Treasures of the Deep

You can trawl through the world's oceans in a day at a new Spanish attraction, says Annie Bennett
(Filed: 11/02/2003)

Europe's biggest marine park, the Oceanographic, opens next week in Valencia. Designed by Felix Candela, it is part of the spectacular City of Arts and Sciences, which already comprises a science museum, planetarium and botanical garden. The project will be completed when a stunning opera house opens next year.

The Oceanographic contains 45,000 fish, invertebrates and marine mammals, representing 500 species. The exhibits are displayed in a series of sculptural structures, arranged around a huge lake, each devoted to a different sea. You enter via a pavilion with an undulating roof like the petals of a giant water lily, an effect reminiscent of the work of Antoni Gaudi. The first area deals with the Mediterranean, with seven aquariums recreating different environments inhabited by rays, moray eels, sea cucumbers and scorpion fish. There is a contact pool, where you can touch some of them. I crawled into an area known as the Reef, where waves crashed noisily all around me while various kinds of bream swam happily through the swirling water.

In the Temperate Zone, I was fascinated by the giant crabs recreating the Izu Peninsula in Japan, which lies on one of the biggest fault lines in the world. After cooing at the seals, I ventured into an underwater cave where noises, smells and tastes assaulted my senses. The cave is specially adapted for the visually and physically impaired, but is open to everyone. In the Oceans area, sharks swam just above my head as I walked through a 115ft tunnel that took me across the Atlantic from the Canaries to Bermuda.

Above ground, a mesh globe, 85ft high, houses the Wetlands, recreating marshland and mangrove swamps. I crossed the lake via teak walkways to the Submarino restaurant, housed in another water lily pavilion. Although there is a variety of places to eat and drink around the complex, this is a proper restaurant that is open for dinner as well as for visitors to the marine park. I swept down a grand staircase to the circular room, where diners sit on suede chairs the colour of golden sand, while thousands of glittering fish glide past in the turquoise aquariums surrounding the space.

A structure like a huge scallop shell turned out to be an underwater auditorium, where the backdrop to the stage is an aquarium recreating the Red Sea. Nearby is the Dolphin-arium, where 20 bottlenose dolphins will live in five pools. The stand can hold 2,200 spectators at a time for the shows, which aim to be educational as well as entertaining.

There is an important research centre on site, where projects include the reproduction of species in danger of extinction. The marine biologists will also be monitoring the behaviour of the white whales and walruses housed in an igloo structure where the aurora borealis is projected on to the ceiling.

You could easily spend a whole day in the Oceanographic, and another day in the rest of the City of Arts and Sciences, which was designed by Santiago Calatrava, but be sure to leave time enough for exploring Valencia itself.

• The Oceanographic (0034 902 100031; www.cac.es) opens on Saturday. Open daily 10am-6pm weekdays, 10am-8pm weekends. From mid-March, open 10am-8pm weekdays, 10am-10pm weekends. Admission is about £13 or £8 for children. Combined ticket for Oceanographic, planetarium and science museum £17/£12.

The original article is at:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/main.jhtml?xml=/travel/2003/02/11/etfish09.xml

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