Under the Sea at Blue Planet Aquarium

The Blue Planet Aquarium is somewhere I always associate with being a kid: school trips galore and stretching up on my tiptoes to stroke the sting rays from the top of their tank. With this in mind, a couple of pals and I drove the short distance to relive this childish delight.

We were immediately immersed into an underwater wonderland with some of the hugest fish I’ve ever seen. Figuring out my camera settings for the various murky aquariums took a little fiddling but it was amazing to marvel at the different creatures contained in the world. Well, except for the piranhas which we all shrunk away from in slight fear. No shame.

As well as an array of colourful fish, there were many other creatures – including an even more colourful selection of tiny poisonous frogs. This lizard fascinated us from the beginning as it was so fast moving that we began to think it was two different ones playing tricks on us!
This little guy was my absolute favourite. I never realised how cute turtles were before but they’re my new favourite animal.

Him? Not so much. Even more terrifying than the exotic spider exhibit in the ‘venomous’ section. Wipe that smile off your face matey, I’m not dinner.

Our visit collided with the feeding of the string rays so we sat down in the indoor theatre to take a look. Thanks to a fabulous commentary from my childhood best friend (a lifelong marine biology graduate lucky enough to bag a job there!), we saw several different types of sharks and heard a little about diving with them.

Seahorses are such delicate little creatures. I can respect any species where the male gets pregnant. The one thing that did disappoint us was that you can no longer stroke the sting rays but I can imagine they must have felt pretty battered by children grabbing at them all day long.

What the aquarium is most famous for is the walkaway through the giant tank containing sharks, rays, eels and many more species of fish. It felt surreal to be so close to such massive creatures but amazing too. When else could you watch sharks swim overhead?

This poor guy must get so much attention since Finding Nemo came out.

! think his facial expression says it all here! We took the angry glare as our cue to go outside and see the otters before heading off for a gorgeous lunch. A really lovely few hours well spent, I’d say.

Have you ever been to an aquarium?
Laura x