Portuguese museum and 1st aquarium. It is an educational institution and a centre for the dissemination of Aquatic Life and research. Currently the Aquário Vasco da Gama is fundamentally a didactic institution, a centre for the dissemination of Aquatic Life and research. Over time, several transformations have been underway, in order to improve more and more the exhibition of living specimens and museum collection, seeking to fulfil in the best possible way its important role as living museum of natural history. The exhibition of living specimens at the Aquário Vasco da Gama is characterized by diversity, presenting animal and plant species belonging to the most varied zoological and botanical groups, from freshwater, salt and saobra ecosystems, from both hemispheres. The fauna of the Portuguese coast occupies, however, the prominent place.
