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My 4-year-old and I had the opportunity to get a guided tour of the new Sea Monsters Revealed Exhibition at the Vancouver Aquarium this morning. We also attended the “Sea Monsters 4-D: A Prehistoric Adventure” experience in their 4D theatre.

The new Sea Monsters Revealed exhibit opened at the Vancouver Aquarium on March 5th and it offers a look at some amazing sea creatures through plastination. If you are familiar with the BodyWorks exhibits then you probably know what plastination looks like; plastination is the more common term for the technique of polymer preservation, it was created by German scientist Gunther von Hagens in 1977 and in recent years has been widely seen used in the human body exhibits on display around the world.

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My son and I really enjoyed the up-close look at these impressive sea creatures.  This amazing collection features a goliath grouper, a 5-metre long mako shark, a predatory Humboldt squid and a metre-long ocean sunfish, the heaviest bony fish in the world. I also really loved the historic journey and scientific exploration present in the exhibit.

One of my favourite creatures in display was the pregnant Silky Shark. It was so amazing to see the babies inside of the shark, really cool! (photo below)

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The Sea Monsters 4-D: A Prehistoric Adventure experience was also amazing. I must say it was a bit too scary for my 4-year-old as he ended up sitting on my lap and removing the 3D glasses for most of it. But older children and adults will be mesmerized with the fascinating and very realistic images. I love how 4D experiences combine sight, sound, scent and touch!

After checking out the Sea Monsters Exhibit we explored the rest of the aquarium, the always fun dolphin show and one of our favourite exhibits, the penguins! Aren’t they adorable!?

Sea Monsters Revealed will be on display until Sept. 7, 2015 and I absolutely recommend a visit! Learn more at vanaqua.org/seamonsters.

aandmom

Disclosure: We received free admission tickets to check out the new exhibits. All views and opinions in this post are my own.