In time for Labor Day weekend, family travelers and animal lovers can head to Kansas City, Missouri, to visit the all-new, $77 million Sobela Ocean Aquarium. Opening Sept. 1, this world-class aquarium immerses guests in marine environments across six zones.
© Kansas City Zoo & Aquarium
Free with admission to the recently renamed Kansas City Zoo & Aquarium, visitors explore zones imitating how ocean currents connect animals across the world. The aquarium features 200 species across 34 exhibits, with the journey beginning at warm-water habitats like rocky shores, a mangrove forest, tropical lagoon, salt marshes and coral reefs. Here, small fish, crustaceans, toucans and sharks await.
Kids will love the tropical lagoon touch pool, an interactive experience where kids can see and feel arthropods, snails and hermit crabs. Continuing through the aquarium, visitors enter the open waters through jellyfish displays and deep-ocean species like Japanese spider crabs and isopods.
© Kansas City Zoo & Aquarium
From here, visitors see a variety of other animals like a giant Pacific octopus, leopard shark and pot-bellied seahorses, all while traveling through the Pacific reef and kelp forests. At the end of the experience, visitors can spot sea otters and visit a hands-on tide pool filled with urchin, sea stars and a horn shark.
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