Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium is a Southern Ocean and Antarctic aquarium in central

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, Australia. It is located on the banks of the

Yarra River The Yarra River or historically, the Yarra Yarra River, ( Kulin languages: ''Berrern'', ''Birr-arrung'', ''Bay-ray-rung'', ''Birarang'', ''Birrarung'', and ''Wongete'') is a perennial river in south-central Victoria, Australia. The lower s ...

beside and under the

Flinders Street Viaduct The Flinders Street Viaduct is a railway bridge in Melbourne, Australia. Made up of six tracks of varying ages, it links Flinders Street station to Southern Cross station and forms the main link between the eastern and western parts of the Vict ...

and the King Street Bridge. The attraction is a

Sea Life Centre Sea Life is a chain of commercial sea life-themed aquarium attractions. there are 53 Sea Life attractions (including standalone Sea Life centres, mini Sea Life features within resort theme parks, and Legoland submarine rides) around the world. ...

owned by

Merlin Entertainments Merlin Entertainments Limited is a British entertainment company based at Poole in Dorset, England. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until November 2019, when it was acquired by a consortium that includes Kirkbi A/S (the investme ...

History

The current building was built between February 1998 and December 1999, the building was designed by

Peddle Thorp Peddle Thorp is an Australian-based architecture, interior design, and urban planning firm, with offices located in Melbourne, Victoria, in Asia and in the Middle East. The Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo inspired from "The Underwater Paradise ...

architects to resemble a ship moored to the river, and opened in January 2000. The depth of the building however was designed not to be imposing at street level, and extends below the surface. At its centre is a world first 'oceanarium in the round' where the spectators become the spectacle to the marine life swimming around them. Soon after opening, the building had a legionnaires disease outbreak that resulted in 4 deaths and another 125 people being infected. Those affected had visited the aquarium between 11 and 27 April 2000. A damages action was brought in May 2000, ending in February 2004. On 28 November 2008 Melbourne Aquarium officially reopened after a significant expansion, also designed by Peddle Thorp, and now extends from the

to Flinders Street. A new entrance was built on the corner of Flinders and King Streets. The expansion features exhibits with

king penguin The king penguin (''Aptenodytes patagonicus'') is the second largest species of penguin, smaller, but somewhat similar in appearance to the emperor penguin. There are two subspecies: ''A. p. patagonicus'' and ''A. p. halli''; ''patagonicus'' ...

s and

gentoo penguin The gentoo penguin ( ) (''Pygoscelis papua'') is a penguin species (or possibly a species complex) in the genus ''Pygoscelis'', most closely related to the Adélie penguin (''P. adeliae'') and the chinstrap penguin (''P. antarcticus''). The ea ...

s, as well as many Antarctic fish, a first for Australia. The exhibits also feature real ice and snow to simulate Antarctic conditions, and take visitors on an expedition to Antarctica. The penguins were sourced from Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. In April 2013, Melbourne Aquarium's owners,

, announced that they would be spending $8 million on the refurbishment of the facilities. As part of the process, the aquarium was rebranded as a

and relaunched in September 2013. The current Aquarium succeeded an earlier site in the Eastern annex of the

Royal Exhibition Building The Royal Exhibition Building is a World Heritage-listed building in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, built in 1879–1880 as part of the international exhibition movement, which presented over 50 exhibitions between 1851 and 1915 around the glo ...

, which burned down in 1953.

Features

The Aquarium has a one-way self-guided tour, which is spread over four levels:

Level One

*Rainforest Adventure *Crocodile's Lair *Wetlands Recovery Nursery

Ground Floor

*Penguin Playground *Mangroves and Rockpools *Coral Atoll (currently under re-development) *The Bay *Seahorse Pier *Coral Cafe *Conservation Cove *Crocodile's Lair *Aquarium Shop

Level B1

*Ocean Invaders

Level B2

*Mermaid Garden *Shipwreck Explorer *Ocean Discovery The aquarium is known for its main exhibit, the 2.2 million litre Mermaid Garden oceanarium, which features a grey nurse shark and sandbar whaler sharks, along with up to 2,000 marine creatures of diverse species.

Research and conservation

Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium conducts extensive research into marine species, with the Aquarium's conservation efforts overseen by the Turtle Rehabilitation and Conservation of Keystone Species (T.R.A.C.K.S.) group, a subsidiary of the Sea Life Conservation Trust. *Grey nurse sharks. Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium is involved in a

grey nurse 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 ...

breeding program in conjunction with Sea Life Manly Aquarium, aimed at conserving this endangered species, which is already extinct in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

. The Aquarium currently has one grey nurse shark and the program is looking at intra vitro fertilisation (

IVF In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process of fertilisation where an egg is combined with sperm in vitro ("in glass"). The process involves monitoring and stimulating an individual's ovulatory process, removing an ovum or ova (egg or eggs) f ...

) as a method of breeding. *Bamboo sharks. Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium is home to the first-ever in-vitro fertilised (IVF) shark in existence. The brown-banded

bamboo shark The Hemiscylliidae are a family of sharks in the order Orectolobiformes, commonly known as longtail carpet sharks and sometimes as bamboo sharks. They are found in shallow waters of the tropical Indo-Pacific. They are relatively small sharks, ...

pup was born on 3 March 2014, ending a process which began in September when aquarists collected a semen sample from a shark in Mooloolaba in northeastern Australia. *Sea turtles. The aquarium is also involved in the rehabilitation of turtles washed south into the colder Victorian waters where they cannot survive. The sea turtles are housed at the aquarium to gain strength, at which point they are taken north to

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

to be released. *Seadragons. Melbourne Aquarium is one of few worldwide to have successfully bred the locally-endemic

weedy seadragon The common seadragon or weedy seadragon (''Phyllopteryx taeniolatus'') is a marine fish related to the seahorses. Adult common seadragons are a reddish colour, with yellow and purple markings; they have small leaf-like appendages that resemble ...

in captivity. *Spotted Handfish. Sealife Melbourne Aquarium and its has been the first facility to successfully sex and breed the Tasmanian spotted handfish in captivity. *Purple Spotted Gudgeon. The rainforest area has opened a facility to captively breed the Southern Purple Spotted Gudgeon.

Past attractions

Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium formerly had a

giant squid The giant squid (''Architeuthis dux'') is a species of deep-ocean dwelling squid in the family Architeuthidae. It can grow to a tremendous size, offering an example of abyssal gigantism: recent estimates put the maximum size at around Trace ...

exhibit (frozen, not alive), which was moved to UnderWater World in Queensland. The Aquarium was also home to

angler fish The anglerfish are fish of the teleost order (biology), order Lophiiformes (). They are Osteichthyes, bony fish named for their characteristic mode of predation, in which a modified luminescent Fish_fin#Ray-fins, fin ray (the esca or illicium) a ...

, the

Japanese spider crab The Japanese spider crab (''Macrocheira kaempferi'') is a species of marine crab that lives in the waters around Japan. It has the largest known leg-span of any arthropod. It goes through three main larval stages along with a prezoeal stage to g ...

jellyfish Jellyfish and sea jellies are the informal common names given to the medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals with umbrella- ...

, blood sucking

leech Leeches are segmented parasitic or predatory worms that comprise the subclass Hirudinea within the phylum Annelida. They are closely related to the oligochaetes, which include the earthworm, and like them have soft, muscular segmented bodie ...

es,

horseshoe crab Horseshoe crabs are marine and brackish water arthropods of the family Limulidae and the only living members of the order Xiphosura. Despite their name, they are not true crabs or crustaceans: they are chelicerates, most closely related to arachn ...

s, venomous

scorpion Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the order Scorpiones. They have eight legs, and are easily recognized by a pair of grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back and always end ...

s and

tarantula Tarantulas comprise a group of large and often hairy spiders of the family Theraphosidae. , 1,040 species have been identified, with 156 genera. The term "tarantula" is usually used to describe members of the family Theraphosidae, although ...

Ownership

In 2012,

, the global owner and operator of the

Sea Life Centres Sea Life is a chain of commercial sea life-themed aquarium attractions. there are 53 Sea Life attractions (including standalone Sea Life centres, mini Sea Life features within resort theme parks, and Legoland submarine rides) around the world ...

brand as well as iconic brands such as

Legoland Legoland (, trademark in uppercase as LEGOLAND) is a chain of family theme parks focusing on the construction toy system Lego. They are not fully owned by The Lego Group itself; rather, they are owned and operated by the British theme park com ...

and

Madame Tussauds Madame Tussauds (, ) is a wax museum founded in 1835 by French wax sculptor Marie Tussaud in London, spawning similar museums in major cities around the world. While it used to be spelled as "Madame Tussaud's"; the apostrophe is no longer us ...

, purchased the Living and Leisure Group, then the owner-operators of the Melbourne Aquarium. In late 2013, after an extensive $8 million investment and redevelopment by Merlin Entertainments, the aquarium relaunched under the Sea Life brand, joining up to 100 Merlin-owned attractions worldwide.

Gallery

File:Melbourneaquarium.jpg File:Aquarium-melbourne.jpg File:Colossoma macropomum Melbourne Aquarium.jpg, ''

Colossoma macropomum The tambaqui (''Colossoma macropomum'') is a large species of freshwater fish in the family Serrasalmidae. It is native to tropical South America, but kept in aquaculture and introduced elsewhere. It is also known by the names black pacu, black- ...

'' in the aquarium File:Caesioperca lepidoptera Melbourne Aquarium.jpg, ''

Caesioperca lepidoptera The butterfly perch (''Caesioperca lepidoptera'') is a marine species of ray-finned fish in the subfamily Anthiinae, part of the sea bass family Serranidae. This fish is found in the eastern Indian Ocean, and the southwestern Pacific Ocean, inclu ...

'' in the aquarium File:Feeding time melb aquarium.jpg, Feeding time in the Melbourne Aquarium File:Giant squid melb aquarium.jpg,

Giant squid The giant squid (''Architeuthis dux'') is a species of deep-ocean dwelling squid in the family Architeuthidae. It can grow to a tremendous size, offering an example of abyssal gigantism: recent estimates put the maximum size at around Trace ...

in the aquarium File:Giant squid melb aquarium02.jpg, Head view of the giant squid File:Giant squid melb aquarium03.jpg File:Humphead wrasse melb aquarium.jpg,

Humphead wrasse The humphead wrasse (''Cheilinus undulatus'') is a large species of wrasse mainly found on coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific region. It is also known as the Māori wrasse, Napoleon wrasse, Napoleon fish, Napoleonfish, ''so mei'' 蘇眉 (Cantonese), ...

in the aquarium File:Humphead wrasse02 melb aquarium.jpg, A

humphead wrasse The humphead wrasse (''Cheilinus undulatus'') is a large species of wrasse mainly found on coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific region. It is also known as the Māori wrasse, Napoleon wrasse, Napoleon fish, Napoleonfish, ''so mei'' 蘇眉 (Cantonese), ...

in the aquarium, showing its head File:King Penguin in water Feb09.jpg,

King penguin The king penguin (''Aptenodytes patagonicus'') is the second largest species of penguin, smaller, but somewhat similar in appearance to the emperor penguin. There are two subspecies: ''A. p. patagonicus'' and ''A. p. halli''; ''patagonicus'' i ...

File:Lion fish melb aquarium.jpg,

Lionfish ''Pterois'' is a genus of venomous marine fish, commonly known as lionfish, native to the Indo-Pacific. Also called firefish, turkeyfish, tastyfish, or butterfly-cod, it is characterized by conspicuous warning coloration with red, white, crea ...

File:Melbourne Aquarium pumps, Pengo.jpg, Pumps at the Melbourne Aquarium File:Observation hole - melb aquarium.jpg, Observation hole File:Paddletail melb aquarium.jpg File:Pseudoplatystoma Melbourne Aquarium.jpg File:ReefFish001.jpg File:Scleropages Melbourne Aquarium.jpg, ''

Scleropages ''Scleropages'' is a genus of fish in the family Osteoglossidae found in Asia and Australia. All of these species are carnivorous and have great jumping ability. These species are highly valued as aquarium fish, particularly by those from Asian c ...

'' File:Snapper melb aquarium.jpg File:Snapper02 melb aquarium.jpg File:Snapper03 melb aquarium.jpg File:Starfish melb aquarium.jpg,

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 ...

File:Sting ray - melbounre aquarium.jpg,

Stingray Stingrays are a group of sea rays, which are cartilaginous fish related to sharks. They are classified in the suborder Myliobatoidei of the order Myliobatiformes and consist of eight families: Hexatrygonidae (sixgill stingray), Plesiobatidae ( ...

File:Sting ray - melbounre aquarium02.jpg, Stingray, showing its head view File:Unidentified Fish Melb Aquarium Feb 2009 05.jpg File:Unidentified Melb Aquarium Feb 2009 02.jpg

References

External links

* * {{Melbourne landmarks Sea Life Centres Tourist attractions in Melbourne Aquaria in Australia 2000 establishments in Australia Buildings and structures in Melbourne City Centre