Deep-Sea Adventure at Aquarium : Ocean: New Scripps Institution aquarium museum opens to a chorus of approval from fans of the deep.

Fifteen-year-old Michael Nare-Pazen identifies with the quiet, mysterious ways of the ocean’s cephalopods: “You know, squid, cuttlefish, octopus.”

Michael describes himself as a hard-core fan of oceanography. He studies with his father, or on his own, because science classes at school do not delve deeply enough.

So Wednesday, at the opening of the Stephen Birch Aquarium Museum, a blissed-out Michael stood transfixed in front of Tank 32, watching one of the rarest of cephalopods, the chambered nautilus.

“It didn’t do much, just floated,” Michael said. “But that’s enough. They’re my favorites because they are so different. They seem more alien than any other beings on Earth.”

The Sunset High School student, whose father, Stephen Pazen, is a physicist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, arrived early and was eighth in line when the aquarium’s doors opened to the public Wednesday.

For Michael and hundreds who visited on the first day, the underwater views were well worth the wait.

Since 1986, when the Stephen Birch Foundation donated $6 million for construction, expectations have built for the new aquarium. The facility succeeds the T. Wayland Vaughan Aquarium, situated at the base of the sea cliff on La Jolla Shores Drive.

Retired sign installer James Gerber, 68, of Van Nuys and his wife, Lois, 66, have visited Scripps Institution four times since the old aquarium was built in 1950, making the 2 1/2-hour drive from the San Fernando Valley to San Diego.

The Gerbers wanted to be on hand for the new aquarium’s first day, so they planned a four-day trip around the opening. In their eagerness, they became a part of the aquarium’s history.

Arriving early, they waited about an hour for the 9 a.m. start time, and were the first through the door Wednesday.

“We weren’t sure what to expect by way of crowds,” Lois Gerber said. “We worried we might not make it in.”

The Gerbers were given a glass etching of the aquarium as a memento for being the first visitors through the door. They spent hours strolling through the tank exhibits and lingering at museum displays.

Upon completing a circuit, they drew the inevitable comparison with Scripp’s companion aquarium up north, the venerable Monterey Bay Aquarium.

“The one in Monterey might have more fish, but this one gives you a better education about the ocean,” Lois Gerber said as she stood in front of a wave tank, equipped with stopwatch to measure time intervals between waves.

Aaron Crudup, 35, of Rosemead, had praise for the aquarium layout and museum planning.

Crudup became a fish aficionado as an elementary school student in Compton, starting with a 15-gallon tropical fish tank that he and his brothers shared responsibility for. Crudup now has a 125-gallon tank, and has visited aquariums across the nation.

He left home in the San Gabriel Valley about 6:30 a.m. to make it to the opening.

Although the displays that Crudup saw Wednesday compared favorably to those in Monterey, neither facility matches the sheer water mass of the three-story National Aquarium in Baltimore, Crudup said. But, as did the Gerbers, Crudup praised the the in-depth explanations accompanying displays and the attempts to provide a variety of geographic groupings of fish and habitat.

“Looks like a good deal of care went into this,” Crudup said.

Four-year-old Breean Tompkins was most impressed by the outdoor tide pool display.

“She loves the water. She’s a fish when she gets in,” said Breean’s mother, Linda Tompkins, a Rancho Penasquitos resident and Hughes Corp. missile mechanic.

Breean alternated between leaning, headlong over water at the tide pool edge and racing in a circle around the patio, stopping only when a fish caught her attention.

“This is the best thing for her,” Tompkins said.

Later, Breean attacked the stuffed animal display in the aquarium’s gift shop, first fitting herself with a crab hand puppet shaped like a catcher’s mitt, then squeezing a harbor seal and eliciting a low yelp.

Watching her daughter at play, Tompkins leaned back, took in the 180-degree panorama of La Jolla Cove, La Jolla Shores, Scripps Pier, Blacks’ Beach and Torrey Pines State Park, then let out a sigh.

“The best thing about the aquarium, I guess, is that it’s local.”

The aquarium, at 2300 Expedition Way, is open every day, including holidays, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The entrance is at Expedition Way at North Torrey Pines Road near La Jolla Village Drive. To avoid crowding, the public is encouraged to visit from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and after 3:30 p.m. The price of admission for adults is $6.50.