Look I don't actually know if the aquarium is part of the state park or not but it was on the park map and I wanted to talk about something I actually enjoyed, so at the end I'm going to rant about the state park and how cool it is. I had low expectations for the aquarium and I was still disappointed. Outside, before the ticket booth, is an area for rescued grey and harbor seals that is literally a small home swimming pool with some concrete around it. Maybe it's fine for seals that can't swim or are blind (apparently most of their rescues) but it looks terrible. Apparently they used to have sea lions in that thing. The line to buy tickets was spilling out the door when I arrived and when I left, even though it's the off season for tourism. I cannot imagine how bad that could get in peak season. There's only one register and there isn't really any space inside the aquarium to expand the line. Most of the aquarium is just a ring around a central stadium pool area with viewing on two floors. This holds sea lions now. It apparently used to have Amazon river and bottlenose dolphins. I sincerely hope it was deeper then as it can't be much more than seven feet now, if that. I got to see a sea lion show. It was nice. If you cannot make a sea lion show there is literally no reason to bother with the aquarium. Even if you can I would highly recommend just not going. No one's making you do this. Just. Don't. Please. The Humboldt penguin exhibit was actually pretty good. Confused why they chose to focus on warmer weather penguins for an entirely indoor exhibit but I don't make the rules here. Maybe someday they'll turn the seal pool area into a proper outdoor enclosure for them. There are a few tanks with kind of standard species selections. Cuttlefish are always nice. I liked that one tank displayed fish that had been seized at the border from smugglers. Another talked about how Amazonian tribes are harvesting fish stranded by the receding tides that would have died when the water dried up and putting them in the pet trade. I guess that's sustainable. How would you really know where the fish came from, though? The average visitor with a fish tank isn't going to demand to see the full manifest of where their fish came from, birth or capture to pet store. They somehow have an entire jellyfish 'wing' with just moon jellies, Pacific sea nettle, and upside-down jellyfish. This is about when I gave up. About half the tanks didn't have full signage. Just for one species or none at all. I still did my best since there wasn't any kind of species list and their website is not helpful. Rescue Harbor Gray Seal, Harbor Seal Central Tank California Sea Lion First Floor Humboldt Penguin Dwarf Cuttlefish African Rift Cichlids Asian Arowana, Ocellate River Stingray Pacific Spiny Lumpsucker Lake Sturgeon [Kelp Exhibit - At least two fish species, no signage] Rudd, Round Goby Longnose Gar, Shortnose Gar [Unsinged Smaller Reef Tank] True Percula Clownfish, Pajama Cardinal Fish [Unsigned Larger Reef Fish Tank] Volitan Lionfish Balloon Fish, Unsigned Fish Yellow Stingray, Atlantic Stingray, White-Spotted Bamboo Shark Second Floor Electric Eel Dart Frogs (Denbrovatidae sp.) Cardinal Tetra, Marbled Hatchetfish, Afolfoi Cory Cat Upside-down Jellyfish [Empty Jellyfish Tank] Moon Jelly x2 Pacific Sea Nettle Mummichog [Unsigned Rheotaxis Demonstration Exhibit] Florida Softshell Turtle Suckermouth Catfish, Unsigned Snails Unspecified Seahorses Blind Cavefish [Unsigned Nocturnal Reef Exhibit] Okay, the state park. It's excellent. If you ever have a chance to go, take it. The falls are absolutely gorgeous. It's not too much of a walk. Walking admission is free, parking by the aquarium was $5. Observation deck is free but wasn't that much better than the standard viewing areas if it ever isn't free. The only charges I bothered to pay were the $3 for a trolley ticket that took me most of the way back to my car and a ~$14 ticket to a museum and elevator ride to the bottom of the gorge. Take the elevator. It was great. The falls were gorgeous and there were just do many seabirds. I forget, sometimes, how many birds are normal. Something got them all stirred up and there were hundreds of them in the air at once. I will say that despite the park being pretty busy none of the amenities were open. I was banking on there being food but the restaurant was closed. So was the smaller cafe. The only food available was some hot chocolate, chex mix, and fudge from the gift shop. The boat rides were also closed for the season, which I understand because it was quite cold and windy in the gorge. Overall, top tier state park. Great experience. Spent hours there. Only regret is that I couldn't justify staying long enough to see the falls at night. (And also that I didn't eat food by the aquarium when I had the chance - lunch was a bit sugary and not too substantial.) Aquarium sucks though. I went because I have a dumb mission to visit 237 of the 238 AZA accredited facilities. Would be 238 but I'm a trans woman and I do not want to visit the emirates. If you aren't obsessed with completing some list it absolutely is not worth going.
Thanks for the review. I skipped the aquarium when I went to Niagara last year because of poor reviews and wanting to focus on the falls. Your review assures me that I made the right decision.
Thanks for the review! The aquarium is $20 U.S. admission plus $5 parking and it appears totally overpriced based on your review and various ZooChat photos. That sealion pool is extremely basic: photo credit: @CuseZoofan Here's an article (from December) that talks about how the aquarium will spend $4.5 million on new exhibits, possibly including a sturgeon tank. It's nice to hear that the facility will add some new attractions, but this expansion won't do anything for the pinnipeds. Aquarium of Niagara receives grant funding for new exhibits
Okay, uh, let me try and word this correctly at nearly midnight with my eyes half closed. It’s easy to forget how abundant nature is supposed to be. Three dozen birds of a single species is a lot in a zoo exhibit. Hundreds of decent sized shorebirds all congregated in one area, all interacting with each other, flying, turning rocky hills white with their numbers, is something to see. But it shouldn’t be. This is what normal looks like. Schools of millions of pigeons that could blot out the sun was normal. It’s sometimes a bit jarring to be reminded of that.
