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Dive In

The new Pacific Seas Aquarium is an underwater delight. Stare at hammerhead sharks or gaze at green sea turtles. Explore Pacific Coast habitats from cold Northwest to tropical Baja California. Find world-class art and a jelly globe.

Discover the Pacific Seas

Wander down
in an ocean of discovery.
Stare eye-to-eye with sharks, turtles and eagle rays. Wander down the ramps - perfect for strollers and wheelchairs - to find pulsing jellies, scuttling crabs, darting tropical fish. Descend into underwater magic.
Through shimmer
into deep blue sea.
Pass through shimmers of light art. Enter the deep blue of Baja Bay, then pledge to protect our ocean under giant glass jellyfish. Here, ocean and imagination meet.
All our art
Get an anemone hug
Tidal Touch Zone now open.
Our Tidal Touch Zone is now open daily! Feel the rough texture of sea stars, the spikiness of sea urchins, and the hardness of crab shells…and get an anemone hug around one gentle finger.
Tidal Touch Zone

Explore Habitats

Baja Bay
Northwest Waters
Tidal Touch Zone
Coastal Kelp Forest
Jellies
Under the Narrows
North Puget Sound Color
Giant pacific octopus
Aquarists care
It takes dedication to be an aquarist, as well as training and time.
Our aquarists spend hundreds of hours getting to know our animals.
Feeding sharks
Using objects the animals have been trained to recognize, each gets its own portion.
It can take awhile! But the aquarists work patiently until everyone is satisfied.
Water is life
Water in the aquarium is pumped straight up from Puget Sound, filtered and warmed through a complex web of pipes.
After it washes nutrients over our animals, it’s treated and flows back into the Sound – no pollution, no waste.

Protecting the Ocean

It takes all of us.

THE THREAT: Our oceans are beautiful – but they face many threats, from plastic pollution to chemicals, oil, overfishing and acidification. Many of the animals in our aquarium are threatened in the wild.

TAKE ACTION: But we can help – the ocean is in our hands. Find out what you can do by visiting the Waves of Change gallery inside the aquarium, or exploring our Protecting Wildlife pages.

Aquarium Stories

Point Defiance Zoo earns AZA accreditation

Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium earned kudos and another five years of accreditation from the Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA) in September. The Tacoma zoo also won a significant … Continued

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The Health of Puget Sound

Checking in on Puget Sound’s Health How healthy is Puget Sound? What areas are showing declines, and which are holding steady? Those are the questions divers at Point Defiance Zoo … Continued

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Saving Puget Sound’s Underwater Forests

An underwater crisis is happening, and there isn’t one apparent reason. Since the 1870s, South Puget Sound’s shorelines have lost about two-thirds of their bull kelp forests, according to a … Continued

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Go Behind-the-Scenes of our Aquarium!
Ever touched a moon jellyfish? Seen baby jellies through a giant microscope? Fed an anemone? The Pacific Seas Aquarium Behind-the-Scenes experience is a fascinating tour through the backstage areas that only aquarists get to see.