Viewing ocean life, while they're free!

December 16, 2020 12:00 PM

Are there any viewing areas made of glass that open up to the ocean so that you can watch ocean wildlife as it's happening in nature instead of an aquarium? So you could be essentially under the water watching the fish, but in a room instead of scuba diving?

I feel like I saw something like this existing somewhere, but I now in googling, none of my searching are turning anything up. While I'd like to know about any US based so I have a better chance of getting there, I'd love to hear about any that exist anywhere in the world. Maybe some day travelling will be possible! Thanks everyone!

posted by xarnop to Science & Nature (22 answers total)

The tours off of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia do this.
posted by Melismata at 12:05 PM on December 16, 2020

Best answer: There's an underwater observatory like that in Eilat, Israel; on the Red Sea.
posted by fingersandtoes at 12:07 PM on December 16, 2020 [3 favorites]

I think one search term that might be helpful is "glass bottom boat".
posted by hydra77 at 12:09 PM on December 16, 2020 [3 favorites]

there are also overwater bungalows in tropical resorts, some of which actually have glass panels in the floor (but not all do, so check for that feature.) here's a list of ones in the Americas.
posted by fingersandtoes at 12:14 PM on December 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Under, a restaurant in Norway, has a view of the sea from about 20' below the surface.
posted by cnidaria at 12:18 PM on December 16, 2020 [3 favorites]

Best answer: There's an underwater restaurant in Båly, Norway where one wall of the room is transparent and open to the ocean. This would be a Baltic / North Sea biome rather than a tropical one like some of these other suggestions.
posted by XMLicious at 12:22 PM on December 16, 2020 [2 favorites]

Best answer: oh yeah, underwater restaurants are a thing. Some are just giant aquarium tanks but some are legit under the sea. This list has some in the US.
posted by fingersandtoes at 12:22 PM on December 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

Best answer: There's an underwater observatory at the end of Busselton jetty
posted by trialex at 12:29 PM on December 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

The Ballard Locks, in Seattle, aren't really nature at its wildest, but it is fish doing their fishy thing.
posted by The corpse in the library at 12:44 PM on December 16, 2020 [7 favorites]

Isn't the Monterey Bay Aquarium situated so that some of its viewing is of the open ocean?
posted by OHenryPacey at 12:47 PM on December 16, 2020 [3 favorites]

There's also a hotel like this in Florida; outside your room is the open ocean, inside your room it's 1973.
posted by Superilla at 1:25 PM on December 16, 2020 [7 favorites]

There's Jules' Undersea Lodge, only accessible by SCUBA. They'll even teach you how to dive first. Promo video here.
posted by hanov3r at 1:26 PM on December 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

Dr. No has a window like this, below sea level in his island lair. You can see it over Bond's shoulder in this clip. In the novel, he brags about its million-dollar price tag.

Isn't the Monterey Bay Aquarium situated so that some of its viewing is of the open ocean?

Not exactly. Their huge tanks use the water of the adjacent bay, but it's filtered for clarity before and during visiting hours.
posted by Rash at 1:49 PM on December 16, 2020 [2 favorites]

Isn't the Monterey Bay Aquarium situated so that some of its viewing is of the open ocean?

Sadly no. The tanks pump water in and out of the ocean but none of the glass walls indoors look into the open ocean. There's a tide pool right next to the building, but there's no glass viewing wall, it's just a normal tide pool. The Kelp Forest is fully enclosed inside.
posted by GuyZero at 2:15 PM on December 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

I've gone on a boat ride off of Catalina Island in Southern California where the bottom of the boat has glass windows where you can see all kinds of interesting sea life. It's a faux submarine.Catalina Adventure Tours
posted by j810c at 3:22 PM on December 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

None of them are cheap but there are quite a few underwater hotel rooms besides the Jules lodge.
posted by Mitheral at 6:08 PM on December 16, 2020

There’s one in Milford Sound, NZ
posted by music for skeletons at 8:06 PM on December 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

Good luck getting there, but there's one in McMurdo, Antarctica.

(Those pictures don't do justice to the actual experience.)
posted by Metasyntactic at 8:17 PM on December 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

If you're on the way to McMurdo, the Milford Sound Underwater Observatory in NZ is really fun.
posted by eotvos at 9:46 PM on December 16, 2020

I see that I should have read all the comments first. Sorry for the duplicate.
posted by eotvos at 9:50 PM on December 16, 2020

The first of these anywhere in the world, to the best of my knowledge, was at Green Island. I visited twice, first in 1972 and again in 1975. It's closed now, having deteriorated structurally; unfortunately the corals it was installed to look at have been very badly damaged as well. Wild beauty is often destroyed by being made more easily accessible.
posted by flabdablet at 11:10 PM on December 16, 2020

There's the timetripper under-lake viewing site in Queenstown, southern NZ, which gets you as close to our native eels as you want to get (they will happily take chunks out of you! in the wild), and you can see ducks diving too.

There's also Sealife in Auckland but its the same deal as Monterey Bay Aquarium, still an impressive experience tho'.
posted by unearthed at 11:34 PM on December 16, 2020 [1 favorite]