The Oceanarium offers millions of inland guests the educational opportunity to observe and familiarize themselves with marine animals that otherwise many will never experience first hand. Guests emerge from their dark underwater safari through the Aquarium and are transported into the great outdoors of the Pacific Northwest. The setting represents a stretch of coastline that exists from Northern California up to Prince William Sound in Alaska. Guests journey through a section of lush, temperate rain forest complete with over 70 different species of trees, shrubs and plants. Guests pass by trickling springs and re-created rock formations that document the region's complex geological history.
Authentic wildlife sounds fill the air, enhancing the visitor immersion experience.
Some of Shedd Aquarium's sea otters were rescued as orphaned pups from Prince William Sound in Alaska, following the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Oceanarium staff continue to monitor the otters while they mature as part of ongoing research about the spill's long term effects on wildlife. Another otter was found stranded on an Alaskan beach in the summer of 1990 and sent by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to Shedd Aquarium, one of the few U.S. facilities experienced in nurturing and rehabilitating delicate otter pups. Along the coastline, beachcombers are likely to encounter tide pools similar to the one re-created in the Oceanarium. Pools of water trapped in rocky hollows during low tide are home to a variety of small creatures, including sea stars, fish, crabs, mussels and anemones.