Acquario di Messina

The Messina Aquarium is the only scientific facility of its kind existing in southern Italy along with the Naples Aquarium. It was built inside Villa Mazzini in the early 1960s by the Thalassographic Institute of Messina, thanks to a special funding granted by the Sicily Region. In 1986 it was granted on loan to the Municipality of Messina, which managed it until the establishment of CeSPOM. The facility houses about 70 different species of fish, mollusks, crustaceans, and Mediterranean reptiles in 22 tanks with a capacity ranging from 2,500 to 18,000 liters of water, supplied with an open circuit system using seawater taken directly from the Strait of Messina.