In 1898, when the Vasco da Gama Aquarium was inaugurated, Dom Carlos I, king of Portugal, held a temporary exhibition in one of the rooms to display the zoological specimens he collected during the first oceanographic campaigns carried out in 1896 and 1897.
Curiously enough, these same specimens returned to the Vasco da Gama Aquarium years later, in 1935, as part of Dom Carlos I Oceanographic Museum Collection, enriching its collection in such a way that, even today, it is essentially known for the rare specimens associated with the oceanographer monarch.
Over the years, the Vasco da Gama Aquarium museum has gathered interesting zoological specimens, many of them given by fishermen committed to contributing to the dissemination of the diversity of aquatic creatures that inhabit our marine territory: this valuable collection includes molluscs, marine fish, freshwater fish, aquatic birds, turtles, and marine mammals.