Mason's Travel: Attractions and Activities

Tuesday, 15 September 2015

Attractions and Activities

New Aquarium Opens in Seychelles

A new aquarium in has opened in Seychelles, offering tourists and locals alike the opportunity to discover the amazing secrets of the underwater world without even getting their feet wet.

Eden Aquarium, which is situated in the Eden Plaza mall on Eden Island just off the eastern coastline of the Seychelles’ main island of Mahé, opened last week, with an official launch ceremony.

Knowledgeable guides are always on hand to help the visitors discover every gem hidden within the aquarium’s 33 tanks. The tanks display rare and brightly-coloured marine fish taken from the natural reef surroundings of the Seychelles archipelago of 115 islands.
Also on display are a wide variety of hard and soft corals, anemones, starfish, sea urchins, colourful sea slugs, sea snails and rare seahorses.

The aquarium’s star attractions are a number of large Moray eels, including geometric eels, grey-spotted and one very curious and flamboyant honeycomb Moray eel, proudly displaying his leopard-like markings.

Another distinctive feature of the aquarium which makes it more similar to its large overseas counterparts are the tanks dedicated to particular types of marine environments – there is a tank displaying the distinctively round rocks with corals perched on top of them from the reefs around Ile aux Recifs (Recif Island) and another two featuring some rare fish and corals from Fregate Island and Bird Island.

Another notable display is the coastal mangrove wetland, a tank with a functioning mangrove system in the water, which iss populated by some species typically inhabiting such environments, such as the common mullet and the wolffish.

After passing through the aquarium section, visitors exit through a door which brings them back to the main reception, also the site of the gift shop, which exhibits plenty of sea-themed treasures for young and old, including plush toys for children and t-shirts with beautiful marine art.

Source: Seychelles News Agency