Aquarium Finisterrae (Aquarium of the end of the World) is an aquarium located in

A Coruña A Coruña (; es, La Coruña ; historical English: Corunna or The Groyne) is a city and municipality of Galicia, Spain. A Coruña is the most populated city in Galicia and the second most populated municipality in the autonomous community and s ...

, Galicia,

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. It is an interactive centre of the sciences of marine biology, oceanography. It advocates wildlife preservation, particularly the sea ecosystem and sea life. Founded by the City of

, it was inaugurated on June 5, 1999. It is directed by Ramón Núñez Centella. Its technical director is Francisco Franco del Amo. It is located on the coast of A Coruña, in the Maritime Pass, between the Domus (museum) and the

Tower of Hercules The Tower of Hercules ( es, Torre de Hércules) is the oldest existent lighthouse known. It has an ancient Roman origin on a peninsula about from the centre of A Coruña, Galicia, in north-western Spain. Until the 20th century, it was known a ...

. Its exterior pools are connected to the

Atlantic Ocean 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 ...

Distribution

*Sala maremágnum: An interactive exposition room that focuses on the

. It houses more than 600 Atlantic species. *Sala Humboldt: A room containing expositions about sea ecosystems. *Sala Nautilus: A room decorated in the style of the study of

Captain Nemo Captain Nemo (; later identified as an Indian, Prince Dakkar) is a fictional character created by the French novelist Jules Verne (1828–1905). Nemo appears in two of Verne's science-fiction classics, ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' ...

in the

Nautilus The nautilus (, ) is a pelagic marine mollusc of the cephalopod family Nautilidae. The nautilus is the sole extant family of the superfamily Nautilaceae and of its smaller but near equal suborder, Nautilina. It comprises six living species in ...

. It is an observation room in a pool of (among the largest in Europe) containing fish from the Atlantic ocean. *Octopus' Garden: A room dedicated to octopuses. *Jardín botánico: A room containing species representative of the Galician coast. *Piscinarium: Includes seals from the Atlantic ocean. *Sala Isabel Castelo: A room that includes a permanent exposition of nature photographs.

Sala Maremágnum

The largest of the aquaria is the Atlantic Ocean exposition room. Each of the modules has a question as its title which was selected by the readers of the newspaper ''

La Voz de Galicia ''La Voz de Galicia'' ( en, The Voice of Galicia) is a Spanish daily newspaper owned by the Corporación Voz de Galicia. ''La Voz'' is highest circulation newspaper in Galicia and the eighth-highest circulation general-interest daily newspaper ...

'' before the aquarium's inauguration. Between the interactive modules, the ''Charca de las caricias'' (Stroking pool) is where visitors can touch some of the marine life. There are also modules dedicated to nautical knots, fish smells, parrot songs and the amount of water that can be soaked up by a sponge. There are various modules that are not interactive, like the tank of

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 umbrell ...

, the small exposition of marine fossils, and the aquarium of

sea horse A seahorse (also written ''sea-horse'' and ''sea horse'') is any of 46 species of small marine fish in the genus ''Hippocampus''. "Hippocampus" comes from the Ancient Greek (), itself from () meaning "horse" and () meaning "sea monster" or " ...

s. The most important is the circular tank at the entrance of the room, dedicated to the presentation of a particular animal. The animals presented change every so often. The five aquaria of the greatest volume are found separated from the rest of the room by steps. Each one of them represents a different environment of the Galician coast, from the cliffs to the continental shelf. In these, among other things, are morays,

conger ''Conger'' ( ) is a genus of marine congrid eels. It includes some of the largest types of eels, ranging up to 2 m (6 ft) or more in length, in the case of the European conger. Large congers have often been observed by divers during t ...

s, lophii,

grouper Groupers are fish of any of a number of genera in the subfamily Epinephelinae of the family Serranidae, in the order Perciformes. Not all serranids are called "groupers"; the family also includes the sea basses. The common name "grouper" is ...

Scorpaena ''Scorpaena'' is a widespread genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Scorpaenidae, the scorpionfishes. Taxonomy ''Scorpaena'' was first described as a genus in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th Edition of his ''Systema Naturae ...

e, and fish of San Pedro.

Sala Humboldt

The Sala Humboldt is dedicated to temporary expositions that change around every two years. The first were dedicated to Caribbean fish.

Sala Nautilus

Through 48 windows in a room decorated like

's study in the

, Sala Nautilus is an observation room immersed in a pool containing 700 fish of 34 different species:

sand shark Sand sharks, also known as sand tiger sharks, gray nurse sharks or ragged tooth sharks, are Lamniformes, mackerel sharks of the family (biology), family Odontaspididae. They are found worldwide in temperate and tropical waters. The three specie ...

amberfish The Carangidae are a family of ray-finned fish which includes the jacks, pompanos, jack mackerels, runners, and scads. It is the largest of the six families included within the order Carangiformes. Some authorities classify it as the only family ...

amberjack Amberjacks are Atlantic and Pacific fish in the genus '' Seriola'' of the family Carangidae. They are widely consumed across the world in various cultures, most notably for Pacific amberjacks in Japanese cuisine; they are most often found in th ...

s, yellowtails,

ocean sunfish The ocean sunfish or common mola (''Mola mola'') is one of the largest bony fish in the world. It was misidentified as the heaviest bony fish, which was actually a different species, ''Mola alexandrini''. Adults typically weigh between . The spe ...

; there are also different kinds of sharks like

school shark The school shark (''Galeorhinus galeus'') is a houndshark of the family Triakidae, and the only member of the genus ''Galeorhinus''. Common names also include tope, tope shark, snapper shark, and soupfin shark. It is found worldwide in temperate ...

angel shark The angelsharks are a group of sharks in the genus ''Squatina'' of the family Squatinidae. They commonly inhabit sandy seabeds close to in depth. Many species are now classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservat ...

spiny dogfish The spiny dogfish (''Squalus acanthias''), spurdog, mud shark, or piked dogfish is one of the best known species of the Squalidae (dogfish) family of sharks, which is part of the Squaliformes order. While these common names may apply to several ...

hound shark Houndsharks, the Triakidae, are a family of Carcharhiniformes, ground sharks, consisting of about 40 species in nine genera. In some classifications, the family is split into two subfamilies, with ''Mustelus'', ''Scylliogaleus'', and ''Triakis'' ...

nursehound The nursehound (''Scyliorhinus stellaris''), also known as the large-spotted dogfish, greater spotted dogfish or bull huss, is a species of catshark, belonging to the family Scyliorhinidae, found in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean. It is general ...

s and

catshark Catsharks are ground sharks of the family Scyliorhinidae. They are the largest family of sharks with around 160 species placed in 17 genera. Although they are generally known as catsharks, some species can also be called dogfish due to previous ...

s as well as frequenters of the Galician coast like

sea bass Sea bass is a common name for a variety of different species of marine fish. Many fish species of various families have been called sea bass. In Ireland and the United Kingdom, the fish sold and consumed as sea bass is exclusively the European ...

, red gurnards, immense

turbot The turbot (''Scophthalmus maximus'') is a relatively large species of flatfish in the family Scophthalmidae. It is a demersal fish native to marine or brackish waters of the Northeast Atlantic, Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. It is an ...

skate Skate or Skates may refer to: Fish *Skate (fish), several genera of fish belonging to the family Rajidae * Pygmy skates, several genera of fish belonging to the family Gurgesiellidae * Smooth skates or leg skates, several genera of fish belongin ...

s and filefish. One of the major attractions introduced on May 24, 2006 is Gastón, a , male

(''Carcharias taurus'') from the Océanopolis aquarium in

Brest, France Brest (; ) is a port city in the Finistère department, Brittany. Located in a sheltered bay not far from the western tip of the peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French m ...

. With him lives a female sand shark named Hermosa. The inside of the Nautilus room pays homage to the book from which it originated, ''

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' (french: Vingt mille lieues sous les mers) is a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne. The novel was originally serialized from March 1869 through June 1870 in Pierre- ...

'' by Jules Verne. The room is packed with posters showing various copies of the book and movie posters of several film adaptations and in different languages. The room is also made to be a replica of the study as described in the book. A collection of objects—furniture, plates, catalogs, scientific apparatuses, paintings, engravings, sea shells, animal and mineral samples, nautical apparatuses and objects, navigational charts, and personal objects—all date to the second half of the nineteenth century and are related to the character of Jules Verne's novel. The room also has leather-covered Chester armchairs, old maps, and period mirrors that reflect distorted images. The atmosphere is completed with a 20-minute symphony, containing several passages of organ music, specially composed by Luis Delgado for this room.

Exterior

In the Terraza exterior one is exposed to art about fishing, the cabin of the fishing vessel ''María del Carmen'', and the anchor of the oil tanker Mar Egeo that ran aground on December 3, 1992 spilling oil. From here one can access the Paraíso Marino which receives water directly from the sea and inhabited by three male seals: Altair, Gregor and Hansi. If you look to the left of the aquarium building you can see a Jardín Botánico that contains many of the species present on the Galician coast. The Piscinarium contains six female seals: Bine, Deneb, Lara, Paula, Petra and Vega. Finally, the Octopus' Garden contains a place to observe the behavior of octopuses.

External links

* * {{Zoos of Spain Aquaria in Spain A Coruña Museums in Galicia (Spain) Tourist attractions in Galicia (Spain)