Exploris - The Northern Ireland Aquarium

Exploris in Portaferry is Northern Ireland's only aquarium. It's one of a kind and was opened as 'The Northern Ireland Aquarium' in 1987 and then later re-opened by Prince Charles in 1994 as Exploris. Personally, when I think of aquariums I think of cold, blue spaces that smell of fish and damp...so when it was suggested that I go to Exploris for my twentieth birthday I wasn't too sure. However, I'm a sucker for nature and, quite frankly, the idea of doing something that denied my new found adult status was quite appealing. 

From the moment we walked through the doors my opinion was changed and I even felt a bit guilty for doubting the aquarium's ability to entertain, inform and amuse. One of the main reasons that I wanted to go to Exploris was my nine month old nephew, who, although maybe a little young to glean any actual educational information from our visit, clapped and gurgled his way around, appreciating the colours, sounds and textures. 

We allowed 2 hours for fun at the aquarium, so arrived around 3pm, two hours before the closing time of 5pm (the website says to allow around an hour, but two hours was plenty of time to leisurely take in all the sights and even take in a visit to the gift shop). 

Opening hours and prices look like this:

At 3.30pm we saw divers feeding the fish and they interacted with the children looking through the thick glass, waving, motioning and demonstrating how the fish and other sea creatures lived and fed.

Then, we were just in time to catch another demonstration at one of the discovery pools. This was the most enjoyable aspect of the day, the demonstration was very informative and humorous and it's always fun to be able to interact with the creatures first hand.

A very knowledgable guide showed us starfish, sea urchin, scallops, Thornback ray fish, flat fish and a small shark species called a dogfish. We were shown each species and some, such as the starfish were passed around the group as we were told about their feeding habits and some interesting facts about how they live. We were also allowed to touch the species in the pool and everyone thoroughly enjoyed this aspect of the discovery pools as there's something extremely satisfying about actually being able to interact with the seal life.

       

As soon as this demonstration was over, it was time for the seals to be fed outside in the seal sanctuary. As the feeder was feeding the seals in the pool, she told us a little about the sanctuary itself and answered all of our questions about seals and life in the sanctuary. 

There are also six hospital pools for injured or orphaned seals to inhabit until they get better. Here's a list of this season's rescues. There's also a 'seal cam' where you can view the seals (if you go on about 4pm, you can see the seals being fed!).

At the time we went there was the topical:

 Ocean Olympians Exhibition

30th June - 3rd September 2012

Meet the medal hopefuls of the marine world, from the sprint to the high jump and synchronized swimming to heavyweight boxing. Let the Games commence! 

Although we went after the 3rd September, the exhibition was still there, with lots of fun facts and comparisons between sealife and real-life Olympians.

Overall, Exploris is a well-run, extremely interesting experience that I thoroughly enjoyed and I'd recommend it to anyone who has a few hours to spend, especially parents of young children. There's even the Tides Cafe for when you're peckish which is open from 10.30am - 5.30pm in the Summer and 11.00am - 4pm in the Winter.

 By Laura Caldwell