Absolutely worth the visit if you’re in the Atlanta area. It’s super expensive though. We got lucky and scored free tickets from a friend.

Some more pics. I have video too but no good way to post it.

  • Drusas@fedia.io
    0·
    16 days ago

    Yeah, but they keep whale sharks in captivity. Whale sharks are too large for that environment.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
      0·
      16 days ago

      I don’t know how much room whale sharks need, but the tank they are in is the size of a stadium. My brother, who I went with, got to see all the behind-the-scenes stuff once and he told me the tank is so huge that they have to row out to the middle in boats just to feed the fish.

      They also didn’t appear to be in any way unhealthy. Quite the opposite.

      I’m not in general a big fan of keeping animals in small enclosures, but it really was not a small enclosure.

      The aquarium’s website says the tank is 6.3 million gallons and ranges from 20 to 30 feet deep. That’s fucking huge.

      They also apparently have a big team that takes care of them: https://www.georgiaaquarium.org/resource-center/stories/caring-for-the-oceans-gentle-giants/

      • Drusas@fedia.io
        0·
        16 days ago

        I appreciate all that, and I very much enjoyed that aquarium myself, but I just can’t approve of keeping large, pelagic animals in captivity unless it’s to try to rehabilitate them. These are animals that travel thousands of miles when they’re out in a natural environment.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
          0·
          16 days ago

          I totally get that. But I also think there is value in having people see those animals for themselves to understand why our natural world needs to be preserved. And, unfortunately, these whale sharks might be more likely to survive than the ones in the ocean the way climate change is going.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
      0·
      15 days ago

      Nice! My brother and sister-in-law did an overnight stay for one their anniversaries and they got to do a huge behind-the-scenes tour. He says there’s a boat they row out to feed the fish with in the huge ocean tank.

  • gimmemahlulz@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    0·
    16 days ago

    I loved visiting it, went right at the start of covid so it was the perfect sweet spot of being both open AND very few other people. Have lots of pictures and good memories of my time there.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
      0·
      16 days ago

      Oh man, it was super crowded today. That was on the one thing I really hated. I even got shoved out of the way by some asshole.

  • Theo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    16 days ago

    I bet the Atlanta one is way bigger than Camden. I went to Jersey in 2020. Empty during Covid.

    Love the Jellies!

    (If you post your video to an image hosting site like imgur, or there are some alternatives. If there is a video size limit, use an online file compressor to reduce file size.)

      • Theo@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        16 days ago

        Some of them turn into gifs on the hosting platform but you have to search google and create an account. Imgur makes you give a phone number so I didn’t make an account with them. I found pxlmo.com which only requires a name, email to make one that you can just make up and use a dedicated email if you wanna stay private. Pxlmo has a 20mb file size limit for videos. You can Google a site that lets you upload a video and compress it if it is too long. Then you just copy the link and add it to the description of your post. It will open in the in-app player on some of the Lemmy supported apps. I use Boost for Lemmy but usually you can’t embed them. Lemmy on a browser will probably open a new tab. The reason I use image/video hosting is to remain anonymous because my real name is on my YouTube.

  • JackbyDev@programming.devEnglish
    0·
    15 days ago

    During DragonCon there is a night this is open. It’s a separate thing so it’s an extra price to pay for the Con, but it’s amazing. The first pic you have of that sort of viewing area has a DJ in there. It’s amazing.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
      0·
      15 days ago

      Very cool! I went to DragonCon a few times as a vendor/performer in the 90s but haven’t been since.

      One of the best things I ever saw was Darth Vader flanked by stormtroopers on either side of him all doing a Rockettes line at the nightclub across the street from the main hotel.

  • RagnarokOnline@programming.dev
    0·
    16 days ago

    Lived In Atlanta for a time and the annual pass was only 2x the price of a 1-day admission and we went almost every weekend. One of the few things I remember fondly about ATL