What is the Seattle Aquarium famous for?

The Seattle Aquarium is the ninth largest aquarium in the U.S. by attendance and among the top five paid visitor attractions in the Puget Sound region. Since our opening, we've hosted over 27 million visitors and provided marine conservation education to two million school children.



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How long does it take to see the entire Aquarium? It's possible to enjoy all our exhibits in about 90 minutes to two hours.

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Regular health checks, careful observation and daily monitoring help the team provide the best care for the Aquarium's animals. The Seattle Aquarium is home to nearly 400 species and over 12,000 individual mammals, birds fish and invertebrates.

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SeaWorld. SeaWorld is a chain of marine mammal parks in the United States and is the largest owner of captive killer whales in the world. The parks feature killer whale, sea lion, and dolphin shows and zoological displays featuring various other marine animals.

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The best time to visit the Seattle Aquarium is weekdays and weekends after 2pm. Summers tend to be the busiest time to visit, with fewer visitors on winter weekdays.

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At the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, while the Shedd Aquarium was closed to guests, the animal care staff started bringing the penguins to new places, where they'd never been, throughout the aquarium.

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Both are endorsed by professional reviewers. Overall, Seattle Aquarium ranks significantly better than Woodland Park Zoo. Seattle Aquarium is ranked #7 in Seattle with positive reviews from 8 sources including Travel + Leisure, Frommer's and Michelin Guide.

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Five spotted seahorses (Hippocampus kuda) are now on display in our Tropical Pacific exhibit! They join our one lined seahorse (Hippocampus erectus).

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Say hello to our harbor seals! Come see Barney, Hogan and Casey in their beautiful habitat, featuring a spacious pool and plenty of dry resting area (or haul-out space) for them to enjoy.

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Join Seattle Aquarium staff as they answer your questions about these fascinating cephalopods—plus, enjoy footage of our octopus habitat and watch a feeding of Kraken, our giant Pacific octopus!

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In an attempt to save face—and after California refused to allow it to build new orca tanks, SeaWorld agreed to stop breeding the animals. It began to distance itself from the controversy by moving away from using the “Shamu” name.

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At SeaWorld® San Diego, Shamu became famous. The park had only been open for a year when it acquired Shamu, so the orca whale quickly became a mascot for SeaWorld. Visitors flocked from around the country to see her do amazing tricks and get splashed by an orca whale.

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Located in the Dubai Mall, the Dubai Aquarium is the largest suspended aquarium in the world—hosting thousands of species dwelling in the sea, found nowhere else in the world.

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The Monterey Bay Aquarium remains the only aquarium in the world to successfully display a white shark. However, our main purpose for keeping a white shark in this exhibit was to answer important research questions. Those questions have largely been answered, so we will not display white sharks in the future.

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