National Aquarium; Worth A Visit?

[Ken]

Is the aquarium worth visiting? Very little in theDR1 archives on the aquarium and reviews I read on other websites were lukewarm at best. Biggest complaint was dirty water and poor maintenance, which are not unexpected complaints. But those complaints were a year or two out of date; are conditions better now?

Another complaint was relatively small collection than might be expected in a National Aquarium in a country surrounded by ocean.

 

[Ken]

Its not a small collection, well I am not a fish expert, just was visiting few times. There is a huge aquarium with the tunnel under it, so you are passing trough, and sharks are swimming over your head.

That sounds interesting. Was the water clean or appearing to lack maintenance? Did you enjoy your visits?

 

[Anastacio]

Was there last week, in my opinion the collection is very small and the displays pretty poor. The tunnel tank doesn't hold the sharks anymore, instead they have been moved to a 20' tank, and they are not true sharks, that are cat sharks, bottom feeders, largest about 7 foot long. It is pretty poor seeing 7 or 8 of them huddled up in the corner of a small tank.
The water is very oily, I don't know where it comes from, maybe a direct pump from the ocean, I dunno.
After my zoo experience which I found worth the trip and they had a better than expected selection of animals, the aquarium was an utter letdown and not worth the 60pesos entrance fee.

 

[Robert]

Video taken by a local.

YouTube - Visitando el Acuario Nacional, Limando.com

 

[jrhartley]

not worth the 60pesos entrance

it must be bad if its not worth 60 pesos

 

[Anastacio]

it must be bad if its not worth 60 pesos

Well you have to take the 25 pesos travel expense into account also
No, I found it pretty bad. Sorry.

 

[Mason3000]

"Is the aquarium worth visiting?"

No, it's not. lol

 

[jrhartley]

well thats got that one clear- would you say tourism was dying in Santo Domingo ;-)

 

[jorgesarduysousa]

Its really all we have, you can't compare it to the states

but check this out for an aquarium

Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Japan

enjoy

 

[Ken]

Was there last week, in my opinion the collection is very small and the displays pretty poor. The tunnel tank doesn't hold the sharks anymore, instead they have been moved to a 20' tank, and they are not true sharks, that are cat sharks, bottom feeders, largest about 7 foot long. It is pretty poor seeing 7 or 8 of them huddled up in the corner of a small tank.
The water is very oily, I don't know where it comes from, maybe a direct pump from the ocean, I dunno.
After my zoo experience which I found worth the trip and they had a better than expected selection of animals, the aquarium was an utter letdown and not worth the 60pesos entrance fee.

That answers my question. Thanks. I, also, found the zoo worthwhile; sorry to hear the same can't be said about the acquarium.