If you are stuck for something to do on a wet day, and you happen to be in the South West, but you want to do something educational, then this is for you. It is a really great way to spend a day, and quite reasonably priced too

** What is it? **

It is an aquarium. Not just any aquarium, no the National Marine Aquarium.
I remember a few years ago, I used to do a lot of work in Plymouth, and one of the places I used to go was the Aquarium, which used to be up near the Hoe, in the Citadel. Well it’s not there anymore. They got some serious funding, and had a purpose built Aquarium and research facility right on the water.

** How do I get there? **

It is in Plymouth (which if you don’t know is in Devon!), it is really easy to find, as you follow the brown tourist signs with a picture of a fish on! The route is well marked from the A38, coming from Somerset, I cannot vouch for the signage coming from Cornwall.

It is situated in Coxside, which is right next to the Barbican, which is one of the more historic parts of Plymouth. The building is right next to the old harbour, overlooking Plymouth Sound. There are generally always loads of boats and ships to see moored out at sea. It is a purpose built building, and it is massive!

** Parking **

There is a multi-storey car park right next door. I went on a Sunday, and there were loads of spaces.

Sunday costs £1 for upto 5 hours
And £2.40 over 5 Hours

Monday –Saturday 80p/hour £4 for 5 hours

The other thing to point out is that the car park closes at 19:45 Mon-Sat and at 18:45 on Sun

** How much to get in? **

It costs £8 for an adult , and £4.75 for a child (under 3 free), OAP’s £6.75. There are family tickets available at £23 for 2 adults and 2 children

The guide book costs £2.50.

Opening times 10-5 November – March
10-6 The rest of the year

You are also asked to fill in your details so that they can claim tax back; if you are a tax payer that is!

On the way out, there is a desk, where you can get yourself stamped if you want to you can go back in. That is a good idea, as there are lots a talks at different times of the day, you might just want to pop out across a short bridge to the Barbican for lunch, or just to soak up the atmosphere.

Access wise, you cannot fault it. Everything has been designed with disabled people and children in mind. There are no areas that you cannot get to. Most areas are linked with ramps, and lifts.

There are a number of toilets around the building too, the ones I visited were very clean, and they had regular check through the day

I did also notice that there were a lot of staff to hand to help out with any problems that may occur.

** What’s there? **

The site is divided into several zones, as there is so much to see, I’ll keep things to a general description, other wise this op will have about 10 million words!!

As you walk up to the start, there is a board with a kind of “what’s going on today” on it. They give the times and the zone where the talks are going on, I found it really useful as I was able to plan my day accordingly around these.

We start the tour at the top of the building, you can either walk up the ramps to get to the top, or take the lift. You end up at “The Waterfront Gallery” this is a gallery with art and photos. They normally have local artists plying their trade. This is an area worth spending a few minutes looking at. One thing I thought was very good was that when you come up the ramp, there are pictures all the way up, they have put a picture and the depth you would find it!!

Basically you start off right at the top of the building, at a small stream with a waterfall. The idea is that you follow the natural path of water, stream, river, estuary, sea. I find this a really good idea, as it allows you to put everything into its correct context. These areas are really well landscaped, with plants and rocks, it is quite strange to look down on a plaice!! Even stranger to look eye to eye with one!
There are a number of tanks around here with all sorts of fish that we get in our rivers and streams.

There are a stations dotted around with scientific tasks, such as Archimedes principle!! One really interesting one is explaining pollution.

There are also a lot of information boards, giving details of the inhabitants of the various tanks.

There is a section with seahorses in, from the smallest to the largest! Amazing creatures, you could just watch them for hours!

From here you go to the discovery area, this is where they sometimes have talks. There are some interesting things to do, such as “discovery dinosaur bones!” This is where you can get to play Time Team! There is a rock pool, where you can see all sorts of rock pool creatures. They do not allow touching here, which is a good idea, as it maintains the quality of the pool and the contents.

There is another tank here, which has fish that you would find close to the sea shore, this is an area you could stand and watch for hours. This tank is at floor level, so everybody can see everything, they also seem to have some kind of tidal flow system here, which shows how the fish move about with the flow.

There is also a theatre, where they do more talks. There wasn’t anything going on in here during my visit.

From here you walk down to ….

** Atlantic Reef **

This has a 14 metre wall of acrylic; you are looking at the type of fish that frequent the Atlantic. The conger eels look quite nasty!!
This is in a massive auditorium, and they do regular talks here. I saw one where they were talking about some of the fish, and what they do to maintain their health, they then had a couple of divers in the water feeding them. The divers pick up certain things, so everybody can see (although they didn’t go too close to the congers!!!) Star fish and such like. A short op such as this cannot really do justice to this. You can sit here for ages, enthralled by the fish, I was!

Just off here is a room where children can go to “play” they have things they can colour in, there is some touchy feely things too, such as sharks jaws!! I used the term play, but they seemed to have some really structured things for kids to do.

Also off of here is an outside garden, where you can sit and watch the world go by in Plymouth Sound. It is quite sheltered, so should get too cold, it is also where all you smokers can go!!

** Mediterranean **

This has the deepest tank in Europe 10.5 metres deep, 2.5 million litres of water!! This tank is where the sharks are!! You go up to the viewing area, you are confronted by a massive wall of concave acrylic (stronger than glass), I forgot it was concave!! My head is OK now though!!
They have some rather large sharks in here, and numerous other fish, the way the tank is made, the sharks can swim right over the top of you!! You get a real good look at their teeth!!

There is a seating area further back, where you can just sit and watch (I prefer to sit on the floor by the glass!!

From here you go down stairs (or use the lift) to the bottom of the tank, where there is a shark exhibition, remember to look up when you go through the door!!

You then end up in a simulated wreck, there are some small tanks here with some of the small species you find in the Med. Oh you are under water here, remember there are 2.5 million litres around you!!
You then go to a creatures of the deep exhibition, this is really good, it lasts 6 minutes, and is an A/V presentation.

** The Coral Seas **

This is another large tank, with many types of fish in here. There is a staged platform where you can sit and watch the fish. As with other areas of the Aquarium they give talks every now and again.
This particular one was (I guess for children) about Nemo. The talk was done by a guy who for a 20 year old had an extremely unhealthy knowledge of the film “Finding Nemo” That said he was really good, kept asking the kids questions about the film and awarding “spot prizes”
He was really informative, talking about how clownfish can survive in the anaenomies they frequent. He made comparisons about the fish in his tank, and the fish in the film. They make a big thing about the leatherback turtle in this tank – his name is Snorkel!! Sometimes you can see the divers in this tank too…

….and yes they do have clownfish here!!

Throughout my trip here, I kept bumping into small pirates!! See below in would I recommend it!

** Guide Book? **

This is a glossy coloured book, with loads of photos. There is a really interesting section which talks about how there made the big tank, and what is involved with the upkeep, they use 36 lettuces a week!!!! As mentioned earlier it cost £2.50, and I think is really good value. This was my second visit,, so I took my book from my last visit!

** What else ?? **

There are other things to do here, mainly eat and shop!!

** The café **

This has to be one of the best cafes going. It is worth going here just for the view. The whole place is light and airy, the frontage is all glass, so wherever you sit, you can see out over Plymouth Sound and Mountbatten Point. Be warned though, come early to get the window seats.

Food wise, it is basic stuff. I had a pasty and salad, it was £2.00, and it was really good. They have pizza, rolls, baguettes, jacket potatoes etc. Tea and coffee was about £1.20 (I generally take water, so didn’t buy any.
I noticed that they do children’s boxes, where you can select what to put in it.

After walking around the aquarium, I really did fancy fish and chips though :-)
It was understandable that they never had them!!

As you are going round, the café conveniently comes at the half way point!

** The shop **

Once you leave the last exhibit (the coral reef) you go out through a turnstile (this is where you can get your hand stamped to go back in). This leads you into the shop (where else). Here they sell all things fishy, plastic fish for the bath, for the wall, videos and clothes etc. They had a really good range of children’s soft toys. The books they had were very good. There was one section dedicated to all things Nemo From here you then leave the building, or you can go round again!!

The prices in this shop seemed to be quite reasonable.

You can access the shop without having to go through the aquarium. So if you are thinking of getting fishy things for Xmas pressies this may be the plaice to go (sorry couldn’t resist that!)

** Would I recommend it? **

Yes, I would say that it is a must if you are down in the West Country. The whole place is geared towards being informative, and fun. There is a lot for kids to do – I did notice that there were some children having a birthday party there. They had a member of staff with them. So if you live down that way, and want something unusual for the kids’ birthday party, this may work!

You will learn such a lot about our environment here; I won’t mention it all in this op, as I don’t want to spoil it for you.

The staff there were really friendly and helpful, those that did talks knew their fish really well, and you could tell that they really enjoyed working there.

I think for places like this the film Finding Nemo has done the most amazing good. They are getting people in who probably would never have gone here. This in turn generates income for the research that they carry out.

** Contact them? **

National Marine Aquarium
Rope Walk
Coxside
Plymouth
Devon
PL4 0LF

Tel 01752 600301
Fax 01752 600593

www.national-aquarium.co.uk

If you are thinking of going, or are just curious, then I would thoroughly recommend that you look at the web site, it is full of really useful information plus there are loads of pictures, which might help put this review into context.

Thanks for reading this, and if you go I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Larry