The World Aquarium is an extension of St. Louis Children's Aquarium, which began serving the community with a public aquarium in 1971. Our commitment to excellence involves developing conservation awareness of our aquatic world by promoting the wonders of water, which focus on hands-on learning about the Mississippi River, Amazon River and the connecting oceans.

The World Aquarium's intent is to expand the minds of our visitors by studying the aquatic ecosystems of the world, interaction of cultures within those aquatic ecosystems, and to study the structures of nature, which includes not only works of art that exist within nature, but also the interrelationships between diverse species. This defines the modern ecological concept of ecosystems.

We hope that by establishing the human presence within the aquarium and by studying huge seashell columns dwarfing the individual, that each exhibit will promote close inspection, introspection, and hopefully in total provide cause for action in conservation of our planet's ecosystems.