Vancouver Aquarium
 

well we stoped in yesterday on the way home as none of us have ever been there. what a total waist of money!!!!

the tropic tanls were cool but only because of there size, other wise I have seen better tanks localy on tours, thr rainforest was cool, and the cool water fish were well done. but they were not worth the $16.00 ticket price to see. I have seen a better dolphin show at west edmonton mall.

my over all opinion.. a real expensive tourist money grab. if it was 5.00 I would say see it but at 16.00 bucks you can see the same fish at J&L for free and you will also see real corals instead of fake ones.

Steve

Re: Vancouver Aquarium
 

Steve,

I hear they have a seahorse breeding program at the VPA. Did you see any seahorses on your tour?

nope not a one.

I saw that you can get a behind the sceen trainer tour there which would be a lot more interesting but that is another 20.00 on top of the 16.00 for a hour long toure and they focus mostly on the sea otters, dolphins and whales.

Steve

Hmmm, I'm sure I saw seahorses in the tropic zone.

Did you hear anything about any shark pups from last week at all Steve?

I might have missed the sea horses, were they in one of them little tiny tanks in the wall? no shark pups, we looked at the sharks for quite a while and didn't see anything, also no mention of one.

Steve

I love the VPA and know that a portion of that ticket price goes towards environmental projects they fund. Even still I find it well worth the admission. Of course it's the only public aquarium I've ever been too. Sorry to hear you didn't like it.

Troy I know that some of the ticket price goes to good, and that lessens the blow quite a bit but I feel that the portion that actualy goes to reaserch is far to small in all likelyhood. Don;t get me wrong I loved the cold water tank, just goes to show that the coast of BC has more colorfull and beautifull corals/invertabrates than the tropical reef, but keeping them would be extreamly diffacult for a average home user.

even the VPA has about 1/2 of there tanks that it is hard to see in due to condenstation on the glass.

I did take a lot of pics while I was there and I will post some when I get them resized and see how they turned out.

Steve

The seahorse breeding program moved to UBC about 2 years ago. Quite frankly I thought the aquarium was well worth the $16.

"the tropic tanls were cool but only because of there size, other wise I have seen better tanks localy on tours" Its only been up for three months, give it time.............

"cool water fish were well done" I agree best exhibit

my over all opinion.. a real expensive tourist money grab. if it was 5.00 I would say see it but at 16.00 bucks you can see the same fish at J&L for free and you will also see real corals instead of fake ones.

Dont forget what you paid for parking......All the corals were not fake, and cant remember the last time I saw a 18" Naso Tang at J&L.

Why would you ever go there in the height of the tourist season, and better yet why would you pay $16, when you can get a seasons pass with a extra free admission for $38

:razz:

And you did miss the small seahorse display.

oh sure so I would have paied 38 bucks to see it instead of 16 LOL that makes sence :rolleyes: actualy if I lived on the main land then that would have made sence as you can go several times and make it worth it.

Steve

Myself, I probably wouldn't go there more than once a year now that there's no more killer whales. :lol:

Actually, isn't there a discount 2 for 1 coupon in the Entertainment Book for the Aquarium or something?

You guys are tough to impress. :lol: I love the aquarium. 16$ is cheap when you think of how much money it must cost to run that facility. Money well spent IMO.

Nothing like going to the aquarium alone...........

I meant buy the package, get what the package has to offer which is a free pass, etc., etc.

Then enjoy the aquarium.

To add my 2 cents... I think the aquarium is a great place to check out and although it is expensive at $16 I spend that regularly buying lunch for myself. I think its worth it ten fold. The cold water display is an amazing experience and really opens ones eyes to what lies in our backyard. The tropical display is always interesting and Im just glad they went to the effort to have one. Sure they could do more to make it better, and more attractive, and more natural for the fish, but that takes alot of cash and if you want to see your vision then next time you go in hand them $50,000.00 cash and they might be able to renovate 1 of the smaller tanks to your liking... Im sure that the recent renovation to the asthetics of the tropical tank exceeded $50,000.00 for the artificial reef alone.

I'm with Christy, Jack, Wendell and Kyle on this one. $16 doesn't go very far anymore, you spend far more than that just going to a movie. My wife & I happily paid $18 each for admission so that the extra $2 could fund the seal rescues (kind of had a personal interest in that one).

Like Wendell said give the tropical display some time to mature a bit. It will only get better. It absolutely rips on what it used to be (which probably went back to the 70's). It takes time and money to redo exhibits and the efforts that they have been making in the 4-5 years are really starting to show.

The most impressive tropical display aquarium I ever saw was the Sydney Aquarium, with a very close second being the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific down in L.A. Neither are particularly convenient to get to from Calgary but the Vancouver Aquarium is, and is far worth the visit I try to make every year. Yes, I do believe the coldwater exhibits are still the best, but that's really part-in-parcel the idea of an aquarium, to showcase in primary what's in local waters, with "previews" to what else there is.

I really enjoyed the aquascaping of the reef display (not the reef fish display, the reef display). Man, I want a tank that's 48" front-to-back....

Hello,

Here are some shots of the coral display at LBA, along with some of the background photos I took with the curator.
http://www.canreef.com/photopost/sho...y.php?ppuser=1

Titus

Wow. Is that a blue monti cap on the left of the last pic?