by the Compagnie des Alpes group. Frédéric Charlot is the new director.
  • 2000 - The visit is fully redesigned
  • 2001 - Creation of the "Nautibus"
  • 2002 - Nautibus receives the Themed Entertainment Association Award for its design and the Tourism Trophy of the Ille-et-Vilaine department
  • 2003 - Several partners, including the Great Aquarium create the eco-association "Caution! Sea in danger"
  • 2004 - Creation of "In Blue" a Sensory attraction
  • 2006 - The Great Aquarium celebrates his 10th birthday
  • 2007 - New logo and colours

The visit and the attractions

During the visit, you can discover the underwater world in different rooms:

  • Cold and temperate seas
  • Tropical collection
  • Mangrove
  • The wreck of the ship where sharks dominates.

Three attractions complete the visit:

  • The touch pool that allows you to touch some marine species of the Brittany coast such as rays, bats, sea stars and spiders
  • A sharks ring. 7 sharks (4 different species) and 4 sea turtles swim in a basin which contains 600,000 litres (160,000 US gal) of water and completely encircles the room. You can also spend one night in the heart of this ring, surrounded by sharks.
  • The Nautibus, a journey in a small submarine, presents 5,000 fishes swimming in a pool of 1,500,000 litres (400,000 US gal) of water.

Caution! Sea in danger

The association was created in 2003 at the initiative of the aquarium with some partners such as the city of Saint-Malo. Caution! Sea in Danger aims to sensitize and educate people about dangers that threaten the sea and the shorelines. Its scope extends throughout the Emerald Coast, and they initiate various operations such as cleaning of natural sites, lessons for children during classrooms or participation at the "Ocean world day" established in 1992 by the United Nations.

Notes
  1. "EAZA Member Zoos & Aquariums". eaza.net. EAZA. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
gollark: Convert what to GIF?
gollark: I assume it's mostly designed for books and stuff, and memes tend to have text on coloured backgrounds and stuff.
gollark: I decided to try OCR software on memes and it works poorly.
gollark: Huh, apparently my school *already* has timetables and teacher/class assignments for next school year. That might be overoptimistic of them but who knows.
gollark: It seems like one of those things which can't possibly *entirely* work, since you can't just give someone some data (an image) and then prevent them doing stuff you don't like with it, but can work a bit and at least frustrate people without specific domain knowledge.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.