Mediterranean | Aquarium La Rochelle

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Locate the theater Mediterranean in the Aquarium

Exploration of the Mediterranean

In the birthplace of history, in the middle of a cave, a multitude of windows open up to reveal the riches of the sea.

A shoal of salenga dances to the rhythm of the undertow and cardinalfish parade through a forest of red coral, while a troop of pomfrets plays among the branches of sea fans.
The spectacles come one after another: lullabies of burrowing anemone in a gentle moonscape, the song of slipper lobsters amidst the scorpionfish, and even an octopus testing out its mime show...

Surface area : 3,000,000 km²

Maximum depth : 5,100 m

Average depth : 1,500 m

A trip to the Mediterranean

The Mediterranean is a deep, semi-enclosed sea with low tidal levels. Surrounding by hot and arid lands, it undergoes significant evaporation that is counterbalanced by the freshwater it receives from rainfall and rivers, as well as salt water from the Atlantic. Its transparency is a result of its low concentration of plankton. However, a large number of species can be found in this sea. Although its surface area only accounts for 1% of the planet's oceans, it is home to 7% of wildlife worldwide, much of which is endemic.

« Happy he who, like Ulysses, has made an adventurous voyage; and there is no such sea for adventurous voyages as the Mediterranean - the inland sea which the ancients looked upon as so vast and so full of wonders. »

Joseph Conrad
It owes its name to the fact that it is literally a 'sea in the middle of land' or, in Latin, a 'mare medi terra.
Wildlife that numbers in the hundred of species, native to the Red Sea and introduced into the Mediterranean since the opening of the Suez Canal.
It represents a waterway that was crucial to commercial and cultural trade between the peoples emerging in the region in ancient times.
This intercontinental sea has witnessed upheavals linked as much to its biological history as to the history of the people who colonized its shores. All these events have resulted in the extraordinary richness of its marine populations today.