West Coast Aquarium Visitor Guide

• Jawless Fishes: Hagfish, Lampreys

• Cartilaginous Fishes (Chondrichthyes): Sharks, Rays, Skates

• Bony Fishes (Osteichthyes): Salmon, Seahorses, Eels etc.

          (It has over 26,000 species; 211 in Puget Sound alone)

 
       Mammals:

• Cetaceans: Whales (baleen, toothed), Dolphins, Porpoises

• Pinnipeds: Walrus, Seal, Sea Lion

• Carnivoria: Otters, Polar Bears

• Sirenians: Manatees, Dugongs

      Reptilia:

• Sea Turtles, Crocodiles

Invertebrates:

• Mollusks:
  

           Gastropods (snails, nudibranchs)

           Bivalves (clams, mussels, oysters, scallops)

           Cephalopods (Cuttlefish, Octopuses, Squid)

           Polyplacophora (chitons)

• Cnideria: Jellyfish, Anemones, Corals, Sea Fans 

• Ctenophora: Comb Jellies

• Echinoderms: Starfish, Sea Urchins, Sea Cucumbers, Sand Dollars

• Arthropods/Crustaceans: Amphipods, Copepods, Barnacles, Krill (euphausiids)

                                                   Decapods (having ten legs): shrimp, lobster, crabs

• Porifera: Sponges (filter feeders)

• Worms

It's important to realize the differences and similarities between the types of sea animals in order to better understand how they live and what they do.

For instance, most echinoderms have little beaks they use for eating their food, while all the crustaceans have many legs and a hard shells for protection.

Bony fish have swim bladders to keep them buoyant while sharks do not, and have to keep swimming in order to not sink. 

It's no wonder people often mistake seals and sea lions... they are similar!

What do you think of first when you think of a whale? Moby Dick? Free Willy? Both of these are toothed whales... Sperm Whales and Orca Whales. But most species of whale are actually baleen whales... filter feeders that cruise the oceans, sifting tons of krill as they swim.

SEAWEEDS and PLANKTON:

The little recognized heroes of the ocean. In fact, phytoplankton (green, single or multi-cellular organisms that resemble plants) is the basis for the entire food web of the ocean and it creates much of our planet's oxygen. (Zooplankton also is at the bottom of the marine food chain, but it is made up of tiny animals, some of them in larve form)

Seaweed comes in many shapes and colors... greens, browns, reds, oranges. Seaweeds are not really plants. They are really just complex algae.

The most dramatic species is the bull kelp... fastened to the bottom of the ocean by a holdfast, having an extraordinarily long stem and a bladder at the top that lets the long, broad leaves float near the surface to find sunlight. They have been known to grow many feet in a day and they provide cover or food to countless marine animals.