A Visit to Baltimore’s National Aquarium When it comes to visiting Baltimore, there is one place that should not be missed – the National Aquarium of Baltimore. Located at 501 E Pratt Street in the Inner Harbour area of Baltimore, this 1981 non-profit public aquarium has an annual attendance of 1.5 million tourists locally and around the world. This aquarium can be accessed with Baltimore rental bus to make group trips easier and stress-free. The National Aquarium has several exhibits that are popular including the Upland Tropical Rain Forest, a multi-story Atlantic Coral Reef, an open sea shark tank, and Australia: Wild Extremes which won an award from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums for the best exhibit. There is also a marine mammal pavilion at the aquarium and currently houses 8 Atlantic bottlenose dolphins. The Pier 3 Pavilion has five floors that can be accessed via escalator and elevator. However, if you have a stroller, do take note that you can’t bring your strollers up to these floors, and babies and toddlers have to be carried instead. This entire building also has two large tanks which should not be missed, where one tank simulates the Atlantic coral reef, and another tank simulates the open sea. At Level 1 of Pier 3 Pavilion is the Blacktip Reef. This exhibit is 260,000 gallon and it replicates the Indo-Pacific reef landscape, with the largest marine-life here being a 500-pound green sea turtle named Calypso who was rescued from Long Island shore. The next level in the pavilion features animals that are native to Maryland. There are four exhibits in this Maryland: Mountains to the Sea that gives visitors an experience as if traveling down a Maryland stream in the Allegheny Mountains, to a tidal marsh, then next to a coastal beach and ending up lastly at the Atlantic shelf. Some of the animals featured in this level are such as the Wood Turtle, American Bullfrog, Diamondback Terrapin, Feather Blenny, Blue Crab and Clearnose Skate, just to name a few. As you head higher to Level 3 of the pavilion, you would find a multitude of fishes that have adaptations to survive in the wild in various environments. Example of this would be like the Electric Eel, Chambered Nautilus and the Giant Pacific Octopus. Several aquatic habitats are featured in Level 4 such as a Sea Cliff exhibit, a Pacific coral reef exhibit, a kelp forest exhibit and an Amazon River forest exhibit. As for Level 5, you can see how an Amazon rainforest is like as this exhibits simulates the same environment. You can also use the two elevated platforms available here to do some bird-watching or view a cave of glass enclosure displays featuring reptiles, amphibians and terrestrial arthropods. If you are visiting the National Aquarium in Baltimore, don’t forget to also check out Pier 4 Pavilion where is home to the bottlenose dolphins and marine mammals. busrentalbaltimore
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 02:11:09 +0000