Aquarium Reviews - Waikiki Aquarium

If you go to Oahu, you’ve got to go to the Waikiki Aquarium. It’s great! You can learn a lot as you wander the exhibits which include marine life from many different habitations, Hawaii of course, but also other marine habitats (for example, I saw a ginormous golden yellow lobster). You can see the “jet set”, the Hawaiian Day octopus, the Bigfin Squid, and the Chambered Nautilus. There is a large tank of “predators”, different sharks and other fishes, such as the giant Trevally, groupers, and jacks. And of course their displays of the coral reef are exquisite. Finally I saw two monk seals—for they live in the outside part of the aquarium, and I hadn’t seen any of these endangered animals until the Waikiki Aquarium.

My favorite was He’e, the Day Octopus. Watching him unscrew his bottle and eat his food from inside, and then hang onto the top, while releasing the bottle, was amazing. An octopus is very smart and the Waikiki Aquarium provides He’e with toys and periods of enrichment each day. You can also learn about aquaculture, and growing corals, and much more. There are also videos shown in a small room. The Aquarium is located between the water and Kapiolani Park so you could bring a picnic lunch. Or you could see the Aquarium and then bop over to the Honolulu Zoo at the other end of this humungous park (terrific zoo—the rare NeNe birds and the Galapagos turtles, for other thing).