Vancouver Aquarium

Website: 
https://www.vanaqua.org
The primary links on the main page of the website are Visit, Experience, Act, Join, Learn, and Plan. The Act link is about their conservation programs and what you can do to help conserve the environment. I think this type of link is a vital part of any modern aquarium or zoo webpage.
There are a few animal fact sheets, but they are mostly generic, about large groups of animals instead of specific species. They have specifics for their large mammals like belugas and sea otters, but simply pages like 'amphibians' and 'sharks' for most others. They are also a little hard to find, you must go to the exhibit pages and scroll down for the animal page links.
There is a map available online for both viewing and downloading as a PDF.

Admission Prices:
       Adult              - $36
       Senior (65+)   - $27
       Youth (13-18) - $27
       Child (4-12)    - $21
       Child (3-)        - Free
       Student (ID)    - $27
      - extra fees for special animal encounters (not counting touch tanks).

Hours: 
Daily from 10am to 5pm

Aquarium:

The Vancouver Aquarium is located in Stanley Park, on the edge of the city of Vancouver in BC, Canada. It cannot easily be gotten to by bus, there are no nearby bus stops, the closest is at least a 10 minute walk away. The parking lot is close to the entrance, and the aquarium is completely wheelchair accessible, though a few areas must be gotten to by elevator with a stroller or wheelchair. You are given a handheld map as you enter, as well as funneled through a souvenir photograph opportunity.

There are two places to get food. One is a cafe right next to the entrance, and the other is on the opposite side of the facility. They serve pretty standard fast-food and cafe items. The outdoor seating is plentiful, but the indoor seating is really inadequate for the number of people at the aquarium on rainy days. My group and I had to walk elsewhere to find a place to sit and eat inside.

I have never seen so many restrooms in an aquarium before. There are a total of 8 restrooms, and you are never more than a room or two away from one. Great place to bring someone with a small bladder.

The children's indoor play area is located in a separate room to the side of the Exploration Gallery. It is a pretty good size, but was full by the afternoon. There are no outdoor play areas. Other children-focused activities are scheduled throughout the day, including small educational play opportunities put on by volunteers/staff.

Aquarium staff edutaining children

Exhibits:

The indoor exhibits are well placed and organized for good viewing flow through the rooms. Most exhibits are well-lit and easy to view. The main exhibit areas include Pacific Canada, The Tropics, Amazon Gallery, Treasures of BC Coast, Exploration Gallery, Frogs Forever?, BC Wild Coast, and Canada's Arctic. When I was there, Canada's Arctic was closed and had no animals for viewing.

The identification signs by each exhibit were for the most part excellent, showing not only the common and scientific names of the animals, but also a couple of interesting facts about them.

A few examples of signs in Frogs Forever?
Many highlighted endangered species and conservation efforts.

 The animal talks were all about education of not only the species involved, but also about the individual animals. This was particularly apparent in the dolphin show/talk, which included the aquarium's two rescue dolphins. At all the talks, the presenter stayed for a while afterward to answer further questions.
There were also often staff or volunteers around the aquarium exhibits, ready to help and answer questions. They all seemed very knowledgable and enthusiastic.

Helen the dolphin shows off her agility

Sign about the other dolphin, all this information was also
shared in the animal talk

I was a little disappointed by the African penguin exhibit. It was not very large and was awkward for viewing the penguins either in or out of the water and felt like an old exhibit with bare, unimaginative fake rock formations and little visual information about the animal's natural habitat. This was also the case for the marine mammals. The small exhibits in the rest of the aquarium did a good job emulating the animals' natural environment and included either real plants or models of the ones found in their habitats.

The interactive areas of the aquarium include the Wet Lab room, an outdoor touch tank of mostly green anemones and sea urchins, and an indoor stingray touch tank. The sting ray touch tank is the largest I have seen, plenty big for the rays within to swim either deeper than people could reach, or go to the middle to get away if they did not wished to be touched. The staff manning the tank were always there and asked people to rinse their hands before entering and then only use two fingers to touch lightly. They instructed us to just put our arms in the water with fingers out and wait, and indeed the stingrays would often purposefully come up to say hello and get touched! This is the ideal way to operate a ray touch experience, where the animals have a clear choice in the matter.

The ray tank

I did not see a great deal of stereotyping behavior, but I also did not spend a lot of time watching the marine mammals outside of the keeper presentations except for the sea otters, for which I observed no stereotyping. However, I did observe stereotyping in a zebra shark in The Tropics exhibit. It would swim in very tight circles within the exhibit, always in the same direction.

This is a pretty good aquarium for photography, but not if you want to photograph penguins or sea otters. The only exhibits with open-air viewing are the dolphins, seals, belugas, and sort of the sea otters (if you are tall). Everything else is through glass.

Overall this is a very educational and fun aquarium to visit. I was unable to explore every exhibit, as the Canada's Arctic area was closed off, but what I was able to see was good. The signage at the exhibits is much better than other aquariums I have been to, having almost every animal on display represented with good information, as well as having staff or volunteers often available to answer questions. The talks were all educational and created good photography opportunities.
I would love to come again when all the exhibits are open and do a more thorough review.

Last but not least, you do have to exit through the gift shop. Not ideal for those with children.

Have a jelly-good day!