The first verse of the Poem of the Sea

The Poema del Mar Aquarium, the most spectacular one of its kind in Europe, opens a window to the marine universe in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

The oceans are now reciting their own verses on the island. The Poema del Mar, the grand aquarium in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, has opened its doors to offer a window to the marine universe. Its facilities are the most spectacular in Europe and is therefore set to become one of the great attractions, not only in the city and on the island, but in the Canaries as a whole.

Situated alongside the cruise ship harbour and just a few hundred metres from Las Canteras beach, the Poema del Mar Aquarium presents itself to the general public as a grand biodiversity theme park of our Blue Planet. It features three areas: shallow marine ecosystems, deep water marine ecosystems and fresh water species. Through these distinct environments, Poema del Mar closely recreates the real ecosystems of dozens of species that live both in and out of the water.

Visitors begins his route around by delving into the first of the areas, La Jungla, the jungle, which reproduces images of landscapes from all around the planet that pay tribute to the five contients. The second part of Poema del Mar, Arrecife (meaning reef), is walkway around an enormous cylindar with a volumen of over 400,000 litres of water, displaying a large variety of colours of coral and fish. The the route ends up at the Océano Profundo, or deep ocean.

Each section not only shows off more than 350 species from all over the planet, as some of them will be seen for the first time ever in an aquarium. Poema del Mar also features the largest curved window ever built in the world, a piece of perspex weighing over 140 tons, measuring 36 metres long and 7 metres high, providing a gigantic panoramic viewpoint for visitors.

Poema del Mar is home for thousands of species from many different places; from continents including Africa and Asia, to countries such as Australia. There are also ferns of all kinds as well as beautiful plants, which together with other trees including palm trees make the jungle a stunning setting to accompany the area representing rivers and lagoons, alongside this marine world.

There will areas dedicated especially to the Canaries, one of these being El Veril, a kind of enclosed vault in which visitors will be able to get up close to over a hundred fish including morenas, gallitos verdes and viejas, among others. The facilities are designed so that visitors can get the feeling they can virtually touch an ecosystem which is otherwise highly difficult to reach. Among all the species on show, there is one very special one: the pejeperro fish, which leads the way in terms of specialist Canary species in this particular biodiversity region.

Through this, the city skyline of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria will be changed for ever, as once it is open to the public, the building will light up the surrounding area with insinuating silhouettes of bull sharks, to remind us that the marine world is nearer to us than ever before, reciting its own particular poem of blues, foams, ocean depths and salty waters.