View the fish at Birch Aquarium!Birch Aquarium is located in beautiful La Jolla and is part of UCSD. You can spend part of the day at the aquarium and then finish the day at the beach and exploring downtown La Jolla. There are seven main exhibit halls: - Hall of Fishes, featuring more than 60 tanks of Pacific fishes and invertebrates from the cold waters of the Pacific Northwest to the tropical waters of Mexico and the Caribbean. The largest habitat is a 70,000-gallon kelp tank forest. The tank can be viewed live online through the Kelp Cam. - Shark Reef, a 13,000-gallon tank with shark species that inhabit tropical reef habitats, including whitetip and blacktip reef sharks, brownbanded bamboo sharks, Port Jackson sharks, and wobbegongs. Interpretive panels on shark biology and conservation accompany the reef. - Tide Pool Plaza, featuring three living tide pools where visitors can touch and learn about tide-pool animals with docents. Windows in the habitats provide up-close views of starfish, hermit crabs, sea cucumbers, lobsters, and other animals local to San Diego's tide pools. The tide pool overlooks La Jolla and the Pacific Ocean. - Coral Reef, featuring live coral and reef inhabitants such as lionfish, chambered nautilus, and giant clams. The gallery has interactive displays on the latest Scripps research on coral reefs around the world. The staff creates live corals for aquarium displays without harming natural coral reefs. - The Art of Deception showcases marine creatures that use camouflage for survival, including frogs, fish and leafy sea dragons. - Wonders of Water allows visitors to learn about erosion, water flow, and ocean currents by creating rapids, canals, dams and islands at interactive water stations. - Feeling the Heat: The Climate Challenge presents the science of global warming and highlights Scripps Institution of Oceanography's half-century of research on climate change.[9] Through interactive activities, the exhibit shows visitors current environmental changes and those projected for the future. It also presents the latest ideas for reducing carbon emissions. In Fall 2007, the exhibit was named the Silver winner in museum design for the 2007 Event Design Awards. Sponsored by Connecticut-based Event Design Magazine, the annual awards recognize the best designs worldwide across events, exhibits and environments. For more information, ticket prices, and admission fees click on the link...
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