Atlanta's Georgia Aquarium, Part ll – Experiencing Ocean Voyager

So far, our visit to the Georgia Aquarium has taken us through a corridor of endlessly racing, mesmerizing jack crevalles, delicate jellies dazzling us with their floating dance, a kelp forest and the biggest coral reef exhibit I’ve ever seen, complete with waves surging dramatically overhead. River Scout, Georgia Explorer, Tropical Diver and Cold Water Quest are definitely worth visiting. The touch-pools are a visual and tactile treat, and offer more than the standard horseshoe crabs and starfish. You'll get a chance to stroke bonnethead sharks and silky soft cownosed rays gently with your fingers.

But what the Georgia Aquarium is really all about is the open ocean, and the pinnacle of the entire venture is the highly ambitious Ocean Voyager.

Sawfish, wobbegongs and giant guitarfish glide silently overhead as I enter the tunnel. It’s a constant parade; perplexingly odd hammerheads; massive rays that flap and glide languidly; tiger sand sharks, the stereotypic predators bearing gruesome jagged teeth; groupers; schools of trevally, pompano, tarpon, Atlantic spadefish and batfish, sporting rich wide stripes, all in constant, gentle motion, streaming by in a carousel-like cycle. Every move, every moment, is dramatic.

The tunnels impress, but the magnificence and grandeur of the ocean really come alive in the 6.3 million gallon open-water exhibit. This massive display makes Georgia’s aquarium the largest in the country. Acrylic panels 63’ long and 28’ high provide one of the largest viewing areas anywhere.

Here is the home of the only Manta ray currently being displayed in the US; here, fish by the hundreds school, hunt and roam as they would in the open ocean, painting huge brush-strokes of wonder, accompanied by symphonic music. If you’re a certified SCUBA diver, you can even purchase a swim and actually be surrounded by the living mosaic, including hammerheads, rays, and surreal, never-before-displayed whale sharks, gliding like giant speckled air-ships above the rest of the ocean realm.

This is the closest most of us will ever get to experiencing such a functional, multi-species, living tapestry of open-ocean splendor.

Here is the place to spend most of your time just observing. Don’t rush through it. There are thousands of varied creatures in natural social groups and more space than ever before provided in captivity, so the animals are able to indulge in natural behaviors. This is also where the SCUBA divers will be, with their plumes of air bubbles streaming to the surface, getting the best view in the house of this monumental display.

Poke around in the viewing nooks and crannies. Maybe you’ll spy a ray or grouper hiding out nearby. Out in open water, ghostly images will mysteriously appear from the depths, only to sail placidly by. Maybe an unexpected, synchronistic confluence of aquatic travelers will compose a breath-taking visual symphony in the watery mural for a few heart-stopping moments before disbanding. The living designs will be fleeting, but memorable. Take a look at some of the images and videos for the next-best-thing to actually being there.

I had to keep reminding myself that it was OK to show the edges of the exhibit and the human visitors in some of my videos; the allure of an actual open-ocean documentary was so tempting. It isn’t until you see the people, though, that the scope and impact of this immense project really hits you.

Soon the belugas, dolphins and other marine wildlife will be available for viewing and will make the trip that much more complete. Even so, I feel I barely had time to scratch the surface during my two hour stay.

Is this the best aquarium in the United States?

While some of the exhibits are admittedly less-than stellar, what the Georgia Aquarium does well, it does really, really well. In fact, I can’t imagine anything nicer than spending the afternoon transfixed in front of the world’s largest salt-water fish tank.

That there is a strong conservation message and education/research program also makes this an important resource for the city - as well as the world-wide scientific community. Add in the ability to book SCUBA dives, behind-the-scenes tours or overnight stays to watch nocturnal denizens on the prowl, and the Georgia Aquarium earns its place among the top attractions in the Southeast.

Would I go back?

Just give me a clear view of the jack crevalle exhibit, and at least twice as much time to get more mind-spinning footage, and I’ll let you know.

All videos and photo-stills from videos: Cathy Taibbi, Kodak Zi8 HD Pocketcam

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