Aquariums 'deliver significant health benefits'

People who spend time in aquariums could improve their physical and mental wellbeing, a study has suggested. As well as improving people's mood, the experiment showed "significant" reductions in participants' heart rates and blood pressure, the authors added. Previous studies have linked contact with nature and improved wellbeing but this study is believed to be the first controlled experiment of its kind. The findings appear in the journal Environment and Behavior. "There have been a few studies that have looked at things like the number of bird or butterfly species in parks and researchers have asked people in those parks about how they felt," explained co-author Mathew White from the University of Exeter's European Centre for Environment and Human Health (ECEHH). "Generally, people felt happier in parks that had more birds or more butterflies, although people did not really appreciate the levels of biodiversity." Dr White told BBC News that there were a number of reasons why the team of researchers from the ECEHH, Plymouth University and the National Marine Aquarium were interested in the potential impact of aquariums on people's wellbeing. "Firstly, we were particularly interested in aquatic environments," he said. "Obviously most people cannot see different kinds of fish because they do not dive etc, so aquariums are a nice way to make the invisible marine environment just outside our doors visible and accessible. "More fundamentally, we were interested in how natural environments could be brought to urban populations and to people who might not be able to access nature -READ MORE -http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33716589