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 both among the guests of the city and among the Petersburgers themselves. It is often called one of the main attractions of the northern capital. More than half a million people visit it every year. The Oceanarium (St. Petersburg) is equipped with wide elevators and ramps, which ensures the convenience of movement for people with disabilities. The architect from Finland, Hanu Laitila, worked on the building project.
Exposure Features
Oceanarium (St. Petersburg) "Neptune" is famous for its living collection, which includes more than five thousand specimens of aquatic invertebrates and fish of two hundred species. The total exposition area 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 take a closer look at them.
Zone of the northwestern territory of Russia
In this part of the exposition you can admire perches, zander, pikes, carp, sturgeon, three-spined smelt and crucians. Here, the species of those fish that live in the country's freshwater reservoirs are represented as fully as possible.
Tropical zonerain forests
You can see fish from Southeast Asia, Africa and South America in it. Particularly admired are specimens found in the Amazon - piranhas, arapaima, discus and stingrays.
Road to the Ocean
This exposition was opened quite recently - in 2012. Thanks to her, visitors get from the fresh zone to the sea. There are two aquariums with inhabitants of bottomless waters. One of them is seven meters deep.
Rocky Shore Zone
This part of the aquarium is equipped with open aquariums-pools. Starfish, stingrays, horseshoe crabs, cat sharks and some other inhabitants of coastal waters swim in them. The exposition is equipped with an installation for simulating surf waves. In addition, visitors are given the opportunity to watch the development of cat shark embryos.
Main Aquarium
In a huge capacity of 750 thousand liters there is a transparent thirty-five-meter tunnel and a viewing window measuring seven by three meters. The area of this aquarium is 290 sq. m, and the depth is three and a half meters. The automatically moving path passes coral reefs and underwater rocks and leads to the sunken ship. In the aquarium you can see representatives of various types of sharks - zebra, blacktip, lemon, reef. Their neighbors are groupers and moray eels. The process of feeding sharks is a real show, which is not averse to attend the aquarium's visitors.
Zonecoral reef
This part of the exhibit showcases the richest variety of crabs, sea urchins, live corals and other coral reef creatures.
Marine Mammal Zone
Here you can admire the long-nosed gray seals that inhabit the waters of the B altic Sea. The oldest honorable inhabitant is Uma. This wounded seal was accidentally found in 2007 in the coastal part of the Gulf of Finland, in the suburbs of the northern capital. Two more mammals were transferred from the Lithuanian aquarium in the same year.
Show
The described oceanarium (St. Petersburg) is a place where demonstrative feedings of marine life are held daily. Anyone can watch rays, crabs, piranhas, starfish, cat sharks and more 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 reverse osmosis unit, the liquid is sequentially purified. The waters of the B altic Sea are not used due to their serious pollution and low salinity.
All aquariums are equipped with an individual life support system, which is a closed filtration structure. At the same time, a different temperature is maintained in each container. So, for spider crabs, it should be in the range of 12-14 degrees, for local fish - 16-18 ˚С, and for tropical fish - 28 ˚С. For this purpose, aquariums are equipped with systemsliquid cooling and heating.
The diving service regularly inspects large-capacity aquariums. The duties of the chief ichthyopathologist include monitoring the well-being and he alth of marine life. As for the aquarist, he samples the fish, ensures their acclimatization process and observes the ecosystems.
Training center activities
Involved teachers have been developing and implementing various educational programs for school-age children since 2007. The Oceanarium on Marata (St. Petersburg) is a place where thematic classes and excursions are constantly held on geography, ecology, biodiversity and many other topics. In order to popularize knowledge in biology and geography, an annual competition called the "Great Regatta" is held. It is a city inter-museum competition-travel initiated by the administration of the oceanarium and supported by various educational institutions and museums of the northern capital.
The contest is dedicated to geographical discoveries, sea voyages, the history of shipbuilding, biology of oceans and seas. It takes place during the academic year. The "Big Regatta" can be attended by school and family teams that need to complete certain tasks by visiting certain museums.
Financial side of the issue
The St. Petersburg Oceanarium (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 established byinitiative of the employees of one of the largest shipbuilding enterprises of the Russian Federation - the Central Design Bureau of Marine Engineering "Rubin". Today, one of the active areas of the company's work is the construction of commercial oceanariums and aquariums.
Basic rules
Are you interested in the aquarium in St. Petersburg? Visitor reviews note that you should be prepared to check with a metal detector. This procedure can be initiated by the security service at its own discretion. Under the ban are weapons of any type, as well as explosives, narcotic and odorous substances. It is forbidden to enter the aquarium with bulky items (suitcases, bags, boxes, etc.), food and drinks, animals. People under the influence of drugs or alcohol are not allowed to visit. Flash photography, throwing anything into the aquariums, and touching the exhibits are not allowed in the Aquarium.
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 - Marata street, 86) is located in the building of the Planet Neptune shopping and entertainment complex.
Estimated costs
The price 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 be charged 450 rubles for entry. For schoolchildren and students, the fee is reduced by 200 rubles. Visiting the aquarium from 2 to 5 inweekdays will cost adults five hundred rubles, and schoolchildren and students three hundred. Most entry fees are required after 5pm. Adult ticket - 550 rubles, children and school tickets - 350 rubles. On weekends and holidays, the entrance fee automatically rises in price by one hundred rubles.
A separate fee is paid for the excursion program. 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 price for the entrance ticket. On the official website of the oceanarium - planeta-neptun.ru - you can issue tickets and immediately pay for them using MasterCard or Visa plastic cards.
Conclusion
Do you want to know the secrets of the underwater world? The St. Petersburg Oceanarium will help with this. Reviews of visitors are unanimous in one thing: 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 queues at the box office. The positive aspects are the presence of an audio guide, spacious elevators, no smells, interesting show programs.
