Poema del Mar

The Poema del Mar is an aquarium located in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. It was inaugurated on December 17, 2017. The Gran Canaria Town Council and the Government of the Canary Islands have considered it of strategic interest to the region by reinforcing the promotion of the archipelago as an international travel destination. It is owned by the Loro Parque Group.

Features
Located within the premises of the Port of Light and Las Palmas, it consists of a 12,500 m2 building inspired by the designs of Nestor Martín-Fernández de la Torre, whose pictorial work "Poem of the Atlantic" inspires the name of the aquarium.

It consists of three large differentiated zones: surface marine ecosystems, deep marine, and freshwater. There are 35 ecosystems represented in different aquariums totaling 7.5 million liters of water, distributed in three areas:


 * The first zone, The Jungle, reproduces landscapes in homage to the five continents.
 * The second zone, Reef, is a walk around a huge cylinder that displays a wide variety of corals and fish.
 * In the third zone, Deep Sea, the deepest ocean is reproduced, thanks to the largest curved exhibition window in the world: a 140-ton methacrylate, 36 meters long and seven meters high, making it the largest saltwater aquarium in Europe.

Commitment to the marine environment
It collaborates with the European Commission and the United Nations Environment Programme to launch a coalition of aquariums that fight against pollution caused by plastics.

It carries out awareness actions through educational workshops, conservation, and protection of vulnerable species, such as the recovery of injured turtles for their subsequent return to the sea.

Criticism
The aquarium remained closed from its political inauguration day, December 17, 2017, until January 8, 2018, the day it opened its doors to the public. At the time of its inauguration, only political authorities and the media were present to justify its realization, the use of tax incentives received by the Investment Reserve and the deductions applied, a procedure required by the Ministry of Finance. During that 21-day period, the aquarium had no lighting of its own because it had not yet received the official opening permits, necessary to certify the habitability of the space. The only light ensuring the survival of the animals was the construction light from the street.

The same day of its inauguration, there was a difficult transfer of one of the sharks. The operation was managed by company operators and involved lifting the shark with a crane inside a bag with fastenings, after having previously supplied it with oxygen. During the operation, one of the fastenings came loose after the animal thrashed about, at which point it was placed back in its tank. Videos of the incident later circulated on social media.