Lisbon Oceanarium

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Oceanarium in the Park of Nations.

The Oceanarium in Lisbon, Portugal (Portuguese: Oceanário de Lisboa, pron. IPA: [osiɐ'naɾiu dɨ liʒ'boɐ]) is an oceanarium dedicated to the ocean. It is located in the Parque das Nações, which was the exhibition grounds for the Expo 98. It is the second largest in the world and the largest in Europe.

The building is the work of the architectural firm Cambridge Seven Associates under the direction of Peter Chermayeff, resembling an Aircraft carrier, and is built in the pier of an internal sea. Peter Chermayeff is also the designer of the Osaka oceanarium, which is the largest in the world. It is one of the largest aquariums in the world, and has a large collection of marine species — birds, mammals, fishes, cnidaria and other marine organisms. The building is a small ride from the heart of lisbon and is a large tourist attraction. The architecture of this building is far from the ancient buildings of Lisbon though it is only a few minutes away.

The exhibition is arranged around four smaller aquaria, displaying the fauna and flora of the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Indian Ocean and of the Antarctic and a large central tank to exhibit species of the open ocean, from sharks and large groupers to tuna fish and small wrasses. The four towers of the building house each of the different ecosystems mentioned above and the central tank houses sharks, tuna and large groupers. Despite its intention of representing the open ocean, it has been criticised by several scientists for grouping together species that would never meet in nature. Though it may not show the ecosystems as they are in nature it is home to over 16 000 animals and plants from over 450 distinct species.

The exhibition aquaria can be viewed from several levels to see underwater and coastal habitats. The tanks all have many different places to view them from giving many different angles of the five exhibits. The oceanarium was built in 1996.