Visiting Toronto’s newest downtown attraction: Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada

Text and photos by Corey Herscu

Complete pandemonium.

That’s essence of what it to experience Canada’s largest aquarium on a busy winter afternoon.

It starts with a two-hour line-up that ticket holders are forced to brave outside, one that they’ve been criticized  for in the past, and then continues inside the main foyer, and goes on throughout most of the entire 135,000-sq foot aquatic experience.

As I braved the crowd with my siblings, niece and nephew in tow, I couldn’t help but feel perpetually claustrophobic throughout the entire visit – both because of the way the place is laid out and because of the large crowds.

The front lobby, for instance, is high but gets quickly crowded.  The discomfort only increases as visitors have to walk through the narrow, aquarium-filled hallways. There’s also no way to double-back since the flow of the exhibits are one way and everyone needs to go through the same pathways.

What’s unfortunate is that there doesn’t seem to be any room for upgrades or improvement over time: since more than 50 per cent of the aquarium’s floor area goes to the infrastructure that keeps it running, and the rest is packed with tanks. 

Still, the variety and scope of marine species on display makes up for this.

Ripley’s Aquarium may not be as big or impressive as similar attractions in Atlanta or California but it holds its own given the relatively small space it has to work with. They have a 12,500 square-metre (135,000 square-foot) attractionwith more than 5.7 million litres (1.5 million gallons) of water depicting marine and freshwater habitats from around the world.

 

A staggering 16,000 animals are on display here including a wide variety of jellyfish, sharks, rays and green sea turtles as well various other species that are alien to many parts of Canada. It really is Canada’s representation of the life aquatic and proudly placed right in the middle of Toronto’s most visited area flanked by the CN Tower and the Skydome.

 

Once you pass through the turnstiles, you’re guided through dark, narrowly lit halls showcasing the magnificence of  underwater life. The visuals presented are simply beautiful and are something that my five year-old nephew and nine month old niece could engage with and learn from, which alone made the intense shuffle bearable for my sisters and I.

All the spectacle aside, during the busiest times, the flow of traffic and cramped surroundings at Ripley’s seems to me like a fire hazard.

While its surging popularity is understandable, and holiday crowds being what they are,  this aquarium feels like it is running over-capacity.