O Grove Aquarium

About this heritage

The O Grove aquarium is located in Punta Moreiras on the O Grove Peninsula. It is the only aquarium in Pontevedra and the main centre where one can acquire an understanding of the Rías Baixas. It was built in 1997 and subsequently refurbished, reopening in 2011.

Its main mission is to actively contribute to the conservation of the marine environment and its biodiversity. To this effect, it fulfils three main objectives: conservation, education and research.

The intention is that the aquarium is not just visited for viewing fish, but to discover the animals in their environment, their behaviour and their interaction with other animals. The aquarium therefore holds the marine ecosystems which can overall be found in the Rías Baixas.

There are 100 different species and approximately 1,000 living organisms distributed in 28 tanks, with common names that inhabit the coast of Muros e Noia, de Ortigueira, Fisterra, Bao, Cíes, or Illa de Sálvora. These tanks have species like the sargo (Diplodus sargus sargus), the morena (Muraena sp.) or the blackspot seabream (Pagellus bogaraveo).

A special space was even dedicated to the replica of rafts, from which strings hang mussels (Mytillus sp.) and oysters (Ostrea sp.). You can also see baby stingrays (Raja sp.), and spotted dogfish (Scyliorhinus canicula) being bred in captivity.

The largest tank is the Ocean and it contains the bull shark (Carcharinus Taurus), greater amberjack (Seriola dumereli), or Starry smooth-hound (Mustelus asterias).

It also has a tank called "Toca-Toca" in which visitors can pick littorina (Littorina sp.) or sea urchins (Echinoidea sp.) up in their hands.

To learn more

The species exhibited in the aquarium are divided into cold, warm and fresh-water species. Activities include one-hour visits for individual which includes a tour of the tanks that represent the flora and fauna of the Galician coasts and tropical seas. Visitors can do the tour by following the explanatory panels and acquiring knowledge on the characteristics of the different species of the ecosystem.

Some other activities are only for groups, where there are marine rope knotting workshops, combined aquarium package and catamaran ride along the Arousa estuary and combined packages which include trips to the islands of the Maritime Terrestrial National Park of the Atlantic Islands of Galicia. They also have birthdays parties with guided tours, snacks and treasure hunts.

In the vicinity of the aquarium is the salt and fishing Interpretation Centre (CIPES) which is a set of spaces, one of them outdoors, where the fish salting process of the late 18th century and during the 19th century, is explained The main building houses a permanent ethnographic exhibition on the fishing gear and seafaring history of O Grove.

Behind the aquarium there is a route called "Sculpture of Punta Moreiras". It is a route of 5.6 kilometers of low difficulty that starts at the Punta Moreiras cove and ends at the Porto Meloxo cove. Along this route you can see a set of 42 sculptures of mermaids, human figures, fish, cormorants or marine mammals which objective is the enhancement, dissemination and promotion of the marine culture.

To know it better

As we already know, an aquarium is a place for exhibiting live aquatic animals. The O Grove Aquarium, located in the province of Pontevedra, was reopened in 2011 and its main mission is to raise awareness of marine life, as well as its conservation, education and research.

There are marine ecosystems that can be found on our Galician coasts, more specifically on the Rías Baixas, as well as tropical species. It has about a hundred different species and about 1,000 living organisms distributed throughout its 28 tanks. In these we can find spotted dogfish and stingray eggs, the famous clownfish and long-snouted butterflyfish, seahorses, sea bream, jellyfish, octopus, as well as a baby catshark. In addition, it is the only aquarium in Spain that accommodates the dogfish shark, also known as vitamin shark, which is about 2 meters long and weighs 45 kilos.