The New England Aquarium is a nonprofit organization and public aquarium located in Boston, Massachusetts. The species exhibited include harbor and northern fur seals, California sea lions, African and southern rockhopper penguins, giant Pacific octopuses, loggerhead and green sea turtles, and thousands of saltwater and freshwater fishes. In addition to the main aquarium building, attractions at Central Wharf include the Simons Theatre and the New England Aquarium Whale Watch. More than 1.3 million guests visited the aquarium each year prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium conducts long-running research on the North Atlantic right whale, and its Quincy Animal Care Center rescues and rehabilitates hundreds of sea turtles annually.
History Boston has had multiple aquariums since the 1880s, the last before the New England Aquarium being the South Boston Aquarium at Marine Park, which closed its doors in the 1950s.
As part of the city’s goal of revitalizing the waterfront, a new, modern aquarium, designed by Peter Chermayeff of Cambridge Seven Associates, was planned starting in 1962. David B. Stone led the project as President of the New England Aquarium Corporation. The brutalist concrete building with its cavernous interior was opened to the public in 1969. The Giant Ocean Tank, a 200,000-US-gallon (760,000 L) cylindrical exhibit made of concrete and glass, opened in 1970. In 1974, a purpose-built, multi-storied barge, Discovery, was moored next to Central Wharf. As the aquarium’s location on the wharf limited its ability to expand, Discovery served as a floating addition containing a 1,000-seat amphitheater overlooking a 116,000-US-gallon (440,000 L) saltwater pool for marine mammals. In addition to the aquarium's first California sea lions, bottlenose dolphins performed there until they were transferred in the mid-1990s. The aging Discovery was finally decommissioned in the mid-2000s due to rising maintenance costs. The new West Wing, designed by Schwartz/Silver Architects, was completed in 1998. The glass and steel addition to the original concrete building also included a new gift shop and the Harbor View Café.
The 428-seat Matthew and Marcia Simons Theatre opened in 2001 in a separate building on Central Wharf designed by E. Verner Johnson and Associates. A renovation in 2020 replaced the IMAX system with a digital projector capable of showing 2D and 3D films on the theatre's new 80-foot (24 m) by 43-foot (13 m) screen. The current theatre seats 378 and has a stage for hosting special events. Also in 2020, contemporary artist Shepard Fairey designed and painted the mural A Vital and Vibrant Ocean for All, featuring a North Atlantic right whale, on the façade of the theatre. In 2009, the New Balance Foundation Marine Mammal Center opened on the rear of the aquarium. This open-air exhibit lets guests and passersby view the aquarium's California sea lions and northern fur seals. In 2010, the new Animal Care Center opened. The 23,000-square-foot (2,100 m2) off-site facility, located in Quincy, has large tanks for holding animals during exhibit renovations, quarantining new arrivals, and rehabilitating rescued sea turtles. In 2011, the aquarium added an Australian Great Southern Reef exhibit, featuring leafy and weedy seadragons, to the Temperate Gallery and started its own captive breeding program for the species. In the last of $42 million in upgrades that started in 2007, the aquarium once again worked with Cambridge Seven Associates to make improvements to the Giant Ocean Tank, including an expanded coral reef, larger, acrylic viewing windows, and a more advanced lighting array. The Yawkey Coral Reef Center was also added to the viewing area at the top of the exhibit, which reopened in 2013. During the renovation, the Giant Ocean Tank's residents lived temporarily in the penguin habitat at the base of the exhibit, while the penguins were relocated to the Quincy Animal Care Center. In 2019, the aquarium replaced the original Indo-Pacific coral reef tank in the Tropical Gallery with a new, floor-to-ceiling exhibit with an artificial coral habitat based on the Phoenix Islands Protected Area, which the aquarium helped to establish.
Leadership The current President and Chief Executive Officer of the aquarium is Vikki Spruill, who assumed the position on July 30, 2018. She serves in the role alongside Chief of Staff Kim Fontes and Chief People and Diversity Officer Lauren Hunter-Dyson. John Mandelman, Ph.D. heads the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life.
Exhibits
Giant Ocean Tank
Located in the center of the main building's open atrium, the principal feature of the aquarium is the Giant Ocean Tank. This tank is a cylindrical 200,000-US-gallon (760,000 L) exhibit that simulates a Caribbean coral reef. The exhibit's permanent residents include green sea turtles (including Myrtle), loggerhead sea turtles, and hundreds of colorful tropical fish, but reef-dwelling sharks, stingrays, and moray eels may also be present. Open and accessible for viewing at the top, the concrete tank is surrounded by a spiral walkway that allows guests to see into the exhibit from every angle through 67 acrylic windows.
Marine Mammals
The Atlantic harbor seal exhibit on the front of the main building and its five residents can be viewed for free and at any hour of the day, without entering the building. The New Balance Foundation Marine Mammal Center on the rear of the building can also be viewed from the outside (from the Harborwalk), and is home to a small colony of California sea lions and northern fur seals.
Penguins The base of the Giant Ocean Tank sits in a 150,000-US-gallon (570,000 L) tray of saltwater containing a habitat for penguins, including Africans and southern rockhoppers. The penguins live on several artificial rock islands in the exhibit and can be viewed from the spiral walkway, the areas around the perimeter of the tray, and every gallery.
Galleries Four levels of smaller exhibits, open to the atrium and accessible via either the spiral or a separate series of ramps, surround the Giant Ocean Tank and penguin habitat.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
