Sea Life Sydney Aquarium

Sea Life Sydney Aquarium is the world's largest indoor system of Australian marine life, with 60 tanks and three oceanaria filled with more than 13,000 animals from 700 different species. Highlights include Shark Valley, the Day and Night on the Reef exhibit inspired by the Great Barrier Reef, the Penguin Expedition and Dugong Island.

The Aquarium has a focus on conservation and education; one of its achievements is helping to rehabilitate the local population of the endangered White's seahorse. Many of the larger creatures who live here are rescued animals who would not survive in the wild. 

Kid's eye view

(Reviewed by: Bill Blake, aged 8)

My favourite bit of the Aquarium is Shark Valley. I like the design. It is like an ancient Atlantic ruin. It has a creepy head of King Neptune. Sometimes small sharks swim through the eyes. You go through a tunnel under the water with sharks and fish swimming above and around you. The tunnel seems to be made out of ancient stones. That’s cool.

I really like the Spotted Wobbegong. It has whiskers. I also like the Port Jackson shark. The biggest shark in the tank is the Lemon Shark. I learnt that a shark’s skin feels more like sandpaper than rubber or plastic. It’s because it has tiny little teeth all over its body called denticles.

Shark Valley also has the biggest stingray in the world. It’s called a Smooth Ray.

I saw a Port Jackson shark in the Little Penguin enclosure. It’s in there because it is an ideal place to raise young sharks. The penguins leave the shark alone and the shark leaves the penguins alone. Port Jackson sharks don’t eat penguins, they eat crustaceans and small fish. They act like a vacuum cleaner on the bottom of the tank.

The Little Penguins are the smallest penguins in the world, also known as Blue Penguins and Little Blue Penguins, and Fairy Penguins. They have lots of names. I think they are very cute. I just want to get in and cuddle them!

The Moon Jellies are very cool. They look like aliens. They are see-through and they are 99 per cent water. I liked the incredibly clever Sydney Octopus. It has nine brains. It has one brain in its head and other brains in each of its eight legs.

I could use octopus suction cups for the suction cups on my Nerf bullets. That would be very cool.

Zoe the platypus was swimming around instead of hiding. She looked very strange. She had like a duck’s beak and a beaver’s tail. She was nibbling on blood worms and shrimp. I learned that a baby platypus is called a Puggle.

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