Oceanarium (St. Petersburg) is located in the central part of the city. It first opened its doors to visitors in April 2006. The oceanarium is very popular with both city guests and St. Petersburg residents themselves. It is often called one of the main attractions of the northern capital. More than half a million people visit him annually. The Oceanarium (St. Petersburg) is equipped with wide elevators and ramps, which ensures the convenience of people with disabilities. An architect from Finland, Hanu Lightila, worked on the building project.
Exposure Features
The Oceanarium (SPb) "Neptune" is famous for its lively collection, which includes more than five thousand specimens of aquatic invertebrates and two hundred species of fish. The total area of the exposition is five thousand square meters, which made it possible to place forty-one aquariums (their total volume is one and a half million liters). The oceanarium is divided into thematic sections. Let's consider them in more detail.
Zone of the northwestern territory of Russia
In this part of the exhibition you can admire perches, zander, pike, common carp, sturgeons, three-needle smelt and crucian carp. Here, the species of those fish that live in freshwater bodies of the country are represented as fully as possible.
Tropical Rainforest Zone
In it you can see fish from Southeast Asia, Africa and South America. Of particular admiration are the specimens found in the Amazon - piranhas, arapayms, discus and stingrays.
"The road to the ocean"
This exposition was opened recently - in 2012. Thanks to her, visitors get from the fresh zone to the sea. There are two aquariums with inhabitants of bottomless waters. The depth of one of them is seven meters.
Rocky Shore Zone
This part of the aquarium is equipped with outdoor aquarium-pools. Starfish, stingrays, horseshoe crabs, cat sharks and some other inhabitants of coastal waters swim in them. The exposition is equipped with a setup for simulating surf waves. In addition, visitors are given the opportunity to observe how the development of cat shark embryos occurs.
Main aquarium
In a huge capacity of 750 thousand liters, there is a transparent thirty-five meter tunnel and an observation window measuring seven by three meters. The area of this aquarium is 290 square meters. m, and the depth is three and a half meters. An automatically moving path passes by coral reefs and underwater rocks and leads to a sunken ship. In the aquarium, you can see representatives of various species of sharks - zebra, black feather, lemon, reef. Their neighbors are groupers and moray eels. The process of feeding sharks is a real show, which visitors to the aquarium would like to attend.
Coral reef zone
This part of the exhibition demonstrates the richest variety of crabs, sea urchins, living corals and other inhabitants of coral reefs.
Marine Mammal Zone
Here you can admire the gray long-mouthed seals inhabiting the waters of the Baltic Sea. The oldest honorary inhabitant is Uma. This wounded seal in 2007 was accidentally found in the coastal Gulf of Finland, in a suburb of the northern capital. Two more mammals were transported from the Lithuanian aquarium in the same year.
Show
The described aquarium (St. Petersburg) is a place where demonstrative feeding of marine inhabitants is held daily . Anyone can watch how stingrays, crabs, piranhas, starfish, cat sharks and many others eat.
Oceanarium (St. Petersburg) and its life support systems
The main source of water supply is the St. Petersburg city water supply network. Thanks to the most powerful sand and coal filters, as well as the installation of reverse osmosis , sequential cleaning of the liquid is carried out. The use of the waters of the Baltic Sea is not carried out due to their serious pollution and low salinity.
All aquariums are equipped with an individual life support system, which is a closed filtration design. At the same time, a different temperature is maintained in each tank. So, for spider crabs, it should be in the range of 12-14 degrees, for local fish - 16-18 ° C, and for tropical - 28 ° C. For this purpose, aquariums are equipped with cooling and heating systems.
Diving service regularly inspects large-capacity aquariums. The duties of the chief ichthyopathologist include monitoring the well-being and health status of marine life. As for the aquarist, he makes a selection of fish, ensures the process of their acclimatization and observes ecosystems.
Training Center Activities
Since 2007, attracted teachers have been developing and implementing various educational programs for schoolchildren. The Oceanarium on Marat (St. Petersburg) is a place where thematic classes and excursions are constantly held, devoted to geography, ecology, biodiversity and many other topics. In order to popularize knowledge in biology and geography, an annual competition called “Big Regatta” is held. It is a city inter-museum competition-journey, initiated by the administration of the aquarium and supported by various educational institutions and museums of the northern capital.
The competition is dedicated to geographical discoveries, sea voyages, the history of shipbuilding, biology of oceans and seas. It is held as part of the school year. School and family teams who need to complete certain tasks while visiting various museums can take part in the “Big Regatta”.
The financial side of the issue
The Oceanarium of St. Petersburg (photos are presented in the article) cost Rubin CJSC 13.8 million euros. The project paid off in five years. The specified closed joint-stock company was created on the initiative of employees of one of the largest shipbuilding enterprises of the Russian Federation - the Rubin Central Design Bureau for Marine Engineering. To date, one of the active areas of the company is the construction of commercial aquariums and aquariums.
Basic Rules
Interested in St. Petersburg Aquarium? Visitors' reviews note that you should be prepared for verification using a metal detector. This procedure may be initiated by the security service at its sole discretion. Any type of weapon, as well as explosive, narcotic and odorous substances, is prohibited. It is forbidden to enter the aquarium with bulky items (suitcases, bags, boxes, etc.), food and drinks, animals. People who are intoxicated or intoxicated are not allowed to visit. In the aquarium, it is forbidden to take pictures with a flash, throw anything into aquariums and touch the exhibits.
How to get there?
Do you want to visit the aquarium in St. Petersburg? How to get to this place? The nearest metro stations are Zvenigorodskaya and Pushkinskaya. The most famous oceanarium in St. Petersburg (address - 86 Marata Street) is located in the building of the shopping and entertainment complex Planet Neptune.
Estimated Costs
The cost of admission varies depending on the time of day and the age of visitors. So, from Monday to Friday from ten to two adults will take 450 rubles for admission. For schoolchildren and students, the fee is reduced by 200 rubles. A visit to the aquarium from two to five on weekdays will cost adults five hundred rubles, and schoolchildren and students - three hundred. Most entry fees are required after five in the evening. Adult ticket - 550 rubles, children and school - 350 rubles. On weekends and holidays, the entrance automatically rises in price by one hundred rubles.
For the excursion program, a fee is paid. For citizens of the Russian Federation, it is one and a half thousand rubles, for foreigners who speak German or English, two thousand.
For photo and video shooting you will have to pay 200 and 500 rubles. respectively. Birthday visitors are given the opportunity to pay half the price for the admission ticket. On the official website of the aquarium - planeta-neptun.ru - you can get tickets and immediately pay for them using plastic cards MasterCard or Visa.
Conclusion
Do you want to learn the secrets of the underwater world? This will help the Aquarium of St. Petersburg. Visitors' opinions are unanimous in one: visiting this institution is of interest not only for children, but also for adults. Among the shortcomings are the high cost of entrance tickets, especially after 17.00, insufficient illumination of the main hall and long lines at the box office. The positive aspects are the presence of an audio guide, roomy elevators, the absence of smells, and the holding of interesting show programs.