Pacific Seas Aquarium

Baja Bay is the centerpiece of the Pacific Seas Aquarium – a 280,000-gallon warm-water exhibit, home to scalloped hammerhead sharks, green sea turtles and spotted eagle rays, plus dozens of other tropical fish species, like you’d find in the Gulf of California. Come and dive in!

Northwest Waters is a 100,000-gallon exhibit full of stunning Northwest marine life from pink waving anemones to 30-year-old rockfish, ratfish, salmon, sturgeon, lingcod – all behind a massive 25-foot-wide, 10-foot-tall window. See what’s right on our doorstep in the cold waters of Puget Sound.

A hands-on, up-close marine animal experience touching the same tidal creatures you’d find at low tide in Puget Sound. Feel the rough texture of sea stars, the spikiness of sea urchins, and the hardness of crab shells…

It’s all backed by a giant wall map of the Sound itself and a stunning watercolor mural by Tacoma artist Maria Jost – and comes with a handy bench for parents.

Giant strands of kelp wave in the water, echoing in replica the kelp forests of Southern California, with leopard sharks and California sheephead fish swimming through them.

In a globe spilling endlessly with water, moon jellyfish swirl and float, mesmerizing and vibrant. It’s one of only two jelly globes in the entire country, surrounded by several other jelly exhibits.

A peek into the magical world of sea life under the Narrows Bridges: ling cod hiding under girders, anemones waving with the tides, sea stars clambering over rocks.

The Tacoma Narrows Bridges soar over rich underwater marine life – and the sunken remains of the first bridge, “Galloping Gertie.” Come peer into those mysteries…

Is that a rock, dappled with pink anemone? No – it’s a Puget Sound king crab, colorfully camouflaged!

North Puget Sound Color is full of the vibrant colors you’d see diving in local waters: bright vermillion rockfish (Sebastes miniatus), black-and-green-speckled rock greenling (Hexagrammos lagocephalus), pink strawberry anemone (Corynactis californica) scattered like tiny flowers over the rocks, paler crimson anemone (Cribrinopsis fernaldi) waving their arms to catch dinner, and brilliant orange sea cucumber (Cucumaria miniata).

Squat down to fish-eye-level and you’ll be instantly shrunk to fish size, as the thick exhibit walls magnify the scene and surround you.

But it’s the king crab (Lopholithodes mandtii) that will really surprise you. When you discover that mottled orange-and-pink rock is actually an enormous crustacean, built like a tank, you realize how perfect its disguise is to ward off predators and capture the barnacles, sea stars and urchins it crushes for dinner.

A giant Pacific octopus has two rows of suction cups on each of its eight arms (no, they’re not tentacles) – up to 2,240 suckers in a female- which it uses to explore its environment through smell and taste, each arm working independently of the brain. Octopuses are very intelligent creatures who can solve puzzles, open jars and manipulate their environment, as well as interact with the humans who care for them. Given the chance, they’ll explore anything around them.

Our octopus is a female – come and meet her!