New lobster dressed for Halloween

Salem Fisherman Catches Orange and Black  Lobster: Just in Time for Halloween

No, it is not the Aquarium playing a Halloween trick! A lobster with an orange side and a black side, perfectly split down the middle, has just arrived in its appropriate Halloween colors. Last week, a lobsterman named Dana Duhaime—believe it or not, from Salem, Mass.—discovered the small, one pound female lobster in one of his traps in Bakers Channel off of Beverly, Mass. Beverly was once part of Salem and shares a harbor with the witch-renowned city.



Bill Murphy, an Aquarium biologist, picked up the seasonally colored crustacean Sunday, but Hurricane Sandy delayed the lobster’s media debut until today’s more appropriate time.



2012 has been an exceptional year for a plethora of strangely colored lobsters from yellows to blues and calicos. “Split” lobsters are even more bizarre as they can feature two distinct colors on each side. (Meet another split lobster here.) Split lobsters are roughly estimated to occur once in every 50 to 100 million lobsters. In the last ten years, “splits” have been caught in Maine and Rhode Island. This past summer, splits were discovered in both Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

Orange and black is the most common color array in splits as one side has the normal, very dark, live lobster coloration and the other side has a distinct pumpkin glow. The normal mottled dark brown/grey color of American lobsters is a product of red, yellow and blue pigments that are bound together by proteins. Orange lobsters have their unusual color due to a lack of the blue pigment.


Blue lobster at the New England Aquarium


Orange lobster at the New England Aquarium

Lobster scientists theorize that the bizarre duality of splits is caused by a complete cellular split when the lobster egg is first fertilized. Splits are often hermaphrodites showing sexual characteristics of both genders. However, this lobster is a female.


New Halloween lobster at the New England Aquarium

Beyond its normal rarity and exceptional seasonally appropriate costume, this lobster also has impeccable timing and the perfect hometown! She'll stay behind the scenes for a bit, just until she gets settled. But check out this video for your Halloween lobster fix!



Can't get enough of these creepy-crawly spider relatives? Check out these posts:
All things lobster
Giant lobster finds new home at the Aquarium
The language of lobster (Did you know lobsters communicate by peeing in each other's faces?)Another calico lobster makes the news
Live Animal Presentations at the Aquarium

Construction Updates: November

Construction throughout the Aquarium is continuing right along on schedule. Behind the screen, the Giant Ocean Tank is empty while crews are cleaning and preparing the tank for window removal. This is an exciting step. The new windows will let visitors see the reef in sparkling detail, and many of the new windows will be even bigger than ever! Learn more about the improvements being made to the exhibit during construction.



The Edge of the Sea touch tanks have been temporarily relocated to the Ground Floor of the West Wing, near the Jellies Exhibit. Visitors will still have an opportunity get close-up looks at amazing ocean animals like sea stars and hermit. They can even dip their hands into the chilly water to touch the animals in this hands-on exhibit! Meanwhile, crews are working on the ceiling of old tidepool touch tank area so they can expand the presentation spaces at the top of the Giant Ocean Tank upstairs. This popular hands-on exhibit will return to its usual spot as soon as construction is over.



In its new spot, there are several new species of animals to see and feel, including a new species of urchin, sea cucumbers, grass shrimp and corals. That's in addition to popular animals like hermit crabs, periwinkles, horseshoe crabs and sea stars.





Meanwhile, there are more than 800 animals still on exhibit throughout the building! Take our new zebra shark for example, a gorgeous addition to the Tropical Oceans Exhibit. Have you seen Flaherty recently? He's filled out quite a bit, some might say he's a little chunky these days. Get to know 10 special animals we're shining the spotlight on this winter—like the goliath grouper, mandarinfish and weedy seadragon. And of course, don't forget dear old Myrtle.

Members of the Week: Ganesh and Medha

There are a lot of perks that come with membership at the New England Aquarium, like express admission all year and discounts at the Cafe and Gift Shop. Now you can add our new Member of the Week contest to that list. How can members participate? Just show up and visit your Aquarium! We'll be randomly selecting members for this special honor throughout the fall.

Meet Ganesh and Medha (she's the little fish) from Boston. They visited with their friends Jessica and Zachary today and were surprised with the distinction of being our members of the week! Ganesh said they became members just last month because it's a great place to visit with the little ones. "When you have toddlers, you just want to visit for 45 minutes at a time," he said. With membership, you can come and go as often as you please!


Members Medha and Ganesh (left), visiting with friends Jessica and Zachary, posed near the fur seal statues.

Medha couldn't wait for Halloween to show off her fish costume. She was in excellent company here at the Aquarium. Zachary is planning to be a dragon (not of the seadragon variety), but his little sister is going to be a penguin! For being our Member of the Week, the kids took home some adorable plush rays.


So what do you have to do to be our Member of the Week? Just visit! You could win on any day of the week, any time of day. We'll be announcing winners right here on the News Blog every Friday. So come on down and visit Myrtle in her new home in the penguin exhibit, check in with those boisterous sea lions, search for seadragons, see the little blue penguins in their temporary exhibit  and experience the Aquarium's exciting transformation first hand. Who knows, you could be our next Member of the Week!

Special members-only offer for "Grinch" tickets

Our members are getting the best discount out there to see Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical at the Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theatre! Save 25 percent on tickets to the musical for select dates starting Nov. 24 when you use the code NEAQ. There are three ways to get tickets:

• Buy online 
• Call (866) 348-9738 
• Or by presenting this post at the box office

This is an family-friendly way to get in the holiday spirit, and we're excited to be able to share this offer with our members. See below for more details and the small print.

Meet our Member of the Week: Sara from Boston

There are a lot of perks that come with membership at the New England Aquarium, like express admission all year and discounts at the Cafe and Gift Shop. Now you can add our new Member of the Week contest to that list, too. How can members participate? Just show up and visit your Aquarium! We'll be randomly selecting members for this special honor throughout the fall. 

Meet Sara from Boston and her guest, Corra. Sara and her husband first became members a little over a year ago because they’re “big animal lovers.” This was Corra’s second visit to the Aquarium with Sara, who is her nanny, and they were enjoying the shorebird exhibit when Sara learned she was our Member of the Week.


Corra shows off her new stuffed polar bear with Sara, our Member of the Week (Photo: Daniel Manchon)

One of the things Sara likes about being a member is that she can, “just drop in when we’re in the area,” for a quick visit. For being our Member of the Week, Sara was given a copy of the Aquarium's commemorative guidebook, a free 4”x6” photo from our friends at SharpShooter, and a reusable Aquarium shopping bag, while Corra went home with a stuffed polar bear and stickers from To the Arctic 3D.

So what do you have to do to be our Member of the Week? Just visit! You could win on any day of the week, any time of day. We'll be announcing winners right here on the News Blog every Friday. So come on down and visit Myrtle in her new home in the penguin exhibit, check in with those boisterous sea lions, search for seadragons, see the little blue penguins in their temporary exhibit  and experience the Aquarium's exciting transformation first hand. Who knows, you could be our next Member of the Week!

Cooking with Barbara Lynch: Google+ Hangout

Renowned chef Barbara Lynch demonstrated one of her delicious recipes in a Google+ Hangout! 

The demonstration took place on Thursday, October 18, at 5 p.m. Thanks to everyone who joined us! Here's the recorded video:



What did they cook?
Celebrity chef Barbara Lynch, who recently began a partnership with the Aquarium, is committed to using fresh, local, healthy ingredients, and to children’s nutrition. She is sharing her philosophy and a delicious, easy recipe for gnudi and tomato sauce with the Aquarium's members and fans.

Get the recipes
Here are the recipes Barbara demonstrated.
You can also download them as a PDF (343 KB).

Ricotta Gnudi
Serves 8

1 pound fresh ricotta, drained if very wet
3/4 cup to 1 cup all purpose flour,
plus more as needed
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (optional)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
In a large mixing bowl, combine the ricotta, 3/4 cup

of the flour, the egg, cheese, salt and pepper. Use a wooden spoon to mix ingredients together well. Lightly flour your work surface and a baking sheet for holding the shaped gnudi. With floured hands knead the ricotta mixture briefly; it will be quite wet and sticky at this point. Dump the mixture out onto your work surface. Cut off a piece of the gnudi dough and try rolling it into a 3/4-inch-thick log. If you can’t get it to roll, add a little more flour to the dough and try again. You want as little flour as possible to keep these together so the resulting gnudi will be light and ethereal. Cut the log into 1-inch pieces and then form into little balls. If you have a gnudi board, hold it at a 45-degree angle over your floured baking sheet and roll each ball down the length of it to give the gnudi grooves. As the gnudi nears the end of the board, let it drop onto the baking sheet. If you don’t have a gnudi board, hold a fork, tines facing down, and roll the ball down the length of the tines. Repeat until all of the dough is rolled and cut. Freeze the gnudi for about 1 hour. (Because they are so soft, they are much easier to handle when frozen, so do this even if you plan to use them soon.)

To serve, bring a large pot of well-salted water to a gentle boil. In batches, drop the gnudi into the water and cook until they float, about 1 to 2 minutes. As each batch cooks, remove them with a slotted spoon and keep them warm or transfer them directly to the sauce they are being served with. Serve with Odd Fellow Marinara.

Odd Fellow Marinara
Makes about 4 cups

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, plus more to taste
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes, preferably
imported San Marzano tomatoes
Kosher salt
2 or 3 fresh basil leaves
Black pepper, freshly ground

Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, and crushed red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is just tender but not colored, about 8 minutes. Add the wine, increase the heat to medium-high and cook for a few minutes until it’s reduced by about half. Add the tomatoes with their juices and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Simmer for about 10 minutes, stir in the basil and season with a few grinds of pepper and additional salt and red pepper flakes if needed.

Recipe Source: 
Stir: Mixing It Up in the Italian Tradition by Barbara Lynch (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

(Photos: J. Ide)

Member of the Week: Sean and Zoe from Watertown

There are a lot of perks that come with membership at the New England Aquarium, like express admission all year and discounts at the Cafe and Gift Shop. Now you can add our new Member of the Week contest to that list, too. How can members participate? Just show up and visit your Aquarium! We'll be randomly selecting members for this special honor throughout the fall. 

Meet Sean and Zoe from Watertown, our Members of the Week! They first became members almost nine years ago and visited this week because they wanted to experience The Trust Family Foundation Shark and Ray Touch Tank. When asked why they are members, Sean told us, "We love animals and the Aquarium does very good conservation work." For being our Members of the Week, Sean and Zoe received a copy of the Aquarium's commemorative guidebook, a stuffed toy seal and a free 4-by-6-inch photo to remember their visit, along with a reusable Aquarium shopping bag to carry it all home.


 So what do you have to do to be our Member of the Week? Just visit! You could win on any day of the week, any time of day. We'll be announcing winners right here on the News Blog every Friday. So come on down and visit Myrtle in her new home in the penguin exhibit, check in with those boisterous sea lions, search for seadragons, see the little blue penguins in their temporary exhibit and experience the Aquarium's exciting transformation firsthand. Who knows, you could be our next Member of the Week!

Transformation in Progress: Construction is Underway

Hardhats and scaffolding are now part of the Aquarium scenery along with sea turtles and seadragons. We are now in the thick of the Giant Ocean Tank (GOT) renovation, and things are as busy as ever! Come watch the Aquarium transformation while you visit with seals and seal lions and see the GOT animals from a whole new angle in the penguin exhibit, called the Tropical Oceans Exhibit for now.

The Aquarium is definitely looking different these days. The Giant Ocean Tank (GOT) is officially a construction zone, off-limits and covered up by a construction screen.


The GOT was drained this week so cleaning and construction can begin.

But your friends Myrtle and the gang from the Giant Ocean Tank are still front and center. Now the turtles, tarpon, eels and stingrays are exploring the first floor penguin exhibit. Here's a look at the animals in their new (temporary) watery abode.



As you can see, transporting the animals was a big job in itself. Once the penguins moved to Quincy and their exhibit had been reconditioned for tropical fish, the divers worked feverishly over many weeks to carefully transport each and every animal from the big tank down four floors to the penguin exhibit. That's hundreds of animals—from the tiny butterflyfish to all 560 pounds of Myrtle. We "pulled the plug" on all 250,000-gallons of sea water  at 10 a.m. on October 2 and by lunchtime the water had dropped several feet already. The water drained at a rate of about one inch per minute.

After several decades, the fiberglass reef was exposed when the water started dropping.


Divers needed ladders to reach the water level. Scaffolding also went up all around the outside of the tank, along the East wall of the building and, even though you may not notice, on the ceiling, too. 


There were a few speedy fish left in the tank when the water started dropping. The divers carefully picked their way down the ladders in their wetsuits and scuba gear to gently collect the tarpon, permits and jacks.



All that effort to make sure the special animals from the Giant Ocean Tank have a comfy place to live during construction. Be sure to come by and say hi to them in the Tropical Oceans exhibit (a.k.a. the penguin exhibit minus the penguins, for now) during the renovation! And don't forget about the seals and sea lions, the shark and ray touch tank, seadragons, piranha, mandarinfish...the list goes on and on. There are more than 800 marine animals species to see during construction.

Introducing Member of the Week! First winners!

There are a lot perks that come with membership at the New England Aquarium, like express admission all year and discounts at the Cafe and Gift Shop. Now you can add our new Member of the Week contest to that list, too. How can members participate? Just show up and visit the Aquarium! We'll be randomly selecting members for this special honor throughout the fall.

Meet Avril and her daughter Apple, our very first members of the week! They visited this week with friends Roberto and Stephen. Avril and Apple of Cambridge became members this year so they can see the little blue penguins as often as they wish. Avril grew up in Buffalo and remembers visiting the Aquarium as a girl! For being our Members of the week, Avril and Apple received a copy of the Aquarium's commemorative guidebook and each child took home a stuffed toy seal.

Avril and Apple are the first of many. Who knows, your family could be next! You could win on any day of the week, any time of day. We'll be announcing winners right here on the News Blog every Friday. So come on down and visit Myrtle in her new home in the penguin exhibit, check in with those boisterous sea lions, search for seadragons, see the little blue penguins in their temporary exhibit and experience the Aquarium's exciting transformation first hand. Who knows, you could be our next Member of the Week!