The floor of the annex is poured! Additional exhibit tanks featuring smaller fishes like garden eels will be found in this area come summer.

The new annex will be accessed from the top of the Giant Ocean Tank

The hoist used to haul large animals out of the tank—like Myrtle—has been equipped with a new motor. (Check out the new, shiny white motor in the middle right of the image!)

A worker mixes concrete perched atop scaffolding in the Giant Ocean Tank.

A pulley silhouetted against the scaffolding

So the next time you visit, take a moment to think: All this action is happening just around the corner as you're peering into the octopus exhibit or watching the tropical fish darting through the Pacific Reef Community! Just remember the Aquarium is opening at 10 a.m. on weekdays this January because of construction. 

The chilly, dry weather arrived just in time for visitors to see some cool creativity on Central Wharf today. Sculptors were on hand to chisel a family of fur seals from blocks of ice—the New England Aquarium's contribution to First Night festivities in Boston.



Many families paused to catch a glimpse of the creative process on their way inside to meet the actual fur seals. The sculpture represents resident Northern fur seals: Flaherty, a pup born here at the Aquarium in July, and his parents Isaac and Ursula. They are three of the six fur seals that call the Aquarium's New Balance Foundation Marine Mammal Center home, along with a pair of frisky sea lions.

Work in progress: The Aquarium's First Night fur seal ice sculpture taking shape

Ta-da!

The family of fur seals was created by Don Chapelle, who has been one of the First Night ice sculptors for many years. Meet his frosty sea lions and penguins from previous years.

Several years ago, the New England Aquarium set out on a mission to create the next generation aquarium right here in downtown Boston. We worked with partners and supporters to grow our conservation and research initiatives, expand our education programs and create exciting exhibits on Central Wharf. We also strengthened our connections to people across the world through our social media outlets and blogs just like this.

This is what progress looks like.



Learn how you can support the next generation Aquarium.

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 recognition 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.

Congratulations to our Members of the Week, Rebecca, Lillian and Abigail, who were visiting with Rebecca’s sister, Katherine! We met Rebecca and her family soon after they re-entered the exhibit area to take another look at the Jelly Exhibit in the Aquarium’s West Wing. Rebecca said the family just joined in the summer because her two daughters “love the Aquarium.”  Abigail and Lillian could barely take their eyes off of the moon jellies tank and because of their membership they’ll be able to enjoy them all year.


For being our Members of the Week, Rebecca and her daughters received a free 4”x6” photo from our friends at SharpShooter, a copy of the beautifully illustrated Aquarium souvenir guidebook, a turtle shell glass paperweight handcrafted by artist Robin Lehman, and plush stingrays for both Abigail and Lillian!

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 see seals and sea lions at play, visit Myrtle in her temporary home in the penguin exhibit, spot the camouflaged seadragons, watch the little blue penguins in their temporary exhibit  and experience the Aquarium's transformation first hand. Who knows, you could be our next Member of the Week!

This media release about research into the live coral trade was issued jointly by the Aquarium, Boston University, Roger Williams University and Conservation International. 

Read more in the New York Times Green Blog.

The international trade in corals used to be primarily a curio trade of dried skeletons, but now focuses on live corals for the marine reef aquarium trade. A team of Roger Williams University (RWU), Boston University (BU), Conservation International(CI), and the New England Aquarium (NEAq) researchers has been studying this relatively new development and have published their findings about this unique trade and its long-term implications. The article, “Long-term trends of coral imports into the United States indicate future opportunities for ecosystem and societal benefits,” appears in the December issue of the journal Conservation Letters.

Photo: Keith Ellenbogen | explorers.neaq.org

Assessing 21 years of live coral import data for the United States, the researchers found that the coral trade increased over 8 percent per year between 1990 until the mid-2000s, and has since decreased by 9 percent annually. This decrease is mostly due to the current economic climate. The timing of the peak and decline varies among species, and is a result of the rising popularity of mini-reef ecosystem aquariums, the global financial crisis, and an increase in domestic aquaculture production.

The live coral trade for home aquariums has traditionally been viewed in absolute terms as a threat to these undersea areas of high biodiversity. However, realities are often grey. In the case of coral reefs, supplying the home aquarium trade with locally cultivated corals can provide real economic benefits to small island communities, and thus, an incentive to protect the reefs from which the mother colonies are obtained.

Photo: Keith Ellenbogen | explorers.neaq.org

In their article, the researchers highlight this dichotomy and demonstrate that recent changes in the trade of live corals for the reef aquarium hobby are resulting in new opportunities for conservation.  “The trade has moved from a wild harvest to mariculture production, a change sparked by long-term efforts to produce a sustainable income to small island countries such as the Solomon Islands and also by the government of Indonesia,” says Rhyne. This shift from a wild fishery to a mariculture product poses new opportunities and challenges for conservationists.  

Coinciding with the publication of this study, the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has just proposed to protect 66 stony corals under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). An unintended consequence of this ESA listing would be to eliminate the benefits of the trade revealed by the study, which include elevated value for intact coral reefs, and an income source that is sorely needed in these island nations where hundreds of millions of people rely on reef resources for subsistence.

Photo: Keith Ellenbogen | explorers.neaq.org

According to the researchers, the trade is still rapidly evolving, creating challenges, such as the addition of new species that outpace effective management strategies. “New species in the live coral trade initially command high prices, but as they become common the price drops with feedback effects to the trade,” said Les Kaufman, co-author and Boston University professor of biology and research fellow at Conservation International.

 “The live coral trade offers opportunities for coral reef ecosystem conservation and sustainable economic benefits to coastal communities,” says Andrew Rhyne, lead-author and Roger Williams University assistant professor of marine biology and research scientist at the New England Aquarium.  Co-author, Michael Tlusty of the New England Aquarium adds, “that the realization of these externalities will require effective data tracking”.

Photo: Keith Ellenbogen | explorers.neaq.org

Coral reefs are under numerous human induced threats. These include the global threats of warming oceans that are becoming more acidic, and local threats such as improper land use resulting in increased nutrient loading, and overfishing, which can trigger an ecological cascade resulting in blooms of seaweed that inhibit coral growth.

While western countries are the source of the major threats to these corals reefs (because of globally-distributed carbon emissions), island nations have more than income at stake. Trade can be a powerful conservation incentive, but this emerging local conservation tool is at risk of being lost due to the well-intended but rigid rules of the ESA, here invoked to protect corals and coral reefs globally from the billions of tons of carbon released into the atmosphere by developed nations.  A more selective regulatory approach that gives credit to local efforts to manage reef resources wisely may be warranted.

This is a media release cross posted on the Aquarium's Rescue Blog. Learn how you can support the Aquarium and its efforts to rehabilitate and protect endangered marine animals. It's been quite a year, the 164 sea turtles rescued alive this year smashes the old record of 127 set in 1999!

Anyone who finds a sea turtle on the South Shore, whether alive or appearing dead, should call the Aquarium’s Marine Animal Hotline at 617-973-5247 or contact their local animal control officer.

Hypothermic sea turtles continue to wash up in record numbers on Cape Cod. But in an unusual twist, two large loggerhead sea turtles have stranded on South Shore beaches since Monday. Today, Hull animal control officer Casey Fredette retrieved a live loggerhead from Nantasket Beach while on Monday another 40 pounder was rescued in the Humarock section of Scituate.

A loggerhead rescued from Nantasket Beach

Cold-stunned sea turtles  strand annually on Cape Cod but almost always on the southern and eastern beaches of Cape Cod Bay from Sandwich to Truro. Typically, the northwest and northeast winds of late autumn create enough wave activity to drive the floating, nearly immobile marine reptiles ashore on those windward towns. Strandings on the South Shore are very rare events, and normally are confined to the discovery of long dead, smaller turtles early in the winter.

Hardy beach walkers on Cape Cod are familiar with the drill of what to do when they encounter stranded sea turtles as they call the Mass Audubon Sanctuary at Wellfleet Bay, which is the sea turtle first responder organization for the Cape. However, for South Shore residents, this is an unusual event. Earlier in the week, well-meaning but misdirected beach walkers tried to return a hypothermic sea turtle to the frigid waters that it was trying to escape. Those finding a sea turtle on the South Shore, whether alive or appearing dead, should call the Aquarium’s Marine Animal Hotline at 617-973-5247 or contact their local animal control officer. Washed-up sea turtles with body temperatures in the 40’s and with heartbeats as low as one per minute may appear dead but can still be re-warmed and revived at the Aquarium’s off-site animal care center in the Quincy Shipyard.

The Aquarium's chief vet attends to a loggerhead sea turtle patient

Aquarium officials are puzzled by the unusual stranding locations but are asking for the public’s help in watching for more turtles on South Shore beaches. These two loggerheads were easy to see given their fairly large size and beautiful, chestnut brown shells,. However, most of the turtles that wash up are much smaller at 2 to 12 pounds and black in color, which blends in with other flotsam at the high tide line on a beach. These turtles are Kemp’s ridleys, which are the most endangered sea turtle in the world.

A Kemp's ridley sea turtle in treatment at the Aquarium's Animal Care Center in Quincy

A Kemp's ridley sea turtle during a medical exam

This most strange sea turtle stranding season for many reasons marches on. This past Saturday, 13 hypothermic sea turtles were brought to Quincy from Cape Cod. That is an unusually large number for a single day this late in December. Double digit admission dates are not common and normally happen in November. Among the 13 were 9 loggerhead sea turtles. In a typical year, the Aquarium might treat 4 to 6 large loggerheads in its two month long season. The two additional South Shore loggerheads over the past 24 hours brings the total number of stranded loggerheads total to 45! The 40 to 100 pound loggerheads create a strain on available tank space at the Aquarium’s new sea turtle hospital which has a capacity of about 100 sea turtles.



74 re-warmed and stabilized sea turtles have been transported to other marine animal rescue facilities up and down the East Coast, including 35 sea turtles that were flown from Cape Cod to Florida aboard a Coast Guard plane earlier this month. To help with the overwhelming clinical demand of caring for so many sea turtles, biologists from the Virginia Aquarium, the National Aquarium in Baltimore, the Riverhead Foundation on Long Island and IFAW on Cape Cod have been brought in to assist.

The Aquarium welcomes financial donations to help offset the cost of such an unexpected record event. Over the past twenty years, the Aquarium in partnership with Mass Audubon has rescued, rehabbed and released over 1000 endangered sea turtles.

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 recognition 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.

Congratulations to our Member of the Week, Rosalie, who was visiting with her grandson, Benjamin. We met them right after they picked up a treat for Ben in the Aquarium Gift Shop. Rosalie lives just a short distance from the Aquarium and she and Ben are regular visitors, sometimes coming more than once in a week. Rosalie has had her Aquarium membership for almost a year now and is nearing the expiration date. “I’m definitely going to renew,” she told us. “He really loves this place.”

Benjamin and Rosalie during one of their Aquarium outings

For being our Member of the Week, Rosalie received a free 4”x6” photo from our friends at SharpShooter, a copy of the beautifully illustrated Aquarium souvenir guidebook, a turtle shell glass paperweight handcrafted by artist Robin Lehman, and a plush shark for Ben.

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 see seals and sea lions at play, visit Myrtle in her temporary home in the penguin exhibit, spot the camouflaged seadragons, watch the little blue penguins in their temporary exhibit  and experience the Aquarium's transformation first hand. Who knows, you could be our next Member of the Week!

Have you seen the Globe Magazine's images of our comprehensive construction project yet?


Much of the exhibit path is still open to visitors and our marine animals (like Myrtle the turtle, the octopus, goliath groupers and seadragons) continue to delight visitors. However, Aquarium visitors can definitely  tell that change is in the air in our main building.

Sunday's spread gave Globe readers a special look at the incredible work happening behind the scenes and the off-site preparations that go into creating the new Aquarium experience.

An unfamiliar sight of the Giant Ocean Tank lined in scaffolding, with the coral draped in a protective covering. Photo: Webb Chappell, Boston Globe Magazine

Hardhats are a must in the construction zone, including this space in the attic above the tank. Photo: Webb Chappell, Boston Globe Magazine

The renovation project will be completed in early summer, 2013. Come visit to see the Aquarium being transformed before your eyes! See all the the Globe's pictures here.

With scaffolding planted throughout the building and the Giant Ocean Tank obscured behind a scrim, it's hard to tell that a lot is happening behind the scenes. But you wouldn't recognize the tank today! Even more scaffolding is bristling from inside the tank while the remaining coral is protected underneath a white, fabric covering.


How many times have you peered over this railing into the blue waters of the Giant Ocean Tank? This is the view from the railing at the top of the tank today.



Workers have been cutting wider openings in each of the window frames so the windows will be bigger than ever.


 Looking up from a window frame


Looking through a window frame, then and now

And these changes to the windows are just the tip of the iceberg. Where the divers once donned their wetsuits and scuba tanks, demolition crews have cleared the space to make room for a renovated shower and locker room behind the scenes. Construction crews are working hard in the Aquarium's attic to create a domed ceiling above the Caribbean reef, crews are preparing to expand exhibit space at the top of the tank and vibrant coral is being manufactured off-site. Keep your eyes on the News and Updates blog for behind-the-scenes updates on the transformation of the Giant Ocean Tank.



 Fur seal pups, goosefish feeding and little blue penguins

But really, the most exciting stuff is happening along the exhibit path! Flaherty the fur seal pup is growing more every day, the goosefish grin is unlike anything you've seen before and the close viewing access of the little blue penguins is a special part of their temporary home. So now you'll know what's happening behind the scaffolding when you come visit these amazing animals.

This is a media release cross-posted from the Aquarium's Rescue Blog. Find out how you can support the Aquarium and their efforts to rescue and protect endangered animals here.

With nearly 150 sea turtles rescued from Cape Cod beaches over the past four weeks due to hypothermia, the New England Aquarium’s sea turtle hospital is over capacity, and more critically ill turtles are arriving every day.


Head Aquarium veterinarian Charles Innis loads loggerheads for transport to the airport with a volunteer marine animal rescuer from New York.

Recently, the Aquarium has been transferring re-warmed and stable sea turtles to other marine animal rescue facilities all over the east Coast. Monday, four large loggerhead sea turtles flew from Massachusetts to a sea turtle hospital in southern Georgia courtesy of Polar Beverages of Worcester, MA. The Crowley family, owners of Polar and longtime supporters of the Aquarium, arranged for the sea turtle express.


Aquarium rescue biologist Adam Kennedy loaded the recovering cold-stunned loggerhead sea turtle on to the private plane, CREDIT: New England Aquarium

New England Aquarium rescue biologists loaded the recovering cold-stunned loggerhead sea turtle on to a private plane owned by Polar Beverages of Worcester, Mass. for transport to a sea turtle hospital in Georgia. The near record number of stranded hypothermic sea turtles has been complicated by the record number of much larger loggerhead sea turtles that are stranding.


Nancy Dell'Aquila, Elizabeth Crowley, Julie Corwley and David Crowley check out a rescued, 80-pound loggerhead sea turtle scheduled to be flown from Worcester Airport to southern Georgia. CREDIT: New England Aquarium

Living blue is about making lifestyle changes—sometimes big shifts, sometimes simple little things—that can have a positive impact on our oceans. These changes can take place in your home, during your commute or at your workplace. For thousands of children across New England, these changes can happen at school! Are you part of a Blue School? We want to know it! Nominate your school for a Blue School Award here.

Students at Village School, Photo: Carrie Schluter via

Here are some schools that are doing great things for the oceans:

Village School - Marblehead, MA—Last academic year as the 5th grade students at the Village School got started on their yearly persuasive writing assignment, they noticed a real problem on their campus. Overfull trash barrels were allowing refuse of all kinds to be blown around the grounds of the school. In order to do some real good, the students knew they needed to get the attention of others in the community. To do so, they invited representatives from BigBelly Solar, a company that makes solar compacting trash receptacles, local newspapers, town administration, the town parks and recreation officials and the school committee to hear them out. The students put on a convincing presentation and their hard work has led to the installation of BigBelly compactors on the school campus, keeping trash off the grounds and out of the ocean.

Carlton School – Salem, MA—The Carlton School prides itself on connecting its students to the ocean and the environment across subjects through both academics and experiential learning. The Carlton School is described by science integration specialist Greg Sheridan as a “green-themed school” and it definitely shows. Besides beach clean ups, environmental and ocean-related service learning projects, trips to the shore and academic learning about the ocean, the Carlton’s building itself has been built in a way that supports sustainability. 

Objective: Students will research a marine endangered species and present a poster, paper, power point or other media to promote education about endangered species and teach others how to protect them. 

Standards-Based Topics: Math, Social Science, Law and Policy Ecology, Conservation and Biodiversity 

ResourcesIUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature
IUCN Marine and PolarMarine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), NOAA FisheriesMarine Turtles, World Wildlife Fund 

Plastic Debris Analysis in Local Areas Students will understand the process of scientific research by conducting their own research project.  Students will carefully sample plastic debris from a sand surface using a provided research protocol.

Objective: Show students how to apply established methods of collecting data to a new research project. Students will understand that using multiple samples creates a richer data set that is more representative of the subject described. 

Standards-Based Topics: Math, Social Science, Ecology, Conservation, Scientific Investigation 

Teacher ResourcesFor full lesson plan see the lesson, “Discover Plastic Debris on Streets and Beaches” in Watershed Wonders a curriculum that can be downloaded here. 

Other Helpful ResourcesProtecting the Ocean, National Geographic Education
Why Do We live blue™? live blue™ profiles, New England Aquarium
The live blue™ Initiative, New England Aquarium
Helvarg, David, and Jim P. Toomey. 50 Ways to Save the Ocean. Makawao, HI: Inner Ocean Pub., 2006. Print.