Oceanarium, according to modern explanatory dictionaries, means a complex of pools filled with sea water, where the inhabitants of the depths live in conditions close to real ones. These pools have at least one transparent glass wall, and visitors can observe marine animals in their natural habitat. Abroad, the term Public aquarium is often used to refer to such complexes.
The largest aquariums, which have been operating for more than a decade, are located in San Francisco (USA), Bangkok (Thailand), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). Currently, the largest in Europe Public aquarium has opened in Moscow, and in Italy they plan to launch an oceanarium built under an artificial lake. The aquarium, which is being built in Vladivostok, should be the largest in the world, with a cost of 195 million euros. Today, the largest such aquarium in the world is the aquarium located in the Dubai Mall, Dubai. The height of the transparent wall is equal to the height of a three-story building, and its width is 50 m. It is home to more than 33,000 marine animals and fish, which can be admired by visitors to the shopping center. You can even dive into this aquarium and swim between reefs and rocks along with schools of fish. The number of marine life inhabiting smaller aquariums can be about 10 thousand, and the number of their species - more than 100. The main design feature of many such structures is transparent a tunnel located at a depth of about 10-15 meters. Moving around in it, you get an experience comparable to a real, real immersion. As a rule, the aquariums above them are inhabited by the largest and most dangerous ocean predators: stingrays, sharks, moray eels. In addition to the main exposition, small pools with thematic pools dedicated to rare species or representatives of the local fauna, the one that lives on the shores of water bodies and in their depths. Such permanent expositions can already be found in Russian cities. In them, visitors can examine in all details living marine or freshwater fish, invertebrates. Some aquariums have spectacular performances featuring trained marine animals such as dolphins, seals, seals and sea lions. The experience of visiting a large aquarium can be summed up in one word: "Overwhelming." Now you can see with your own eyes what was hidden from a person under the water column. This wonderful world will not leave indifferent either children or adults, awakening their responsibility for this fragile ecosystem, a part of the biosphere of planet Earth.