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During your stay in Puerto Peñasco why not take a visit
to Cet-Mar Aquariums located on the way to Las Conchas.
These photos were taken at Cet-Mar Aquarium right here in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, Mexico. I bet you thought you’d have to
be NAUI Certified to see such creatures – well you don’t if you take a walk through Cet-Mar.
Cet-Mar Aquarium houses thousands of creatures from our Sea of Cortez in various
tanks, aquariums and pools at their facility in Las Conchas. It’s a great place to learn about the inhabitants of the area and kill a few hours – great for the kids and educational for adults.
On each tank is the written name, in Spanish and English, of what’s inside as well as a brief description. There are too many creatures displayed to name in this article so here are
just a few of what they have to give you an idea; sea cockroaches, brown shrimp, horn sharks, starfish, stingrays, spider crabs, box crabs, moray eels, crustaceans, Gulf Opaleye, Sand Bass, tiger snake
eels, bullseye putter, puffer fish, cochito, tunicates, Cortez Angelfish, octopus, shrimp, karate crab, caracol, sea snails, Gulf Sand Stars, sea horses, pink and black Murex, thin striped sea star,
Pargo Perro (red snapper), Pargo Amarillo (yellow snapper) and hermit crabs.
Cet-mar consists of two rooms. The first room has small to mid-size aquariums that line the wall and a
couple of big vats – all full of sealife. In the middle of the room are two tidepools filled with all kinds of small creatures and even octopus. You could probably poke around in there for an hour or
so and still discover little creatures hiding in the rocks and their shells. If you’re lucky, Rueben Espinoza will poke around and wake up the octopus. He even showed us why they called this one
particular fish the dog snapper – you’ll have to discover this little secret for yourself. In the second room there are fewer aquariums and more large vats and a large pool that houses the sharks and
turtles – my favorite part of the aquarium. For $1.00 you can purchase a bag full of squid and feed the numerous turtles and sharks. If you have never seen these giant turtles you definitely need to
make a trip to Cet-Mar. If you’re brave enough you can even stick your hand in a pet them. Throughout the aquarium there are displays of different kinds and outside there are two ponds where they raise
Talapia and shrimp.
Cet-Mar is open Monday through Friday from 10:00 AM to 2:30 PM and from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Saturday and Sunday. Cet-Mar relies on the donations from visitors
to keep the aquarium going. They currently charge $2.00 USD for adults and $1.00 for children and all the monies go to maintain the aquarium.
If you haven’t been or are looking for something fun to do take a drive down to Cet-Mar. To get
there take the main blvd. (Benito Juarez) south and make a left on Blvd. Fremont. Go to the Las Conchas turnoff and make a right. Follow that road until you see the Cet-Mar school and make a right just
beyond that (before the Las Conchas guard shack). There are signs pointing you in the right direction. It will be a couple bucks well spent.
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