Shaw Ocean Discovery Center in Sydney on Vancouver Island

The Shaw Ocean Discovery Center in Sydney BC near Victoria

Rarely has anything surprised and impressed me as much as the Shaw Ocean Discovery Center in Sidney BC on Vancouver Island. We are interested in the animals that live in the depths of our oceans and we also find them fascinating. A visit to the aquarium is always exciting, precisely because you hardly get to see these creatures otherwise. Usually there is something special to discover. However, at the Shaw Ocean Discovery Center it wasn't just one species or a few that fascinated me. On the contrary, what impressed me so much was the diversity of the underwater creatures, but above all their color palette, which takes your breath away. All the yellow, blue, pink, white, violet and other colors that were swimming, crawling and gliding around.

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Jellyfish at the Shaw Ocean Discovery Center in Sidney on Vancouver Island — Jellyfish at the Shaw Ocean Discovery Center in Vancouver Island

Underwater experience at Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre

The underwater experience begins even before we enter the aquarium. In the elevator that takes us from the entrance hall to the "deeps of the sea", it bubbles and gurgles as if we are actually diving into the ocean around Vancouver Island. At the same time, light games simulate illusions for the eye. We feel like we're in a wet suit. In this we swim down to the creatures that populate the waters off the coasts of the island. The experience is amplified when the elevator doors open. We are looking directly at waters in blue, in which dozens of jellyfish in yellow twist and squirm like in a sea ballet. Tentacles twirl transparent white shimmering beings through the water that look like they're being lit by a lamp inside. I find the jellyfish in sunny yellow even nicer, pushing themselves through the water with their tentacles. Some of them look like ballerina tutus.

Underwater world at the Shaw Ocean Discovery Center in Sidney around Vancouver Island

Jellyfish, fish and animals hiding in the sand

But it's not just the jellyfish that offer a feast for the eyes in these waters. Almost every showcase that we see shows us fish and creatures in all colors, which also make this coast interesting for divers. It's teeming with red, blue and brown fish frolicking in the water. In between, we can hardly believe our eyes when suddenly stones - or what we thought were stones - start to move and turn out to be a sea wolf or a fish.

Sea anemones at Shaw Ocean Discovery Center in Sidney on Vancouver Island — Sea anemones at the Shaw Ocean Discovery Center in Sidney on Vancouver Island

Sea anemones at the Shaw Ocean Discovery Center in Sidney

The sea anemones are colorful, fanning krill with their tentacles. This disappears in the gullet amidst their tentacles, which wag through the water. Actually practical - the food comes straight from the water into the stomach. Here, too, everything shines in pink, yellow, orange, reddish brown and snow-white. The sea around Vancouver Island is hard to beat in terms of colour. Very different from the depths of the St. Lawrence River. There are also creatures that fascinate. But the variety of colors is lacking as we see in Explorers in Ste-Anne-des-Monts could determine.

Check out Petar's video about the aquarium

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