The Marine Aquarium of Rio de Janeiro ( pt, Aquário Marinho do Rio de Janeiro, italic=no), or AquaRio, is a

public aquarium A public aquarium (plural: ''public aquaria'' or ''public Water Zoo'') is the aquatic counterpart of a zoo, which houses living aquatic animal and plant specimens for public viewing. Most public aquariums feature tanks larger than those kept b ...

located in the Gamboa neighborhood, in the port zone of

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. With a constructed area of about , it is located to the west of Muhammad Ali Square. It is considered the largest marine aquarium in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

. It was inaugurated on October 31, 2016, in a ceremony that was attended by the former

minister of Tourism The Minister of Tourism is the head of the governmental department that specializes in tourism, recreation and/or culture. The position exists in many different countries under several names: *Ministry of Tourism and Environment (Albania) * Minist ...

, Marx Beltrão. The public aquarium was made at

Porto Maravilha The Port of Rio de Janeiro ( pt, Porto do Rio de Janeiro) is a port, seaport in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil located in a cove on the west shore of Guanabara Bay. It is the third-busiest port in Brazil, and it is managed by Companhia Docas ...

, an urban operation that aims to revitalize the Port Zone of Rio de Janeiro. The building occupied by AquaRio has a total of 5 floors and 28 tanks with various types of fish. In the tanks, about 4.5 million liters of salt water are stored, in addition to 8 thousand animals of 350 different species. The building formerly belonged to Companhia Brasileira de Armazenamento (Cibrazem), now Companhia Nacional de Abastecimento (CONAB).

Main features

AquaRio brings together more than 10,000 animals from 350 different species from all oceans. Among the main species present in the aquarium are: the

nurse shark The nurse shark (''Ginglymostoma cirratum'') is an elasmobranch fish in the family Ginglymostomatidae. The conservation status of the nurse shark is globally assessed as Vulnerable in the IUCN List of Threatened Species. They are considered t ...

(''Ginglymostoma cirratum''); the

whitetip reef shark The whitetip reef shark (''Triaenodon obesus'') is a species of requiem shark, in the family Carcharhinidae, and the only member of its genus. A small shark that does not usually exceed in length, this species is easily recognizable by its slen ...

(''Triaenodon obesus''); the

blacktip reef shark The blacktip reef shark (''Carcharhinus melanopterus'') is a species of requiem shark, in the family Carcharhinidae, which can be easily identified by the prominent black tips on its fins (especially on the first dorsal fin and its caudal fin). ...

(''Carcharhinus melanopterus''); and the

sand tiger shark The sand tiger shark (''Carcharias taurus''), gray nurse shark, spotted ragged-tooth shark or blue-nurse sand tiger, is a species of shark that inhabits subtropical and temperate waters worldwide. It inhabits the continental shelf, from sandy sho ...

(''Carcharias taurus''). The fish are distributed in 28 enclosures, which gather a total of 4.5 million liters of salt water. In addition to the visit to the tanks, AquaRio allows the visitor to perform the following additional activities, subject to charge separately: "Sleeping in AquaRio", where the visitor can spend a night in the tunnel that passes in the middle of the Great Ocean Tank; the "Diving of the Ocean Tank", where the visitor can dive into one of the tanks; the "Virtual Fish", where the visitor can create a virtual friend at the beginning of the tour and interact with him along the circuit; "Behind the Scenes", where the visitor can see up close the equipment that treat the water of the enclosures, the work of the biologists and the way of realizing the feeding of the fish. The AquaRio visitor can also enjoy the following attractions: the Virtual Aquarium, a digital aquarium with fish created by visitors; the Science Museum, composed of the Plankton Station and the Shell Exhibition; Surf, a space dedicated to the surf elaborated by the surfer Rico de Souza. As part of its structure, AquaRio has a café, a scientific research center, a parking lot and a souvenir shop, including some kiosks.

Solar roof

On May 31, 2016, the largest solar roof installed in urban areas of Brazil was inaugurated at AquaRio. Comprising about two thousand solar panels installed in an area of 6 thousand m², the solar roof will generate about 77 thousand kilowatts of energy per month, equivalent to the monthly consumption of 500 Brazilian homes. The roof reduces the consumption of electricity consumed by the aquarium by up to 30%.

References

External links

*{{official website, https://www.aquariomarinhodorio.com.br/ Aquaria in Brazil Tourist attractions in Rio de Janeiro (city)

Main features

Solar roof

See also

References

External links