5 Largest Aquariums in the US
America's biggest aquariums are not measured in fish. They are measured in millions of gallons. The largest holds enough water to keep whale sharks swimming laps; the runner-up was a Disney world-record holder before Atlanta dethroned it. Ranked by total water volume, these are the five largest aquariums in the United States, and the marine life packed inside each one.
Georgia Aquarium
Nothing else in the country comes close. The Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta holds more than 11 million gallons of water, nearly double its closest rival, and it is the only aquarium in the United States with whale sharks, the largest fish on Earth. Manta rays glide through the same six-million-gallon tank, viewed through a tunnel and a window the size of a movie screen.
The aquarium opened on November 23, 2005, built on a $250 million donation from Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus. More than 2.5 million people pour through it every year, across over 60 exhibits and seven galleries. Behind the spectacle is a serious research and conservation operation that works with scientists worldwide on endangered species. If you make one aquarium stop in the country, this is it.
The Seas with Nemo and Friends
Before Atlanta came along, this was the champion. Inside Epcot at Walt Disney World in Orlando, the 5.7-million-gallon tank held the world record for the largest indoor saltwater aquarium until the Georgia Aquarium opened in 2005. It debuted in 1986 as The Living Seas and was rethemed around the Finding Nemo characters in 2007.
Do not let the theme-park wrapper fool you. More than 200 species live here, including sharks, rays, sea turtles, and one of the largest artificial coral reefs anywhere. The shark habitat, home to nurse sharks and blacktip reef sharks, is built for a 360-degree view. Over a million visitors a year pass through its education programs, learning marine science between rides.
Shedd Aquarium
Chicago's Shedd has been pulling crowds since May 30, 1930, which makes it one of the oldest aquariums in the world still operating. It holds about 5 million gallons of water and roughly 2 million visitors a year, housed behind a façade of classical Greek architecture on the Museum Campus.
More than 1,500 species fill its tanks, from the local Great Lakes to the Amazon. Sharks, stingrays, and sea turtles share the building with the Abbott Oceanarium, which keeps dolphins, belugas, and sea otters in one of the largest indoor marine mammal facilities in the world. The range is the point here: few aquariums move you from a Midwestern lake to a tropical reef in a single afternoon.
National Aquarium, Baltimore
The anchor of Baltimore's Inner Harbor holds 2.2 million gallons across more than 100 exhibits and over 750 species. The showpieces are a multi-story Atlantic Coral Reef and an open-ocean shark tank built to mimic the real thing. At ground level, the Living Seashore touch pools let visitors put a hand on a horseshoe crab or a sea star.
It is not all fish, either. A top-floor rainforest recreates an Australian river gorge, complete with free-flying birds and golden lion tamarins. The aquarium opened on August 8, 1981, at a cost of about $53 million, and it has anchored the Inner Harbor ever since, drawing more than 1.5 million visitors a year while running active marine rescue and rehabilitation programs.
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Monterey Bay does something the others do not: it shows you the ocean right outside its windows. Opened on October 20, 1984, on the California coast at a cost of $55 million, the aquarium holds over 2 million gallons and more than 600 species, all centered on the marine life of the bay it overlooks. Its towering kelp forest exhibit, one of the tallest in the world, sways with the same sea otters, leopard sharks, and fish found just offshore.
The Open Sea exhibit watches tuna and sea turtles through one of the largest single-pane windows on the planet. The jellyfish galleries are world-famous, and a tentacled gallery of octopus and cuttlefish rounds out the collection. Beyond the exhibits, Monterey Bay is a heavyweight in ocean science, and its sustainable-seafood ratings have shifted how restaurants and shoppers across the country buy fish.
Five Tanks, One Ocean
From Atlanta's record-breaking 11 million gallons to Monterey's window on the Pacific, these five aquariums hold the most water and some of the most remarkable marine life in the country. Each takes a different angle: Georgia goes for sheer scale and whale sharks, Monterey for local conservation, the Shedd and National for globe-spanning tours, and the Seas for marine science wrapped in a theme park. Whichever is nearest, it is worth the trip, and most of them are funding the research working to keep the real ocean as full of life as their tanks.
