The National Aquarium in Baltimore is a world-class aquatic institution dedicated to environmental education and stewardship. Its more than 14,000 animals represent more than 650 species of fishes, birds, amphibians, reptiles and marine mammals that live in award-winning, recreated habitats representing unique locations worldwide. Aquarium visitors journey from the top of the rainforest to the depths of the ocean to explore the magical connection between water and all living things.
OUTSIDE ON PIER 3
The Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Waterfront Park
The Weinberg Waterfront Park is a distinctive plaza that welcomes visitors to the Aquarium and Inner Harbor. It provides a relaxing and educational setting that explores Maryland’s diverse ecosystems – from the ocean, coastal plains and Chesapeake Bay, through the Piedmont region and west to the Allegheny mountains.
THE CRYSTAL PAVILION
Animal Planet Australia: Wild Extremes
This brand new exhibit depicts a typical northern Australia river gorge. It is home to 1,800 individual native animals representing 120 species, including freshwater crocodiles, turtles, fishes, free-flying birds and flying foxes. This slice of Australia in Baltimore offers visitors a truly immersive experience: walking through the bottom of the gorge they come nose to nose with free-roaming lizards basking on rocky cliffs, see colorful birds swooping and squawking overhead, perhaps feel a squirt of water as an archer fish hunts for its food, view flying foxes hanging from cliff-side trees and appreciate the thick acrylic that separates them from the freshwater crocodiles and venomous death adder snakes.
PIER 3 AQUARIUM BUILDING
Wings in the Water - Level 1
Dozens of stingrays and many small sharks can be seen from the surface or through the underwater viewing windows of this 260,000-gallon pool, home to one of the largest ray collections in the country. Divers feed rays underwater and offer narrations above water daily.
Maryland: Mountains to the Sea - Level 2
Four exhibits depict Maryland habitats in a water cycle that moves from an Allegheny stream through a tidal marsh and coastal beach and out to the continental shelf. Bullfrogs, diamondback terrapins and striped bass are just some of the animals that show the diversity of Maryland's unique aquatic life.
Surviving through Adaptations - Level 3
In this multi-exhibit gallery, diverse animals demonstrate how adaptations help them survive. A giant Pacific octopus devours a crab, groupers lurk, jawfish burrow and electric eels audibly generate electricity.
North Atlantic to Pacific - Level 4
On this Aquarium "trip," visitors explore Atlantic sea cliffs (home to playful puffins and the only black guillemots on display in the country), an undersea kelp forest and a brilliant Pacific reef. A fiber optics exhibit reminds visitors of the fragility of rain forests, before they visit the Aquarium’s Amazon River Forest Exhibit.
Amazon River Forest - Level 4
The exhibit portrays an Amazon tributary at the beginning stage of its seasonal flooding into the surrounding forest. Visitors saunter along a 57-foot stretch of riverbank spotting dwarf caimans, pygmy marmosets (the world’s tiniest monkeys) and enormous fish. Also living in and around the river are turtles and thousands of large and small fishes. Two small displays portray identical slices of the river forest: one in the rainy season, and the other in the dry season. This exhibit complements the Aquarium’s Upland Tropical Rain Forest under the glass pyramid on the top level and the Hidden Life exhibit containing small and camouflaged rainforest animals.
South American Upland Tropical Rain Forest - Level 5
Tropical birds fly, poison dart frogs hop, piranhas swim, sloths hang and tamarin monkeys scamper among thousands of rainforest plants in this jungle habitat, situated under a towering glass pyramid that’s an icon of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. This world-renown rainforest exhibit includes rare woods, plants and animals that are being destroyed at alarming rates.
Atlantic Coral Reef - From Level 4 to 3
Hundreds of colorful tropical fish swim and school on an authentic fabricated reef in this 335,000-gallon, 12-feet deep exhibit. More than 500 exotic fish from species such as triggerfish, porcupine fish and hogfish surround visitors as they walk through the exhibit. Divers feed the reef’s fish several times each day.
Open Ocean - From Level 2 to 1
Sharks of varying sizes and species slowly encircle visitors inside this 225,000-gallon, ring-shaped exhibit. Aquarium-goers come nose-to-nose with the sharks and learn to identify the many characteristics of the world’s 400 shark species.
PIER 4 AQUARIUM BUILDING
Dolphin Amphitheater
Spend as much time as you like watching our Atlantic bottlenose dolphins. Staff lead presentations, feeding and enrichment sessions throughout the day and help visitors learn more about the world-class care we provide these amazing creatures.
Frogs: A Chorus of Colors
Visitors are introduced to the amazing and colorful world of anurans – the frogs – in this new exhibit. Displays include frogs common and exotic in the United States and interactive stations that allow visitors to compare their vision to a frog’s and participate in other fun activities.
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