It costs 22 Canadian bucks for an adult to visit the Vancouver aquar­ium but it’s worth it. They take remark­ably good care of their tanks and creatures of all shapes and sizes. Ever seen a Beluga whale? How about  sea horses or a pre­his­toric fish that’s about 6 feet long and 1.5 feet wide? If you haven’t then you need to go the Vancouver Aquarium.

I thor­oughly enjoyed the way the aquar­ium presen­ted their written mater­ial. The descrip­tions were short and mem­or­able. They also have some awesome inter­act­ive exhib­its such as video sequences that you can control the speed of, in order to see just how fast the reflexes are of dif­fer­ent creatures.

Scales of a pre­his­toric fish. This is only one small portion of its body. Photo by Chris Beauchamp.

I had the best time learn­ing random facts like there are 24 species of Piranha but only 3 species even pose a threat to humans and that’s only if you wade through a shallow pond of water where the fish are most likely irrit­able because they are cramped and hungry. However, if you went into the Amazon River and encountered Piranhas they’d prob­ably swim right by. I was also fas­cin­ated to learn that Sole are born looking like a normal fish, with an eye on each side of the body, but as they mature one of their eyes migrates to the other side of the body to be next to the other eye! Amazing!

If you plan on vis­it­ing the aquar­ium and you find your­self hungry while you’re there, I suggest the hot dog vendor only meters from the front door of the museum. It’s a lot cheaper then the snack bar inside.

The shark dance! Photo by Chris Beauchamp

Photo by Chris Beauchamp

Jelly-belly. Photo by Chris Beauchamp