The Singapore Oceanarium has “22 multi-sensory zones” to engage and immerse you.  When you enter, the first thing you see is a giant, dark room aglow with jellyfish tanks. It’s hard not to be mesmerised by thousands of glowing moon jellies floating in one of the largest jellyfish tanks in the world. This one in particular, took all my attention.

All of your other marine life friends are here too: hammerheads and sandbar sharks, manta rays and eagle rays, dragon morays, clown triggerfish, big eye, red lionfish and blue and yellow poison dart frogs. Habitats closely replicate species’ natural homes, for example Australian sea dragons are now expertly camouflaged in a kelp forest.

The Oceanarium invites you to look back at what the seas would have been like during the time of the dinosaurs. Loved the animatronic Dunkleosteus, an extinct creature that was the largest fish in the sea during the Palaeozoic Era. There’s a real commitment to education about everything from animal adaptations to marine conservation. If you want to learn about the marine world, this is the place for you.

The only thing I was appalled by, is that the Oceanarium keeps six dolphins in a very small space and — for a fee — allow visitors to pet them. In this day and age, it’s surprising that the Oceanarium is not more attuned to the ethical concerns raised by this kind of treatment. I was hoping to find that they’d cut their dolphin immersion program, but no such luck.