Museum of Oceanography

Monaco's royal family doesn't all consist of boring and bland people (and I'm looking at you Prince Albert II. Actually, I was looking at Charlene, but that's because the whole place is covered with pics of the two of them, and I'd rather look at the prettier of the two). Prince Albert II the Rotund's great-great-grandfather, who lived in the late 1800's, took an interest in science, organized various expeditions around not only the Med but also up north to the pole, and is generally credited as being one of the early oceanographers. Many of his specimens have been collected in the Musee Oceanographique in Monaco, along with an aquarium.

Specimen collection back in the 1800's was not a nuanced and humane operation. In fact, it seems indistinguishable from whaling and fishing.

American tourists are here. Man the harpoons!

Ce n'est pas une pipe et, aussi, ce n'est pas une touriste americaine 

Harpoons

They used all sorts of contraptions for marine surveys, a remarkable feat at the time, and even more so considering that Albert the Premiere could very well have chosen to sit back at his seaside palace instead of enduring hardship aboard an oceanographic vessel.

Weird trap

Soundings in the pre-electronic age

There were some interesting diver suits. It must have taken a lot of courage to don these things.

An easy way to end up "sleeping with the fishes" as they say across the border

All he has, really, is an upside down jar with air in it, plus some lead

The aquarium was one of the better ones I've visited, well-worth the entry fee.

At my place of work, also, there is always someone doing the opposite of what everyone else is there to do

You're not as invisible as you think. And you're very tasty.

Flying fish are apparently ugly little beasts

I imagine these two moray eels having Statler and Waldorf-style discussions for life

These guys have been fished from the way deep. They still have that culture shock look to them.

I think these are piranhas

Nemo, where are you?

A pack of sea horses

They all live around a yellow submarine.