Shaw Centre for the Salish Sea
Shaw Centre for the Salish Sea
Shaw Centre for the Salish Sea
4.5
10:00 AM - 4:30 PM
Monday
10:00 AM - 4:30 PM
Tuesday
10:00 AM - 4:30 PM
Wednesday
10:00 AM - 4:30 PM
Thursday
10:00 AM - 4:30 PM
Friday
10:00 AM - 4:30 PM
Saturday
10:00 AM - 4:30 PM
Sunday
10:00 AM - 4:30 PM
About
Explore the underwater beauty of the Salish Sea - one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world! The Shaw Centre for the Salish Sea is a not-for-profit aquarium and learning centre devoted to the exploration and conservation of the Salish Sea - named after the Coast Salish Indigenous peoples of the region. Explore natural aquaria habitats of 3,500 marine amabassadors including a giant Pacific octopus, colourful rockfish, and magnificent wolf eels. Check out the marine mammal artifacts, complete with a rare orca skeleton, and take in the beautiful Coast Salish art. Journey from seashore to seafloor and discover the amazing diversity of the Salish Sea in 30 aquarium habitats teeming with marine life from anemones and nudibranchs to salmon and sculpins. Then get a close look at the weird and wonderful invertebrates in our shallow Touch Pool overlooking the beautiful Sidney waterfront. And don't miss the Features Gallery with fascinating, locally-focused exhibitions!
Duration: < 1 hour
Meets animal welfare guidelines
Suggest edits to improve what we show.
Improve this listingTours & experiences
Explore different ways to experience this place.
Full view
Revenue impacts the experiences featured on this page, learn more.
Top ways to experience Shaw Centre for the Salish Sea and nearby attractions
The area
Address
Reach out directly
Best nearby
We rank these restaurants and attractions by balancing reviews from our members with how close they are to this location.
Restaurants
75 within 5 kms
Attractions
43 within 10 kms
Contribute
Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as waiting time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
Popular mentions
We perform checks on reviews.
Tripadvisor’s approach to reviews
Before posting, each Tripadvisor review goes through an automated tracking system, which collects information, answering the following questions: how, what, where and when. If the system detects something that potentially contradicts our community guidelines, the review is not published.
When the system detects a problem, a review may be automatically rejected, sent to the reviewer for validation, or manually reviewed by our team of content specialists, who work 24/7 to maintain the quality of the reviews on our site.
Our team checks each review posted on the site disputed by our community as not meeting our community guidelines.
Learn more about our review moderation.
4.5
380 reviews
Excellent
200
Very good
124
Average
33
Poor
16
Terrible
7
Christian F
Fort St. John, Canada47 contributions
Feb 2020 • Business
I rarely write poor reviews. This will be a bit more of a suggestive piece rather then a negative one.
I am a fish keeper myself. I like tanks, fish and plants. This is why I came. When I come into a place that has such a splashy website, Im expecting to be blown away. I wasn’t.
The facility is very small, and is more geared toward small children. Which is fine. But...they wont be your repeat business, I will be. The placards were faded and crusty looking. Which was also kinda unexpected.
For $18 bucks I’m expecting at least an hour of full on fishy experience. I went through it all in 20 minutes, taking in each tank. Im not there to research all the fish, I’m there to look at them and enjoy the tanks. Some of them(tanks) looked terrible and thus the fish.
The place does have some cool things like the moon jellyfish and the octopus roaming around overhead(best tank feature). Even the salmon tank was kinda neat. The big round tank up by the microscopes was cool to. The touching/feel spot is more of a child thing and another area where more tanks and fish should be.It should be half the size. The museum part at the end is kinda lame in my opinion. I didn’t come in to see a bunch of orica and whale skulls.. this place needs more tanks and fish!
The submarine entrance was nifty.. and again built up my expectations. When i see a 40 foot screen that should be a tank with maybe some bigger salmon, or large halibut some other large local species ect ect. It kinda killed it for me. All in all I enjoyed the very short and expensive Walk about experience.
I am a fish keeper myself. I like tanks, fish and plants. This is why I came. When I come into a place that has such a splashy website, Im expecting to be blown away. I wasn’t.
The facility is very small, and is more geared toward small children. Which is fine. But...they wont be your repeat business, I will be. The placards were faded and crusty looking. Which was also kinda unexpected.
For $18 bucks I’m expecting at least an hour of full on fishy experience. I went through it all in 20 minutes, taking in each tank. Im not there to research all the fish, I’m there to look at them and enjoy the tanks. Some of them(tanks) looked terrible and thus the fish.
The place does have some cool things like the moon jellyfish and the octopus roaming around overhead(best tank feature). Even the salmon tank was kinda neat. The big round tank up by the microscopes was cool to. The touching/feel spot is more of a child thing and another area where more tanks and fish should be.It should be half the size. The museum part at the end is kinda lame in my opinion. I didn’t come in to see a bunch of orica and whale skulls.. this place needs more tanks and fish!
The submarine entrance was nifty.. and again built up my expectations. When i see a 40 foot screen that should be a tank with maybe some bigger salmon, or large halibut some other large local species ect ect. It kinda killed it for me. All in all I enjoyed the very short and expensive Walk about experience.
Written 25 February 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Well, we are very sorry to hear you felt let down by your visit to the Centre, Christian, but we do value your input. As a community aquarium and learning centre, we are definitely smaller than say, Vancouver or Seattle Aquarium, but we pack a lot of amazing critters and features that are local to the Salish Sea in more than 30 saltwater habitats (tanks) over 10,000 square feet. You did not mention if you interacted with any of our amazing staff or volunteers who are always happy to point out cool things that you might not otherwise see with a quick glance. Some of our most awesome inhabitants are masters of camouflage. They'll also tell you why the incredibly alien-looking hooded nudibranchs have a slightly pink tinge to them. As we do not have live marine mammals, we do provide our visitors with an opportunity to learn about some of our local blubbery friends as a significant component of the Salish Sea ecosystem through artifacts and changing pocket exhibits (currently on the return of humpback whales to this coast - which is something we celebrate!). While it is true that some of the features of the Centre are geared towards children, we can honestly say that they also appeal to many teens, parents and grandparents because they are part of a fun experience that hopefully includes learning and exploration of what makes this part of the world so special :)
Written 26 February 2020
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
relax7500
Calgary, Canada106 contributions
Feb 2022 • Family
From the submarine elevator that takes you into the exhibit to all the varied exhibits and amazing number of small sea creatures there’s something for everyone here. Also loved the Indigenous aspects and fact it’s not too big, you can cover it in an hour or so. Highly recommend.
Written 21 February 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Roary
Vancouver, Canada3,677 contributions
Sept 2021 • Friends
Went here for the very first time with my family. Can’t really say much more than what’s already been mentioned before.
- Is it small? Yes. We spent about 30 min there going at a casual pace. If you read everything posted, you might be able to stretch to an hour.
- Is it expensive? Relative to size, yes. But I can also say the there are more staff to interact with compared to other aquariums I’ve been too. And that makes a difference.
- Would I recommend going? Depends. If you have young children who have never been to an aquarium before, then yes, definitely worth it. If no kids or you’ve been to bigger aquariums before, maybe not.
I still enjoyed our visit, and my kids did too, but one visit is enough.
- Is it small? Yes. We spent about 30 min there going at a casual pace. If you read everything posted, you might be able to stretch to an hour.
- Is it expensive? Relative to size, yes. But I can also say the there are more staff to interact with compared to other aquariums I’ve been too. And that makes a difference.
- Would I recommend going? Depends. If you have young children who have never been to an aquarium before, then yes, definitely worth it. If no kids or you’ve been to bigger aquariums before, maybe not.
I still enjoyed our visit, and my kids did too, but one visit is enough.
Written 4 September 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
littlebug12016
Vancouver Island, Canada90 contributions
Aug 2020 • Family
We really enjoyed our time here and went through several times. My son enjoyed the big submarine door the best! Haha. Everyone socially distanced well and even without the touch tanks there was a lot to see and enjoy. The atmosphere was really great thank you!
Written 22 August 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Alexa H
2 contributions
Aug 2021
This small aquarium had extremely knowledgeable staff and was a great place for learning. We also got a lot of time with the Lloyd, the peppy Giant Pacific Octopus. I also like that they release the octopus back in to the water once they mature. Great for all ages.
Written 18 August 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
BubbaFromAlberta
Alberta62 contributions
Aug 2023 • Family
This is a pretty low-rent attraction. I assumed we would see a bunch of different fish and maybe an otter or something…
Nope.
Biggest attraction is a 7-legged octopus that sits in a corner. Tons of seaweed and crustaceans to look at..and a few rock fish….
But yeah, “underwhelmed” best describes our family’s experience.
Nope.
Biggest attraction is a 7-legged octopus that sits in a corner. Tons of seaweed and crustaceans to look at..and a few rock fish….
But yeah, “underwhelmed” best describes our family’s experience.
Written 12 August 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Don W
Victoria, Canada1 contribution
Oct 2021
Very small and underwhelming. Takes maybe 30 minutes to tour. Way too expensive. Basically a few aquariums. Plus right in the middle of one display a bored looking women was typing on a computer seemingly oblivious to the visitors. A messy desk surrounding her.
Written 24 October 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Vesela-F
Calgary, Canada27 contributions
June 2018 • Couples
I was disappointed- few jelly fish, 1 little octopus and few other small fish. 10-15 min and it's done.Boring. I'd say $18 is too much !!!
Written 18 June 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Erstange999
Calgary7 contributions
June 2017 • Family
This was a great aquarium, especially for our children aged 4 and 5. There are many different sea creatures to see and learn about, as well as a hand's on area. This was the biggest hit as the kids easily spent half an hour touching and talking to the staff about sea cucumbers, anemones, and star fish. The only disappointment was the learning center. This area was unavailable to us as there was a school group there at the same time. We arrived at 10am and the learning area was blocked off until 11:40am. Too long for our family to wait! It would have been nice to know when we paid that this area was unavailable for us as we may have tried to come at a time without a school group present.
Written 19 June 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
ScubaEagle
Lake Stevens, WA185 contributions
June 2019 • Couples
We really enjoyed our visit. The exhibits are very interesting. The staff was very helpful and offered additional information. The exhibits are definitely oriented towards children, but even though my wife and I are seniors, we enjoyed the displays. There are several hands on exhibits to explore including a tide pool which objects to touch. If you are at all interested in the Salish Sea, or the Puget Sound, you will find this place interesting.
Written 10 July 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Thanks ScubaEagle- we're happy to know you and your wife enjoyed your visit! Yes, some of the offerings are geared more towards children but we like to think we offer engaging experiences for learners of all ages. For example, you'd be surprised by the number of grandparents who have never been hugged by a purple sea urchin...:)
Written 11 July 2019
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
How long does it take for a family to experience the whole aquarium? And are you allowed to leave and come back on same day for a re-entry?
Written 24 March 2018
My experience at the Aquarium is similar to Robert's. If you are not familiar with Sidney I would also add in some beach time after the aquarium, a trip to the fish market on the short pier and a walk out on the larger pier where they fish for crab. Glass beach is at the foot of Beacon and nice to beachcomb. A nicer beach is off Amherst and 3rd. Lovely at low tide. There are lots of coffee shops and ice cream near the pier. Enjoy your day!
Written 24 March 2018
Free parking is available in a downstairs parking lot. There are several spots reserved for Shaw customers. Apart from that there is lots of street or pay parking nearby.
Written 1 June 2016
Showing results 1-2 of 2
Revenue impacts the experiences featured on this page, learn more.
Is this your Tripadvisor listing?
Own or manage this property? Claim your listing for free to respond to reviews, update your profile and much more.
Claim your listing