The Shore Oceanarium, Melaka

The Shore Oceanarium is one of the Premier Tourist Attractions in Melaka. Located at the 2th floor of The Shore Shopping Gallery, conveniently in the heart of the historical Melaka, visitors here can step into its premises, get awed and go on an extraordinary interactive journey to learn more about the earth's ecosystem and discover the various species of marine creatures.

What I really love about this Oceanarium is that it is a collaboration with the Fisheries Department (Melaka), as a conservation effort for the endangered and rare marine life species.

The Oceanarium is divided into few sections namely the interactive touch pool, one of the best places I think since this is where visitors can boast having touched a shark and survive not getting bitten... LOL.. Ok, being a bit too dramatic, since it is only a small harmless bamboo shark who is probably more terrified of us trying to keep touch it... You can of course, also feel how the star fish feels like, the horse shoe crab or the sea cucumber or sea urchins...

Then well, there is the jellyfish and Jungle quest- a place where it explains all about the reptile, snake, frog, butterfly and insects. Here, you can find exhibits on reptiles and insects, such as snakes, frogs, lizards…

At the River Story, you can find plenty of river fishes. and so on as well as a huge tank of piranhas…

Other interesting sections includes ocean journey, oceanarium theater, Shark Quest, Sea Shell Museum, marine fishes and coral exhibits ....

Kampung Penyu is an interesting are with a large pool where you can see sea turtles and even feed them with raw fish (purchased at the entrance).

At first glance, it does seem a bit cruel to keep turtles in a pool but this exhibit was co-organised with the Fisheries Department Malaysia so the welfare of the turtles has been taken into account when designing the pool, and personally, after thinking about it, the pool is quite big enough for the turtles to live comfortably at.. as well as that these turtles are a whole load more safer here, if and when they are properly taken care of than in the open sea nowadays where they risk getting hurt, killed, strangled by the tons of trash found in the sea and all..

The Shore Oceanarium is a great place to visit especially if you are bringing your kids, young nieces or nephews, and so on... as it is bound to fascinate them...