A Photographic Visit to the Seattle Aquarium, by Howard Norfolk

A Photographic Visit to the Seattle Aquarium in July 2004

by Howard Norfolk
Original to Aquarticles

Seattle is a port city on the Pacific Ocean in Washington State, Northwest USA. It is the home of the Boeing Aircraft Company and also the Microsoft Corporation. Bill Gates was brought up here and built a lavish home (variously valued at up to US$97 million) in a prosperous suburb on the shores of Lake Washington.

Visitors to Seattle can get a bird's eye view of the city from the top of the 605' (184 m.) Space Needle, which was built for the Seattle World's Fair of 1962.

The Space Needle rises above a complex of museums, stadiums and entertainment facilities.

CLICK ON PHOTOGRAPHS FOR ENLARGEMENTS, THEN GO "BACK."

Seattle from the top of the Space Needle. The Aquarium is on the downtown waterfront.

Seattle's nickname is "The Rainy City" and sure enough it rained the morning I took these photos (July 3, 2004). But by the time I came down from the Space Needle and made my way to the Aquarium it was clearing up nicely and it ended up to be a sunny day:

Many of the old piers and warehouses on the central waterfront have been converted into shopping malls, restaurants, places of amusement, and cruise ship centres. Walking towards the Aquarium I passed an impressive modern bronze statue of Christopher Columbus.

The people of Seattle have worked and played near the sea ever since the city's foundation in the late 1850s, but Seattle did not have a public aquarium until the early 1960s, when home heating-oil magnate Ted Griffin opened his Seattle Marine Aquarium at the end of Pier 66. This included crowd-pleasing killer whale and seal shows. The shows were discontinued in the mid 1970s when concerns of environmentalists caused the Federal Government to ban the capture of wild Orca.

Soon afterwards the new Seattle Aquarium was opened, on May 20, 1977. It receives 600,000 visitors per year.

The Aquarium occupies Piers 59, 60 and 61 between Pike and Union Streets. The Pier 59 part of the Aquarium, shown here, is an old warehouse which it shares with an IMAX Dome Theater. The other half of the Aquarium, adjoining this, is a specially built modern concrete structure.

Let's take a tour:

There is a ticket booth outside on the promenade to attract casual passers-by.

Tickets can also be bought inside at the entrance. Basic charge for adults is $11.50, and there is a variety of other offers.

Talks, demonstrations and feedings occur throughout the day at regular times, as posted here.

...There are four main types of public aquarium:
a) Aquariums that are part of the decor of a space and which are simply intended to make the space more attractive to visitors - from small fish tanks in restaurants or doctors' offices to elaborate set-ups in shopping malls, casinos, airports etc.
b) Those that are run as commercial businesses to amuse visitors and make a profit, such as Sea World, Ripley's, and similar tourist attractions often at seaside resorts.
c) Municipally owned aquariums that are considered to be part of a city's park, zoo or leisure facilities.
d) Those that are overseen by non-profit organisations such as museums, nature centres, aquarium societies, educational institutions or national aquariums, with the prime purpose of education and making visitors more aware of the environment and its conservation, and often doing research and other projects behind the scenes.

The Seattle Aquarium is very much one of the latter. It is run by the Seattle Aquarium Society, a non-profit organisation whose aim is to "educate the public about Puget Sound's marine environment, the conservation challenges facing it, and science-based strategies for its preservation."

The 'Mission Statement' is "Inspiring conservation of our marine environment" and as will be seen, everywhere one goes one is reminded of this.

Past the entrance, a large hall contains Life on the Edge, opened in May 2002 as the Aquarium's '25th Anniversary present to the community':

These are replicas of tidal pools where visitors are encouraged to interact with such creatures as aggregating anemones and sunflower sea stars. Naturalists are at hand to explain things.

Wave action in a touch pool

English sole, Parophrys vetulus.

Life of a Drifter is an exhibit opened in May 2003:

Education begins in earnest with a row of tanks set on a table. Staff help with such questions as: Starfish - "How does this animal get its food?"; Skate - "How do these babies get out of the egg case?"; Crab - "Why are these animals called 'decorator' crabs?"

An unusual fish tank is this walk-through glass 'donut' full of moon jellyfish.

T.V. screens illustrate the Aquarium's Sixgill Shark Research Station. Nearby is an exhibit of octopus and wolf eels.

A departure from local temperate exhibits is the Pacific Coral Reef. A 25,000 gallon community tank has a variety of warm-water fish including sharks, and there are some nice jewel tanks:

The jewel tanks are in a dark rocky tunnel.

They are bright and beautiful, with lots of fish and invertebrates...

...including this blenny hiding in a coral, and the cute little Banggai cardinal, Pteropogon kauderni, which was born here.

The last exhibit in the old wooden warehouse is Myth, Magic, Mystery, an exhibit of sea dragons and sea horses. Photographs are not allowed inside.

From here, visitors pass through to Building 2, a modern cement structure built in 1977 to illustrate more aspects of the Pacific Northwest environment:

"To Building 2."

Puget Sound Beaches represents a local beach scene, with fishes in the water and birds, such as this marbled godwit, on the shore.

The Rocky Outer Coast is a realistic display of rock pools and their inhabitants.

Tufted puffins are fascinating to watch as they dive and swim under water looking for food. They lay eggs on the rocky ledges.

Cycle of Life display:
The best known and most valuable commercial fish on the West Coast of North America, from California to Alaska, are the five species of Pacific salmon. The original native peoples depended on these fish for their very survival, and salmon are still very much a part of the culture and identity of all who live on the coast.

Pacific salmon are born in freshwater rivers and streams where they spend their first year or two. They then move out into the open ocean to feed and grow, and when mature they return to their home streams to spawn and die.

Life-sized replicas of the five species of Pacific salmon. They are silver-coloured as they grow up in the ocean, but change shape and colouration quite spectacularly when they return to the rivers to spawn.

A screen shows films of salmon spawning.

The Seattle Aquarium successfully replicates coho and chum salmon species' life cycles on the premises. Eggs are taken from adults and hatched into fry. They are reared to a suitable size and then are gradually converted to saltwater and released into the ocean. A few years later they unerringly return to the exact place they were born, and climb up the Aquarium's fish ladders. They are taken to a maturing pond to adjust to freshwater and ripen. Eggs are stripped from the females and mixed with sperm from the males, and the cycle begins again.

A fish ladder runs around the outside of the building. Returning mature salmon climb and jump up these pools as if they were in a natural fast-flowing stream.

Young coho salmon seen from below.

Tubs on the roof contain young coho salmon experiencing the initial freshwater part of their life cycle.

Young chinook salmon are on display in a room of their own.

Salmon need clean streams in which to spawn and grow. Some of their habitat has been destroyed by modern development, and people in the area are constantly reminded of this.

Another sign display, Seafood Watch, that advises people to be careful and responsible about the seafoods they eat. (More information about this can be found at www.montereybayaquarium.org).

A corridor leads to Puget Sound Fish, where saltwater fishes of the Northwest are displayed.

There are lots of signs and information.

Local fish species include those with such descriptive names as grunt sculpins, Pacific spiny lumpsuckers, midshipman fish, wolf eels, pricklebacks and sticklebacks, pipefish, tubesnouts, ratfish, armored sturgeon, and canary rockfish.

These are shiner perch (Cymatogaster aggregata).

Can you spot the two camouflaged fish in this photo? They are 'decorated warbonnets' (Chirolophis decoratus).

The Seattle Aquarium's most spectacular exhibit is the Underwater Dome, where visitors descend through two tunnels into a round room that is built inside a 400,000 gallon fish tank. The tank contains salmon, ling cod, sharks, sturgeon, halibut, skates and rockfish.

The Dome is sturdily constructed.

There is a different view through each 'window'. It is just like looking at lots of different aquariums.

The Underwater Dome room can be rented for private functions in evenings when the Aquarium is closed. Special lighting at night provides an 'ethereal experience', and chamber music concerts, weddings, and wedding receptions are held here. At least one wedding has actually taken place underwater!

Climbing back up from the Dome, visitors pass the Marine Mammals exhibits:

This Northern fur seal swims energetically around...

...and here is his tank from above.

The windows of the sea otters' enclosure give them a nice view of Puget Sound, which visitors can appreciate from a nearby balcony. The Seattle Aquarium was the first in the world to successfully give birth to a sea otter.

Back inside, the Marshroom offers a small space where young children can play and 'learn about the importance of watersheds':

The Marshroom

The final exhibit is Sound to Mountains, which 'follows a single drop of water from the top of a mountain to the depths of the ocean, demonstrating the importance of the stream-side habitats along the way'.

Conservation and preservation of watersheds is emphasised.

Nurse log...main stream...mountain torrent. From sea to mountain-top this replica of a local stream contains salmon and seasonal crayfish, tadpoles and aquatic insects.

A display acknowledges the area's original inhabitants, the Puget Sound Salish Indians.

And a sign thanks the contributions of volunteers, who donated 'over 58,000 hours of service in 2003', worth '$818,814.' (Which I couldn't help punching into my calculator. It comes to an average of $14.12 per hour).

So much information! The Seattle Aquarium takes its mission statement 'Inspiring conservation of our marine environment' very seriously, and I felt quite overwhelmed by the amount of thoughts I was expected to absorb.

At the end of my visit it was nice to relax and stroll around the Seattle Aquarium Store without being expected to learn or worry about anything more!

The Store

If you still want more information you can buy a book or two...or a DVD.

Children might like these amusing T-shirts.

There are some nice art objects with fishy themes...

...and mugs and lamps...

...and cute cuddly dolls...

...and this scary mask.

Finally, on a rainy day in Seattle, you can visit the IMAX Dome Theater and watch a couple of movies.

The Seattle Aquarium fits a lot of original and thought-provoking exhibits into its inevitably constricted downtown space. With 600,000 visitors each year it calls itself the largest 'retail' point of education about Puget Sound's marine environment and the importance of conserving it. There is a growing movement to build a bigger and better world-class aquarium in Seattle. I'll visit again when they build it!

The Seattle Aquarium's web site is at: http://www.seattleaquarium.org