Living Planet Aquarium offers a fun-filled educational experience for kids of all ages

"A child's world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement," wrote environmentalist Rachel Carson. "It is our own misfortune that for most of us, that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood."

It's no surprise that Carson's statement graces a wall at the Living Planet Aquarium, which is a true place of wonder for both youngsters and adults. Filled with aquatic creatures from both near and far, the aquarium gives visitors an up-close look at an alien world.

"So much of what we have here is so far away from what we see in our every-day lives," says Angie Hyde, director of pubic relations and marketing at the aquarium. "Yet, here, you can see it, you can ever touch some of it. You can interact with species that are so very different."

The aquarium offers several major galleries. The Utah Water Gallery helps you appreciate the aquatic world closer to home, with such species as rainbow trout, Colorado River cutthroat trout, tiger and lake trout, as well as bullfrogs, salamanders and even brine shrimp.

From there, things get more exotic. In the Marine Gallery, you can bee such things as moray eels, several varieties of jellyfish, a giant Pacific octopus, a huge Northern lobster, and tiny sea horses.

In the Life on the Reef section, you can see brightly colored fish, coral, sharks and more.

The newest addition to the aquarium is the Journey to South America section, which opened at the end of February. In the Mayan-themed jungle-like area, you can see such intriguing animals as piranhas, pacu, Amazon catfish, giant arapaima, electric eels, freshwater stingrays, giant anacondas, poison arrow frogs, caimans (among the smallest crocodilians) and other animals found in the South American rainforests.

The 7,000 square-foot addition still has room for penguins from the Falkland Islands, Hyde says. "We are currently raising money for that, and hope to have it installed by next spring. It will feature two species of South American penguins."

While the South American gallery is the newest addition, the most popular station remains the Touch Pool, Hyde says. There you can actually touch the velvety-silk back of a Pacific stingray and contrast that with the feel of a spiny pencil urchin, a green brittle starfish or a horseshoe crab.

At the nearby Bio-Facts station, you can learn more about these invertebrates. In May, the station celebrated an Off "spring" Fling, by displaying some of the Aquarium's newest members: babies.