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Deep Sea World

Aquarium in Fife, Scotland

Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

Deep Sea World is an aquarium located in the village of North Queensferry in Fife, Scotland. It is host to a collection of large sand tiger sharks, also known as ragged toothed sharks or grey nurse sharks, and various other species of shark.

01History

The aquarium opened on 9 April 1993 in the site of the disused Battery Quarry, below the Forth Rail Bridge. It is owned and operated by the Spanish Aspro Ocio Group, who also run the Blue Planet Aquarium in England and many other aquaria in Europe.

A shark at Deep Sea World
A shark at Deep Sea World

02Exhibits

One of the main attractions is the 112 m (367 ft) long transparent acrylic underwater viewing tunnel, which is one of the longest of its kind in the world. The curvature of the 6.5-centimetre (2.6 in) thick acrylic causes a de-magnifying effect on all of the creatures in the exhibit, roughly one third reduction. The tank with the tunnel contains 1,000,000 imperial gallons (4,500,000 L; 1,200,000 US gal) of sea water pumped in from the River Forth. This water is generally around 14 °C (57 °F), but varies with the season. Because of the low temperature most animals within the tunnel are from around Britain. Sand tiger sharks are generally found in warmer water, for example Florida, US and South Africa. They easily adapt to the change in temperature, but the lower temperature reduces the rate of metabolism.

The aquarium also displays various tanks and rock pools containing exotic fish and other sea animals.

In 2005, the aquarium opened a new seal enclosure which houses resident seals as well as injured ones rescued by the SSPCA.

Seal pens at Deep Sea World.
Seal pens at Deep Sea World.
Watch videos about Deep Sea WorldExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Deep Sea World, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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