New Ocean Pavilion gives Seattle Aquarium goers an immersive sea experience

The Seattle Aquarium’s new Ocean Pavilion is now open, and visitors can get a peek of the main exhibit without even entering the building. It’s part of a broader effort between the aquarium and the city to revitalize the waterfront after the Alaskan Way Viaduct was torn down in 2019.

“The oculus, which you will see if you're coming up toward the entrance of the new ocean pavilion — you can look up inside of the reef,” said Erin Meyer, the aquarium’s chief conservation officer.

On the inside, the new Ocean Pavilion is designed to feel like an immersive experience.

The main — and largest — attraction is a tank containing over half a million gallons of water, home to a coral reef, various fish species, and an Indo-Pacific leopard shark. These spotted, slow-swimming sharks aren’t the kind that send beachgoers running. These mostly docile bottom feeders prefer to eat crustaceans and mollusks.

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The leopard shark at the Ocean Pavilion is just one part of an effort to restore a dwindling population — the result of habitat loss and overfishing, according to the Seattle Aquarium. The plan is to breed the sharks and send some back to their home waters.

Beyond the big tank are more than a dozen smaller exhibits with various sea creatures, including garden eels, which visitors may recognize from the old space.

“They’re some of my favorite animals,” Meyer said. “They live down in the sand and kind of peek their little heads up and peek out…like the meerkats of the ocean.”

Questions pertaining to the animals are posted throughout the pavilion — asking things like, “Want to see a magic trick?”

“The intention is to pull people in and help people think about what it's like to live like the animals that you see inside of these habitats,” Meyer said.

Listen to Seattle Now's episode on the new Ocean Pavilion here.