I can’t resist the siren song of a place that claims to be the world’s largest aquarium. So on the last day we were in town we set aside the afternoon to check out the fishes.

But as we walked in we were confronted with a screen hawking a filmed titled “Deepo’s Undersea 3D Wondershow” which bore a striking resemblance to another film about a clown fish who shares screen time with his best friend a blue fish, a shark and series of turtles. It had the additional charm of paying none-to-subtle homage to its corporate sponsor, Home Depot by naming the main character phonetically. It set the stage for the Georgia Aquarium’s curatorial gestalt.

As the main pool’s exhibit featured a kiosk emphasizing how UPS was integral to the transporting of their main attraction, the whale shark. In fact one of the whale sharks had died earlier in the day and parts of the aquarium were cordoned off with news crews manning lights and monitors while they waited for staff to give interviews.

I’m sure keeping a whale shark isn’t easy but I’m not sure how advisable it is either. In fact the whole point of the Georgia Aquarium seemed to be its competition with amusement parks, Hollywood films and video games for the fleeting attention of semi-amnestied, entertainment soaked young minds. Which is too bad because fish are pretty fantastic on their own. Marine science doesn’t need to be tarted up to be interesting. They’re doing a disservice to the whole point of aquariums. If they were a zoo I wouldn’t have been surprised to see a dancing bear in make-up and tutu or a kangaroo boxing show. Or maybe someone just dressed up as one.

I would guess that most of the smaller species are reasonably well cared for, but the tanks were just packed with life. Maybe in an attempt to keep visitors' eyes filled with marine motion but you could tell – some of the sea life was pissed. I’m pretty sure it’s like living in the over crowed Bangalore streets without a break.

The snapper was just bedeviled by the smaller schooling fish.

This turtle looked pissed the entire time.

At least the crabs seemed in their element.

For the most part I tried to steer clear of the cheesier aspects and concentrated on the fish.

And Mr. P found my mascot, the shrimp captain although I'm not sure what the implication was, exactly.