I was attending a family event in Georgia this weekend and I decided to make a detour and visit the new Georgia Aquarium. Just a few things about the aquarium: GET YOUR TICKETS ONLINE AND EARLY. I walked up, and luckily, it wasn't as busy as it could have been. I got there at 5 and tried to buy tickets for the 5, nope. 6pm, nope. Only 7pm available. I bought them and waited in line to speak to a rep. She was nice and exchanged them for the 6pm entrance. After all was said and done, my wife and I got in at 5:30 and even then, the lines were stupidly long. Anyway, it's amazing and everyone should go, but just do yourself the favor and buy tickets online and well in advance.
Anyway, on to the exhibits. I went into the Ocean Voyager section first. It started with some jellyfish, cuttlefish, a small lionfish section, then onto the main tank. It was AMAZING. We were in the acrylic tunnel, and it reminded me of some other aquariums at first, but suddenly, a dark figure began to appear in the darkness above us. Then a second. WHALE SHARKS!!!! Then a school of cow nose rays cast shadows down on us. As we followed the path around, we found an area where the whale sharks came pretty close above us and I snapped a bunch of pictures. Next we proceeded around to a room with a HUGE viewing window that reminded me of the control room in Jaws III. I didn't see Louis Gossett Jr, though
Anyway, I got out the new wide angle and took some pics of the whole room. My wife and I stood in amazement for about 15 mins. This was by far the coolest room in the place. The viewing window was an incredible feat in itself. It was 63' wide, 24' tall and 2' thick. That's a lot of acrylic. It was impossible to use flash in the room because of the thickness of the acrylic, but the pics did turn out ok - I think.
The next section was the cold water area, and that was also amazing. I was excited to see some Beluga whales in the facility. At first, I only saw 2, but 3 more came around the corner and seeing all 5 together was very cool. They seemed very active and healthy. One was recovering from some skin problems and malnourishment issues, but looked to be in good health. Several of them were out of Mexico City and they were the ones who were recovering from the health issues. The acrylic was also very thick on this tank. My wife and I watched the whales for a good 15 mins. They were very graceful.
The Garibaldi in that section were very brightly colored and I was impressed by the intensity of their orange. They are definitely one of my favorite fish. I am very proud of the pictures I took of the Weedy and Leafy sea dragons. They were very cool. They also had african penguins that looked pretty regal.
We were running out of time, but we took a quick jaunt through the freshwater exhibit. The longnose gar were most above us, but there was a nice payara tank with 50 or so that were all 8-12". It was a cool tank. The South American tank had a few arapaima, arowana, peacock bass, pacu, but no rays. I am sure they'll add soem stingrays soon. It was getting late, and we had a few more hours of driving ahead of us, so we left. It's well worth the price of admission. I highly recommend that you go. I hope you enjoy the pics.
Anyway, on to the exhibits. I went into the Ocean Voyager section first. It started with some jellyfish, cuttlefish, a small lionfish section, then onto the main tank. It was AMAZING. We were in the acrylic tunnel, and it reminded me of some other aquariums at first, but suddenly, a dark figure began to appear in the darkness above us. Then a second. WHALE SHARKS!!!! Then a school of cow nose rays cast shadows down on us. As we followed the path around, we found an area where the whale sharks came pretty close above us and I snapped a bunch of pictures. Next we proceeded around to a room with a HUGE viewing window that reminded me of the control room in Jaws III. I didn't see Louis Gossett Jr, though
Anyway, I got out the new wide angle and took some pics of the whole room. My wife and I stood in amazement for about 15 mins. This was by far the coolest room in the place. The viewing window was an incredible feat in itself. It was 63' wide, 24' tall and 2' thick. That's a lot of acrylic. It was impossible to use flash in the room because of the thickness of the acrylic, but the pics did turn out ok - I think.The next section was the cold water area, and that was also amazing. I was excited to see some Beluga whales in the facility. At first, I only saw 2, but 3 more came around the corner and seeing all 5 together was very cool. They seemed very active and healthy. One was recovering from some skin problems and malnourishment issues, but looked to be in good health. Several of them were out of Mexico City and they were the ones who were recovering from the health issues. The acrylic was also very thick on this tank. My wife and I watched the whales for a good 15 mins. They were very graceful.
The Garibaldi in that section were very brightly colored and I was impressed by the intensity of their orange. They are definitely one of my favorite fish. I am very proud of the pictures I took of the Weedy and Leafy sea dragons. They were very cool. They also had african penguins that looked pretty regal.
We were running out of time, but we took a quick jaunt through the freshwater exhibit. The longnose gar were most above us, but there was a nice payara tank with 50 or so that were all 8-12". It was a cool tank. The South American tank had a few arapaima, arowana, peacock bass, pacu, but no rays. I am sure they'll add soem stingrays soon. It was getting late, and we had a few more hours of driving ahead of us, so we left. It's well worth the price of admission. I highly recommend that you go. I hope you enjoy the pics.
