Opening time

The Aquarium is open 365 days/year.

Parking lots

The Aquarium car park is open every day, 24 hours a day.
Places available: 167, of which 4 for disabled people.
It is not possible to reserve a parking space, but within the Porto Antico Area there are other covered and uncovered car parks.
For further information Click here +

Tickets

Adult (+13) starting from €26,00
Boys (4-12) starting from €16
Children (0-3) free
Military / Over 65 / Disabled* starting from €20
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FAQ

  • The entrance ticket to the Acquario di Genova, like the tickets for all the other structures included in the AcquarioVillage (La Città dei Bambini e dei Ragazzi, Bigo and Biosfera), combined included, ARE NOT NOMINAL.
    For tickets purchased online, the name that appears on them is that of the person who made the purchase, or the gift recipient.
    In case of impossibility to carry out the visit, the tickets can therefore be transferred to third parties.
  • The FIXED DATE ticket requires, at the time of purchase, the reservation of the date/time slot chosen to carry out the visit. Date and time slot are binding and must be respected.
    The FLEXI ticket is valid for one year from the date of purchase, does not require immediate booking and gives the possibility of making a date/time slot change, avoiding the loss of the ticket in the event of inconveniences.
  • If you have purchased a FIXED DATE ticket, we are sorry but, as per the conditions of sale, this is not possible.
    If you have purchased an OPEN FLEXI ticket, you can change the date/time slot of the visit once, within 2 hours of the chosen entry time, at the following link: ?
  • Disabled people with documentation certifying their disability are entitled to a discounted fare ("reduced" ticket).
    The companion of the 100% disabled person is entitled to free entry; in case of online purchase, the companion must go to the cash desk to collect the free ticket, upon presentation of the above-mentioned certification.
    In the case of disabled people aged between 4 and 12, we recommend purchasing the "child" ticket, which is cheaper than the "reduced" ticket.
  • Sorry, no animals are allowed inside the Acquario di Genova with the exception of guide dogs for blind people.
    For information about the dog sitting service in the area, we suggest you contact the IAT (Tourist Reception Information) Porto Antico. (tel.: 010.5572903 - email:
    info@visitgenoa.it)
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Cetacean research projects
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  3. The cetaceans of the Mediterranean Sea

The cetaceans of the Mediterranean Sea

Know them to protect them

The species

Eight species of cetaceans mainly live in the Mediterranean Sea:
  • the bottlenose dolphin ( Tursiops truncatus )
  • the striped dolphin ( Stenella coeruleoalba ),
  • the common dolphin ( Delphinus delphis )
  • the rampus ( Grampus griseus )
  • the pilot whale ( Globicephala melas )
  • the beaked whale ( Ziphius cavirostris )
  • the sperm whale ( Physeter macrocephalus )
  • the fin whale ( Balaenoptera physalus )
Four of these, the bottlenose dolphin, the striped dolphin, the sperm whale and the fin whale, dominate the others and alone make up more than 90% of all sightings.
The diversity of cetaceans, in the context of the Mediterranean basin, is therefore relatively low, if compared to that of the eastern Atlantic. However, some areas, such as the Alboran Sea or the northwestern Mediterranean, which includes the Pelagos Sanctuary, show higher levels of diversity and should be considered hotspots to be preserved. These biodiversity hotspots are located in areas characterized by high levels of primary production and high bathymetric variability, which allows different species to find their privileged habitat.
To improve knowledge on the marine species that inhabit the Mediterranean Sea, it is important to create research networks and share the data collected in different areas. For over 10 years, with the Intercet project, the Genoa Aquarium has been actively engaged in this "networking" process, to make a significant contribution to the study and conservation of Mediterranean cetaceans.
Cetaceans in the Mediterranean

The Intercet platform

DURATION: 2012 - ONGOING

La piattaforma online Intercet
Intercet ( www.intercet.it ) is an online platform for sharing data on the presence of marine mammals and reptiles in the Mediterranean Sea.
Technically it is a WebGIS, or a Geographic Information System on the Web, capable of managing, on a single support, sighting data and photographic images for the identification of species and individuals. Since its activation in 2010, the Intercet platform has served as a common support for numerous Italian and international projects and today has over 50 research partners from 9 countries of the Mediterranean Sea.

The collective database is made up of approximately 25,000 sighting points, relating to 14 species of cetaceans and sea turtles. The aggregation of data on a common support and their integrated analysis makes it possible to obtain information on a scale inaccessible to individual institutions, recomposing, like the pieces of a puzzle, the information coming from the different study areas (see TursioMed, InterMed and ABIOMMED).

Intercet is a public platform, owned by the Liguria Region. It was conceived and developed by the Genoa Aquarium as part of the GIONHA project (Governance and Integrated Observation of marine Natural Habitat) and is managed by the Genoa Aquarium Foundation.
The Intercet online platform

The

DURATION: 2024-ongoing


Il progetto InterMed

It is a research project of the Acquario di Genova Foundation for the protection of cetacean diversity in the Mediterranean Sea, whose main objective is to evaluate the conservation status of these marine mammals living in the Mare Nostrum and to monitor the diversity of species, especially in relation to the effects of climate change.

Begun in 2024 and lasting 3 years, it is funded by the Aderholt Goh Trust, a charitable fund committed to safeguarding marine biodiversity by supporting scientific research, and involves the involvement of a large research network at Mediterranean level.

Among the objectives of the PROMED project, the support of local research campaigns to expand the data collection area, including areas currently poorly covered by the research network, such as the Italian Adriatic coast, included starting from summer 2024 thanks to the activation of the new research team "Delfini Metropolitani Adriatico" with the involvement of the Cattolica Aquarium and the Oltremare Park of the Costa Edutainment group.

The data collected by the Acquario di Genova Foundation and other scientific institutes are uploaded and shared on Intercet www.intercet.it/

In the context of citizen science , a dedicated WhatsApp number (+39 379 153 8203) has been active since 2025, where citizens can send photographic reports of sightings. The reports, complete with photograph, geographic position, date and time, will be verified by researchers and integrated into a dedicated section of the Intercet platform.

More information on www.promedproject.org

The PROMED project

The InterMed project

DURATION: 2020-2022


Il progetto InterMed
InterMed is a project for the study and conservation of cetaceans in the Mediterranean Sea, which is developed through a research network made up of 32 institutions from 9 Mediterranean countries: Spain, France, Italy, Slovenia, Montenegro, Greece, Turkey, Israel and Tunisia.

The sighting data collected by each entity is shared on the Intercet platform to be analyzed in aggregate form.
The photo-identification data of the bottlenose dolphin, Risso's dolphin, beaked whale and sperm whale are also shared and compared, so as to be able to reconstruct the movements of individuals across the different study areas.
The results obtained will allow us to improve knowledge on the distribution and ecology of the cetaceans that inhabit the Mediterranean basin.

TursioMed is a project financed by the Blue Planet Foundation – Virginia Böger Stiftung XX and coordinated by the Fondazione Acquario di Genova Onlus in collaboration with WWF Switzerland, with the patronage of ACCOBAMS ( Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and contiguous Atlantic area ) and the Pelagos Sanctuary for the conservation of marine mammals.
The InterMed project (2020-2022)

The ABIOMMED project

DURATION: 2021-2022
 
ABIOMMED is an international project, funded by the European Union, to support the Marine Strategy.

The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD ) is a European directive that requires member states to preserve the marine environment in " Good Environmental Status " through research, monitoring and conservation activities.
The Fondazione Acquario di Genova was involved in a specific action aimed at supporting the biodiversity of marine mammals in the Mediterranean Sea through a monitoring network.

The action is coordinated by CoNISMa, the National Inter-university Consortium for Marine Sciences, and involves 30 research institutions from Spain, France, Italy, Slovenia, Greece and Turkey.
Cetacean research projects
Cetacean research projects
Cetacean research projects
Cetacean research projects
Cetacean research projects
Cetacean research projects
Cetacean research projects
Cetacean research projects
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conservation projects
The European pond turtle
The European pond turtle
SOS Turtles
SOS turtles
Seahorses
Seahorses
Tropical corals: a heritage to be preserved.
Tropical corals
Bottlenose dolphin research projects
The bottlenose dolphin
Sharks
The Sharks
The crayfish
Linneo Project
Linneo Project

Environmental education and digital teaching
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