A 360° immersion in an underwater cave. While the spring holidays are just starting in Brittany, the Great Aquarium of Saint-Malo has just inaugurated its new attraction. For the occasion, the teams renovated the ring of the seas from top to bottom for several months. At the heart of this huge 600,000 liter basin built twenty-six years ago and which has a 7.5 meter deep fault, visitors will be able to discover a new room with an underwater cave decor.
A primarily visual experience with light effects and screens installed on the ceiling that allow virtual sea animals to parade overhead. “But the scenography is also sonic and olfactory with smells of the sea and sound effects of boats”, underlines Yann Guillouzo, curator of the aquarium.
New species gradually integrated
The main interest is still the animals, real this time, swimming behind the windows. Having become too big, the emblematic sharks which have populated the basin for fifteen years have joined an aquarium in Hungary. They have been replaced by new species with, for the time being, Leopard rays, born in Nausicaá in Boulogne-sur-Mer, a turtle and a Napoleon fish. “There will eventually be around twenty species,” says Valérie Pueyo, aquariologist and head of the basin. But we integrate them gradually in order to ensure that they adapt and that there is no food competition between them. »
Welcoming between 350,000 and 400,000 visitors each year, the Grand Aquarium of Saint-Malo is the most visited private tourist site in Brittany.