Blue Entrance

EXPLORE THE AQUARIUM

Close Encounters

The light becomes soft, the pools open like windows onto the oceans and time slows down.

Jellyfish dance hypnotically, eagle rays glide elegantly with their broad, majestic wings, and coral reefs explode with color and life.

Sharks, penguins, stingrays and jellyfish are just some of the many protagonists of this exciting journey.

The blue entrance is an immersion in the history and biological evolution of the planet : some tanks house species that have still survived today after millions of years, such as large sharks considered living fossils.

It's a journey around the world, but beneath the surface ! From the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, to the splendid and colorful coral reef of the Red Sea, populated by vibrant organisms. All the Aquarium's tanks reveal wonders ! The smaller ones recreate diverse ecosystems, rich in life and mystery. The Aquarium becomes not only a fascinating place, but an environment for observation and learning that allows humans to gain greater contact with the marine world.

Getting to know the sea up close is the first step to learning to truly love and protect it.

the large shark tank

The protagonists of the Cattolica Aquarium are the sharks that can be admired in the large central tank with 700,000 litres of water where bull sharks and nurse sharks coexist.

The relationship between humans and Chondrichthyes has always been balanced, despite competition and fear. However, in recent decades , many species have been classified as endangered due to the growing human population, technological developments in fishing and navigation, and environmental degradation.

The characteristics that have allowed sharks to adapt to the evolution of planet Earth are the same ones that make them vulnerable to the negative effects of human action.

penguins

The new Penguin exhibit is an essential part of the mission of Cattolica Aquarium, which has always been committed to raising the awareness of the public and educating it on the conservation, use and responsible management of aquatic environments by discovering animal species and their habitats.

jellyfish

Jellyfish , mysterious and fascinating organisms that none of us would ever want to encounter unless we visit an aquarium, are made up of 90% water and have a parachute-shaped body that reaches 40 cm in diameter and a series of stinging tentacles with which they capture prey.

In the Aquarium's portholes, you can follow the life cycle of the Moon Jellyfish , very common in the Mediterranean. This jellyfish has a soft, gelatinous , cup-shaped umbrella, whose edge appears frayed by the presence of numerous short, hollow tentacles.

Then there is the Cassiopeia andromeda jellyfish, which lives resting on the sandy bottoms of the deep sea and wanders silently without being able to defend itself, because it lacks stinging tentacles.

The mangrove

At the Cattolica Aquarium there are sea nannies !

With their aerial roots, mangroves are important refuges for fish, crustaceans, and mollusks. Mangrove ecosystems are currently estimated to occupy less than 15 million hectares and have lost a quarter of their extent since 1980.

Mangroves are beneficial to the ecosystem for a myriad of reasons: they protect from tides, hurricanes, and floods, reduce coastal and river erosion, prevent offshore waters from becoming cloudy to protect coral reefs, are refuges for birds, habitats for indigenous peoples, support biodiversity, recycle organic materials, provide water and groundwater recharge basins, and are a cultural, spiritual, religious, and artistic heritage.

In the corridors of the blue entrance, you can immerse yourself in the Aquarium's Mangrove , to learn about issues related to the ecosystem services offered by this type of forest.

Trigonal Tub

In the final stretch of the Blue Entrance is the beautiful Stingray Pool. The largest of these are the Dasyatis violacea , so named for their brownish-purple, almost black, color. They can reach a width of 80 cm and a maximum length of 190 cm.

Stingrays also live in the Adriatic Sea and feed on jellyfish, squid, crustaceans, and fish. Like their relatives, sharks, they have a cartilaginous skeleton. At the end of their tails, they have a venomous stingray used for defense. For safety reasons, within the Aquarium, the stingray is periodically cut off, completely painlessly.

Some of the stingrays housed in the tank were born at the Cattolica Aquarium. This tank is a Touchpool , or tactile tank: the public can pet them alongside the experts, following the rules.

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Yellow Entrance