Note: I actually visited Busan Aquarium during my recent trip to Haeundae Beach, but have been so busy that I hadn’t actually written the post until just yesterday. Without further ado, here’s Busan Aquarium.
Right along Haeundae Beach is Busan Aquarium, a multi-story aquarium definitely for the tourist crowd. It’s within walking distance of the beach and subway, and offers English at most every turn.
After paying admission and descending the escalator, your eyes gradually adjust to the dark that comprises the majority of the underground space. It certainly attunes your eyes to the clever and changing light displays, but some of them were overkill to say the least.
Just one of the more unusual fish species here.
Because complete skeletons stay in a sitting formation after they fall into water – a interesting, but odd, touch.
No idea if they actually go for fish or not, but hey, it’s colorful.
Zie zie, monsieur, or some other French comes to mind. Anybody else remember Finding Nemo? This is one example of some rather annoying ‘spectrum’ lighting, where the light would gradually change color from red to orange, orange to yellow, and so on through the color spectrum.
A two-story aquarium – look down from the upper floor or up from the lower floor, but most of the fish seemed happy near the top. Those scientists that study what depth a fish ideally prefers to be at would have a field day here.
Yep – that branch-like thing is a fish – you’d have to watch it carefully to see it move very slowly.
One highlight – the jellyfish, combined with some good lighting, seem quite graceful in the two-color environment.
Because kids like to jump on animals – combine a projector with a touch-sensitive floor and you get a game where kids (or the occasional adult) would try to jump on an animal before it disappeared and emerged from another hole.
The underwater shark tunnel – it’s less ominous than it looks.
Sharks swimming to your left, right, or above you – interesting but completely safe.
Crawl through a short tunnel, then stand up to be surrounded by seals up close and personal.
As you might expect, no tourist-friendly place goes without a souvenir shop, mostly catering to the winey ‘Mommy I want this!’ crowd. Not pictured was the food court offering several fairly standard food options after your trip.
As expected, Busan Aquarium provides the fascinating experience into the world of water animals you might expect. Being located on Haeundae Beach and within throwing distance of the Tourist Information Center, it’s quite nice to have everything in one place. My main complaint? The price – 16,000 won gets an adult in, and that’s it. Maybe those lighting displays cost some won to install. Go if you’re in Busan or want to relax after your visit to the beach.
Directions to Busan Aquarium: Presuming you can get to or are already in Busan, take line 2 of the Busan subway system to the Haeundae Beach station. Take one of the two exits towards Haeundae Beach and walk straight until you come to the beach. Don’t worry about walking on the sand – when you reach the sand, turn right to walk alongside the sand until you see the Busan Aquarium, about 200-250 meters down.
