Seas from around the world recite their finest verses to you in Gran Canaria. Poema del Mar, the grand aquarium in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the most spectacular venue of its kind in Europe, opens its massive windows to the marine universe which will fascínate every single member of the family. Are you ready to dive into these wonderful oceans?
The Poema del Mar Aquarium, located alongside the cruise harbour and just a short walk away from the city beach of Las Canteras, announces itself to the general public as a showcase of the Blue Planet’s biodiversity. The tour’s itinerary is divided into three different, but equally exciting, areas: shallow water marine ecosystems, deep water marine ecosystems, and fresh water species. These environments have recreated, with the greatest accuracy possible, the natural ecosystems of hundreds of species.
We start off our visit by submerging ourselves the first of the visiting areas, the Jungle, which reproduces images of landscapes from all over the planet, in a tribute to the five continents. The second stage of Poema del Mar, called the Reef, is a walkway structure around a cylinder containing over 400,000 litres of water, in whose interior fish can be seen swimming over a coral field. The route then concludes at the Deep Ocean.
The Poema del Mar doesn’t only put over 350 different species before our eyes, as some of them are on display for the first time ever in an aquarium. Poema del Mar can also boast having the largest curved window ever built, this being a piece of perspex over 140 tons in weight, 36 metres in length and 7 metres high, making it a gigantic viewing screen of marine landscapes.
Poema del Mar is home to examples from all kinds of places, from the continents of Africa and Asia, to countries such as Australia. And it is actually also a garden, because between its walls there are ferns of all kinds and many beautiful plants, which together with other trees and palm trees add a real shine to this stunning jungle that accompanies the magnificent representation of the spacious environment, dedicated to the rivers and lagoons together with their marine world.
The waters around the Canaries are represented at El Veril, a dome cover where visitors can contemplate over a hundred moray eels, green gallito fish and colourful viejas, among other local species. The whole set up is designed so that visitors get the impression they can almost get their hands on an otherwise unreachable ecosystem. Of all the species present there is one that stands out, namely the pejeperro, which has become the champion of all the islands’ species. Facilities also include a restaurant and an events room.
The Poema del Mar is like a serenade to the treasures from the depths, while writing the final verse to an ode to time and art. A century ago, illustrious Gran Canarian painter Néstor Martín-Fernández de la Torre, considered one of Europe’s finest ever symbolist and modernist artists, created a collection of pictures entitled Poema del Atlántico (Poem of the Atlantic), also known as Poema del Mar (Poem of the Sea). Néstor’s canvasses were inhabited by a mixture of fantasy and real marine creatures. In the case of Poema del Mar, everything, absolutely everything, is as real as it is fascinating.
To check out prices and to purchase tickets, go to the official website.
Acuario Poema del Mar
Address: Muelle Sanapú.
35008 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
E-mail: info@poema-del-mar.com
Telephone: (+34) 928 010 350
Website: www.poema-del-mar.com
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