Aquarium du Québec (
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
: Aquarium of Quebec) 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 former city of
Sainte-Foy in
Quebec City
Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Communauté métrop ...
,
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
, Canada. The facility is home to more than 10,000 animals representing more than 300 species. It is operated by
Société des établissements de plein air du Québec
The ''Société des établissements de plein air du Québec'' (English: Quebec Outdoor Establishments Company), also known as ''Sépaq'', is the agency of the Government of Quebec that manages parks and wildlife reserves. Sépaq falls under the a ...
(Sépaq), and is a member of the
Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums
Canada's Accredited Zoos and Aquariums (CAZA) (french: Aquariums et Zoos Accrédités du Canada (AZAC)) is an accreditation and advocacy organization representing zoos and aquariums within Canada. The organization states that its member zoos and a ...
(CAZA).
History
The origin of the Aquarium du Québec dates back to 1953, when
ichthyologist
Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish ( Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of Octobe ...
Dr. Vadim D. Vladykov convinced Dr. Arthur Labrie, Deputy Minister of Ministry of Fisheries, to obtain a site near the
Quebec Bridge
The Quebec Bridge (french: pont de Québec) is a road, rail, and pedestrian bridge across the lower Saint Lawrence River between Sainte-Foy, Quebec City, Sainte-Foy (a former suburb that in 2002 became a western area of Quebec City) and Lévis, Q ...
that belonged to the
Canadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States.
CN i ...
. The provincial government acquired the land in 1954, and work to construct the buildings began in 1955.
[https://grandquebec.com/gens-du-pays/vadim-vladykov/]
In 1956, the Biological Centre of Quebec opened, and included laboratories occupied by research teams in
marine biology
Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms in the sea. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies s ...
and fisheries, a rotunda, and two series of aquariums. Soon, a research wing was added to house laboratories for research on species with commercial potential, such as
salmon
Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...
,
eel
Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...
, and
lobster
Lobsters are a family (biology), family (Nephropidae, Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae) of marine crustaceans. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs ...
, and to gather all documents in the library of the
Ministry of Fisheries. 230,000 gallons of freshwater were supplied by tanker from
Lake Saint-Charles and drawn directly from the
St. Lawrence River
The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...
. The 320,000 gallons of saltwater were brought in from as far away as
Rimouski
Rimouski ( ) is a city in Quebec, Canada. Rimouski is located in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region, at the mouth of the Rimouski River. It has a population of 48,935 (as of 2021). Rimouski is the site of Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR), t ...
(
Pointe-au-Père).
In 1959, after the completion of reception areas and a restaurant, the aquarium opened to the public as the Organic Centre. The Organic Centre's educational mission was provided in collaboration with the
Linnean Society of Quebec that establishes a program for children, a first for a museum in Quebec. The 150,000 visitors that were welcomed in the first year caused additional investment for the site that included outdoor pools for
seals
Seals may refer to:
* Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly:
** Earless seal, or "true seal"
** Fur seal
* Seal (emblem), a device to impress an emblem, used as a means of a ...
additional aquariums.
In 1971, researchers at the Biological Centre eventually moved to the new
Science Complex of Quebec. To reflect the fact that the aquarium had evolved into a public education facility (although research work in collaboration with universities continues), it changed its name to the Aquarium du Québec.
In 1999, the aquarium welcomed its eight-millionth visitor. However, the facilities had become antiquated, and the Quebec government (the owners) did not want to continue funding a facility that did not pay for itself. The
Sépaq was created, with the mandate to manage and renovate the Aquarium, along with the
Jardin Zoologique du Québec
Jardin may refer to:
Places
*Jardin, Isère, a village in Isère, France
*Le Jardin, a village in Corrèze, France
* Jardin, Colombia, a town in Antioquia
Family name
*Alexandre Jardin (born 1965), French writer and film director
*Frédéric Jard ...
(Zoological Gardens of Quebec).
![Parc aquarium du Quebec - Ours polaire dans l'eau](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Parc_aquarium_du_Quebec_-_Ours_polaire_dans_l%27eau.JPG)
In 2002, after two years of closure for renovation, the newly named le nouveau Parc Aquarium du Québec opened its doors next to the zoo. The main building, outdoor gardens, and seal pools were completely refurbished. Most of their international species replaced by aquatic species from Quebec. A polar bear exhibit with an underwater viewing pool was added, though the Aquarium was accused of having a design "off" from the definition of marine life, and of copying another popular attraction, the
Zoo Sauvage de St-Félicien
The Zoo Sauvage de St-Félicien (English: Wild Zoo of St-Félicien) is one of the largest zoos in the province of Quebec. Located in Saint-Félicien, the zoo is dedicated to wildlife conservation of the boreal climate and is managed by ''The Cent ...
. The aquarium did not meet its ambitious attendance targets initially and it reduced its entry price and offered children of Quebec residents free admission until 2006.
In 2005,
Michel Després
Michel Després (born October 14, 1957 in Quebec City, Quebec) is an administrator, consultant and a former Quebec politician. He was the former MNA member of the former riding of Limoilou from 1985 to 1994 and 1998 to 2003 and the former ...
, the provincial minister responsible for the Quebec region announced that the Jardin Zoologique du Québec would close, some activities at the Aquarium would be stopped, and management would be turned over to the
Société des établissements de plein air du Québec
The ''Société des établissements de plein air du Québec'' (English: Quebec Outdoor Establishments Company), also known as ''Sépaq'', is the agency of the Government of Quebec that manages parks and wildlife reserves. Sépaq falls under the a ...
(Sépaq). The government of Quebec would invest $6.5 million at the aquarium to expand its collection.
In November 2008, the institution changed its name back to Aquarium du Québec and unveiled a new logo.
Attractions
The Aquarium has a garden, several outdoor pools, and a main building with several exhibits. The Aquarium it also has an annual Light Festival (Festi Lumière) where they display more than 50,000 LED lights in a Holiday motif.
The Aquarium has around 300 species of
fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...
,
crustaceans
Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...
,
molluscs
Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil sp ...
,
reptiles
Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the Class (biology), class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsid, sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, Squamata, squamates (lizar ...
,
amphibians
Amphibians are four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terrestrial, fossorial, arbore ...
,
birds
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...
, and
marine mammals
Marine mammals are aquatic mammals that rely on the ocean and other marine ecosystems for their existence. They include animals such as seals, whales, manatees, sea otters and polar bears. They are an informal group, unified only by their relia ...
in their exhibits housing around 10,000 animals. The Aquarium specializes in
boreal and
arctic
The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...
wildlife.
The Aquarium du Québec has seven individual exhibits sectors. Each sector is representative of the wildlife and nature found in a specific geographical region. The sectors are:
Indoors
![Aquarium du Quebec - 2006-06 - grand ocean](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Aquarium_du_Quebec_-_2006-06_-_grand_ocean.JPG)
;The Awesome Ocean
The Awesome Ocean exhibit is the main attraction in the aquarium. Visitors walk through a tunnel in a sea water tank and see the marine life from the vantage point of a diver. There are often divers in the exhibit that will showcase the marine life.
;Discover the Coastal Zone
This sector showcases the world of Canada's marine
invertebrates
Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...
from both the
Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...
and the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
. Visitors are also given the opportunity to interact and even touch the animals such as
starfish
Starfish or sea stars are star-shaped echinoderms belonging to the class Asteroidea (). Common usage frequently finds these names being also applied to ophiuroids, which are correctly referred to as brittle stars or basket stars. Starfish ...
,
sea urchins
Sea urchins () are spiny, globular echinoderms in the class Echinoidea. About 950 species of sea urchin live on the seabed of every ocean and inhabit every depth zone from the intertidal seashore down to . The spherical, hard shells (tests) of ...
,
hermit crabs
Hermit crabs are anomuran decapod crustaceans of the superfamily Paguroidea that have adapted to occupy empty scavenged mollusc shells to protect their fragile exoskeletons. There are over 800 species of hermit crab, most of which possess an a ...
,
sea cucumbers
Sea cucumbers are echinoderms from the class Holothuroidea (). They are marine animals with a leathery skin and an elongated body containing a single, branched gonad. Sea cucumbers are found on the sea floor worldwide. The number of holothuria ...
, and more.
;Fresh & Salt Water
Two levels of aquariums exhibit the estuarine life in the
St. Lawrence
Saint Lawrence or Laurence ( la, Laurentius, lit. " laurelled"; 31 December AD 225 – 10 August 258) was one of the seven deacons of the city of Rome under Pope Sixtus II who were martyred in the persecution of the Christians that the Roma ...
basin where the fresh water from the river mixes with the salt water of the Atlantic Ocean.
;Scientific Crossroads
Discover the research that makes the Aquarium du Québec an important place for
marine biology
Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms in the sea. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies s ...
in Canada and learn more about marine labs and marine research.
Outdoors
;Wetlands
An exhibition that showcases the ecosystem of the
St. Lawrence
Saint Lawrence or Laurence ( la, Laurentius, lit. " laurelled"; 31 December AD 225 – 10 August 258) was one of the seven deacons of the city of Rome under Pope Sixtus II who were martyred in the persecution of the Christians that the Roma ...
corridor that includes many
birds
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...
,
amphibians
Amphibians are four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terrestrial, fossorial, arbore ...
,
insects
Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of j ...
,
reptiles
Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the Class (biology), class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsid, sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, Squamata, squamates (lizar ...
, and
plants
Plants are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic eukaryotes of the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all curr ...
that inhabit the surrounding environment.
;Banks of the St. Lawrence River
While visitors overlook the mighty St. Lawrence River, they can observe the
grey
Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be composed o ...
and
harbour seals
The harbor (or harbour) seal (''Phoca vitulina''), also known as the common seal, is a true seal found along temperate and Arctic marine coastlines of the Northern Hemisphere. The most widely distributed species of pinniped (walruses, eared s ...
as they frolic and play amongst the waves.
;The Arctic Sector
Visitors can observe animals that exist in the
Arctic
The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...
, such as
Harp seal
The harp seal (''Pagophilus groenlandicus''), also known as Saddleback Seal or Greenland Seal, is a species of earless seal, or true seal, native to the northernmost Atlantic Ocean and Arctic Ocean. Originally in the genus ''Phoca'' with a number ...
s,
walruses
The walrus (''Odobenus rosmarus'') is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous distribution about the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the fami ...
, and
polar bear
The polar bear (''Ursus maritimus'') is a hypercarnivorous bear whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle, encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the largest extant bear specie ...
s as they move through the four different seasons with an underwater glass view. Visitors are also entertained with a daily walrus show that has two Pacific Walruses and one Atlantic Walrus. The Aquarium claims to be the first and only institution of its kind to care for the two subspecies.
Notes
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aquarium du Quebec
Parks in Quebec City
Aquaria in Canada
Buildings and structures in Quebec City
Tourist attractions in Quebec City
1959 establishments in Quebec