Every month our Volunteer Office sorts through piles of nominations from supervisors and honors one of our volunteers for their truly stupendous efforts. Meet our latest Volunteer of the Month!

The final Volunteer of the Month award for 2013 goes to the multi-talented Dave McLean of the Rescue and Rehab department!

Here’s what Adam Kennedy had to say about his contribution to the Aquarium community:

Dave has been an awesome addition to the rescue family since he started in November 2011. Dave always comes in with a smile and his energy and charismatic nature is contagious!   

Dave transports a rescued turtle

He's always willing to lend a hand and is critical in helping out with the heavy lifting. One such occasion we required his muscle was with the 2012 live leatherback. Dave had heard about the leatherback incidentally and being from Quincy quickly came to the facility. Dave was extremely helpful to staff in maneuvering the turtle out of the IFAW vehicle and getting the turtle into the facility.  

This large loggerhead was rescued from Cape Cod. Dave helped with its transport

Dave is certainly not afraid to get dirty. He never hesitates to help out with any task. Whether it is cleaning up our necropsy freezer after a malfunction or assist in cleaning up after we had a sewer back-up. 

With Dave’s mechanical background he has helped us out tremendously with vehicle problems as well as life support pump issues. He is eager to learn new things and help impart his knowledge to new volunteers and interns.  

Dave also looks out for his fellow volunteers. One of our volunteers just left to be a snow bird ☺ and Dave made sure we had a “going away” party for him. He will always be one of the first to bring in articles about the program that he sees in local papers, or make sure that we are up on the goings on in the turtle/ marine mammal world at large. 

Dave has done so much here that I am positive I am missing all kinds of things. For that I would hope you consider Dave for Volunteer of the Month!

Congratulations to Dave!

We're blazing toward the New Year, so it's about time that we look back on the amazing year that was 2013. The Aquarium celebrated some unbelievable moments—some much touted and others quieter. But they're all part of what makes the Aquarium so special.

We're nearing the end of our countdown of the 10 most exciting, cutest, noteworthy and/or memorable ways that 2013 is one year that we won't forget. 

2. Birth of the Aquarium's second Northern fur seal pup

Few things on this blue planet could be as adorable as the fur seal born here at the Aquarium this summer. Kitovi was born late one night in August and named after a rookery where wild fur seals are born in the Pribilof Islands of Alaska. She was a media darling—because look at that face!

Remember when Kit was this adorably tiny at just a few days old?

From the start, Kit was independent and spunky. She spent a lot of time behind the scenes with her mom Ursula, nursing and learning how to be a fur seal. She was quick to explore and spend time apart from mum. But when it came time to step flipper into the public exhibit, Kit had a moment of stage fright!

Kit spends a lot of time rough-housing with her buddy Leu

But those initial moments of trepidation are long gone. These days she's eating fish, exploring the exhibit and playing with her big brother Flaherty and his buddy Leu. But she still has a lot of growing up to do before she can hold her own with the rambunctious sea lions Zoe and Sierra.

Kit is growing up to be a smart, independent and thoroughly adorable fur seal!

We're blazing toward the New Year, so it's about time that we look back on the amazing year that was 2013. The Aquarium celebrated some unbelievable moments—some much touted and others quieter. But they're all part of what makes the Aquarium so special.

We're blazing toward the New Year, so it's about time that we look back on the amazing year that was 2013. The Aquarium celebrated some unbelievable moments—some much touted and others quieter. But they're all part of what makes the Aquarium so special.

Today we're continuing the countdown of the 10 most exciting, cutest, noteworthy and/or memorable ways that 2013 is one year that we won't forget. 

4. A fantastic year for the New England Aquarium Whale Watch

Salt, the so-called Grand Dame of Stellwagen Bank, was definitely an exciting sighting

This is the first year of the Aquarium's partnership with Boston Harbor Cruises to give visitors a front row seat to see some of the largest and most impressive marine animals in their home turf—Stellwagen Bank. The New England Aquarium Whale Watch launched from Central Wharf and ferried passengers to this rich marine animal feeding ground just a few miles from Boston several times each day.

Nile, seen here flipper slapping with another humpback whale, was a regular on the Whale Watch Log

Some humpback whales made regular appearances, like Nile. Other whales were more elusive but their sightings were extra special for the knowledgable naturalists on board every trip. Along with humpbacks, minke and finback whales were spotted.

Few things are more exciting than a breach!

The whales wowed visitors with dramatic behaviors such as breaches and flipper slapping. All along the way, visitors learned a lot about these animals and the threats they face in the wild.

A curious harbor seal pup surveys the scene

The list of marine life doesn't end whales on a New England Aquarium Whale Watch. Seals, dolphins, sea birds and even those other-worldly fish Mola mola had a moment to shine on the Whale Watch Log.

Sunset on Stellwagen Bank

We're blazing toward the New Year, so it's about time that we look back on the amazing year that was 2013. The Aquarium celebrated some unbelievable moments—some much touted and others quieter. But they're all part of what makes the Aquarium so special.

Today we're continuing the countdown of the 10 most exciting, cutest, noteworthy and/or memorable ways that 2013 is one year that we won't forget. 

5. Our Growing Colony of Little Blue Penguins Got a Little Bit Bigger

Little blue penguins spent last year's construction period in a special viewing nook where families got a chance to see these birds up close

Earlier this year, we shared the happy news that the little blue penguin colony just about doubled in size. 14 little blues arrived from Australia last winter and went through routine quarantine periods, just to be sure they weren't introducing foreign bugs. Then in March the birds met our colony of 15 little blue penguins! And that's when the sparks started to fly.

Incubation is a dirty job, but the penguins parents are dedicated. They take turns sitting on the egg while the partner feeds or takes a swim.

In all seriousness, the penguin biologists made careful pairings to encourage breeding. The Aquarium is part of a Species Survival Plan for this species, which means we work with other zoos and aquariums to raise genetically diverse and healthy birds. By and by eggs were laid and the parents set about incubating the eggs. Hey, it's a dirty job but someone's got to do it!

Lots of people think the full-grown little blue penguins are babies. Of course, they're not. But this downy chick is one of the little blue penguin chicks born here this year!

And then...pip, pip... the babies hatched! And that's when the parents started the big job of feeding their youngsters. After a month or so, they weighed nearly as much as their parents at about 2 to 3 pounds.

Feed me!

This fledgling retains most of its down feathers but has started growing its sleek swimming feathers on its belly

It took around three months for our pair of chicks to grow up and lose their downy feather. That's when they joined the rest of the colony in the Level 1 exhibit. Even though Granite and Thigaraa are still less than a year old, they look just like all the other birds in the exhibit. Come say hi!

Little blue penguins are part of our Animal Sponsorship program! You can support important breeding programs like this by sponsoring these endearing birds, or another animal at the Aquarium. Not only will you be paying for food and medical care, you'll also receive more information about the species.

We're blazing toward the New Year, so it's about time that we look back on the amazing year that was 2013. The Aquarium celebrated some unbelievable moments—some much touted and others quieter. But they're all part of what makes the Aquarium so special.

Today we're continuing the countdown of the 10 most exciting, cutest, noteworthy and/or memorable ways that 2013 is one year that we won't forget. 


6. A victory for right whale conservation
The Aquarium has a long-standing right whale research program. Earlier this month the researchers celebrated an important victory in the protection of these critically endangered marine mammals: the elimination of the sunset clause in the ship speed reduction rule. This means that regulations that limited ship speeds in areas frequented by right whales will never expire!





Ship strikes are a major threat to right whales up and down the East Coast. But dropping speeds in these sensitive areas were predicted to reduce the probability of fatal ship strikes of right whales by a whopping 80-90%! And it's proven to have made a difference: "no right whale ship strike deaths have occurred in Seasonal Management Areas since the rule went into place" (from NOAA). These measure had been set to expire in December 2013—but not now!

Previously in the Countdown to 2014:
10. The goosefish and her egg veils  
9. Three new IMAX films for the year  
8. Jaw-dropping slow motion video  
7. A rescued seal pup arrives for the holidays

We're blazing toward the New Year, so it's about time that we look back on the amazing year that was 2013. The Aquarium celebrated some unbelievable moments—some much touted and others quieter. But they're all part of what makes the Aquarium so special.

Today we're continuing the countdown of the 10 most exciting, cutest, noteworthy and/or memorable ways that 2013 is one year that we won't forget. 

We're blazing toward the New Year, so it's about time that we look back on the amazing year that was 2013. The Aquarium celebrated some unbelievable moments—some much touted and others quieter. But they're all part of what makes the Aquarium so special.

Today we're continuing to countdown of the 10 most exciting, cutest, noteworthy and/or memorable ways that 2013 is one year that we won't forget. 

8. Jaw-dropping slow-motion video

Technology is always evolving and that means we have more and more impressive ways to share the unbelievable underwater world. This year we had help from underwater photographer Keith Ellenbogen and MIT physicist Allan Adams with tech support from Jason O'Connell at Tech Imaging Services. Remember this?


As we explained in this media release, this jaw-dropping, split second footage was shot at 500 frames per second versus the normal 30 frames for video. It shows how these cunning cephalopods capture their food, with two retractable tentacles snagging a fish and pulling it into the grasp of eight waiting suction cupped arms.

Cuttlefish in its first floor exhibit

Ellenbogen and Adams also pointed their lens at the goosefish, the lionfish and other animals throughout the Aquarium and our off-site holding facility. In fact, these incredible clips also spawned our first television ads in decades, which tout the New Aquarium Experience (more on that later in the series, of course)!

Previously in our Countdown to 2014:
10. The goosefish and her egg veils
  9. Three new IMAX films for the year

We're blazing toward the New Year, so it's about time that we look back on the amazing year that was 2013. The Aquarium celebrated some unbelievable moments—some much touted and others quieter. But they're all part of what makes the Aquarium so special.

Today we're continuing the countdown of the 10 most exciting, cutest, noteworthy and/or memorable ways that 2013 is one year that we won't forget. 

9. Three new IMAX films

The Simons IMAX Theatre boasts the largest movie screen in New England. It's 65 feet high by 85 feet wide—that's taller than a six-story building! So when a nature film is splashed across this impressive canvas, you can imagine that it transports viewers to some wild places and introduces some amazing marine animals. Now multiply that by three and you have one exciting year!

Tickets and showtimes

Our newest film—Journey to the South Pacific 3D—opened just last month and you will truly find yourself on your own journey to the South Pacific. Movie-goers are plunged into the sparkling turquoise water to swim alongside gentle whale sharks and curious sea turtles. Gliding through shimmering schools of fish and getting a taste for the island culture of South Papua are just some of the moments that show the incredible diversity of this marine gem.

Tickets and showtimes

Now this summers splash hit was Great White Shark 3D, another immersive experience that puts you up close with a majestic marine animal. The film provides moviegoers with a shark's eye view of the underwater world. Seeing the science at work behind that fearsome toothy grin helps illustrate the importance of this spectacular species. While these predators are indeed formidable, the whole family can enjoy an exhilarating experience that demonstrates how great white sharks are perfectly adapted hunters that play a crucial role in maintaining the health of our oceans.

Tickets and showtimes

We're blazing toward the New Year, so it's about time that we look back on the amazing year that was 2013. The Aquarium celebrated some unbelievable moments—some much touted and others quieter. But they're all part of what makes the Aquarium so special.

Today we're starting a countdown of the 10 most exciting, cutest, noteworthy and/or memorable ways that 2013 is one year that we won't forget. 

10. The goosefish egg veils

The goosefish wowed everyone by laying several egg veils this year, and this year the camera (phones) were rolling! Her egg veil is a beautiful, gossamer sheet composed of thousands and thousands of eggs held together in a single layer.

Close up of the egg veil

The eggs aren't fertilized because there is only one goosefish in the exhibit. But they are quite beautiful. Each egg veil remained in the exhibit for a couple days so visitors could enjoy watching it billow and flow throughout the exhibit.

The goosefish rests after

The goosefish spends most of her time laying flat on the bottom of her exhibit, impressing everyone with her huge size, enormous mouth and intricate fringe. Sometimes she raises her modified dorsal fin, her lure flitting about to entice a meal near her giant maw. You might even see her eyes tracking something on the other side of the glass—like a camera!

The goosefish spends most of her time laying flat on the ground, sometimes dangling her

Here's a look back at some of the other egg veils that have graced this exhibit over the years:

• Aquarist Bill Murphy had his video camera to catch the goosefish laying the egg veil last May!
• This post explains that the egg veils are usually the same size, even if several are laid in one year.
• This video captures the grace and etherial beauty of the egg veil in the exhibit.
• See a close-up picture of the goosefish.
• Find a picture of the egg veil from above.

For many of us as kids, we dreamt of holiday gifts coming from the North Pole via a mythical sled. Recently, New England Aquarium staff got  a real life variation of that with the dream gift of a rare, rescued Northern fur seal pup from Alaska via a FedEx cargo plane!

New England Aquarium/SharpShooter

New England Aquarium/SharpShooter

The Aquarium is pleased to announce the arrival of Chiidax (pronounced Chee-dacks), a lovable but feisty four-month old Northern fur seal pup. He will not be exhibit until later in January as he still has to go through a standard 30-day quarantine, but he has a story that might tug at your holiday heart strings.

New England Aquarium/SharpShooter

The 9.5 pound newborn bundle of fur was found during August in a box at the doorstep of the Alaska Department of Fish & Game offices on the remote Aleutian island of Sand Point (see Point A on map below) with a note attached stating that its mother must have died during childbirth. The male northern fur seal pup was underweight and dehydrated and was a rare find even in the Aleutians as that species nearest pupping islands were more than 200 miles away in the Pribilofs. Named Chiidax by the local Aleuts, it means “small, young animal” in their native language. Alaska Fish & Game officials arranged for the pup with enormous eyes and even bigger ears to be sent to the nearest rehab facility over 500 miles away at the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward (see Point B), about 100 miles south of Anchorage. There, the little fellow regained his health and doubled in weight to 18 pounds.

See video of the young pup while in rehab via the Alaska Dispatch.


View Larger Map

The Alaskan rescue biologists were challenged to care for Chiidax as he was the first fur seal that they had ever taken in. With Chiidax being hand-raised by people and his birth area unknown, federal wildlife officials decided that he was not releasable back into the wild. Ironically, the people with some of the most experience raising northern fur seals were located 3000 miles away across the continent in one of America’s largest metropolitan areas. The marine mammal staff at Boston’s New England Aquarium several years ago had decided to start a breeding program for northern fur seals in the New Balance Foundation Marine Mammal Center. Northern fur seals populations had declined over the past several decades, and they could only be found in a handful of North American aquariums.

New England Aquarium/SharpShooter

To get Chiidax to Boston, the Aquarium sent veterinarian Julie Cavin and marine mammal trainer Belinda Brackett to Alaska to escort the pup on a 14 hour FedEx cargo flight from Anchorage to Indianapolis and eventually Hartford, CT. There, Aquarium staff transported the pup to its off-site animal care center in Quincy, MA, 10 miles south of Boston. Chiidax will spend a standard, 30 day quarantine period there before he is brought to a behind-the-scenes pool at the Aquarium. Then, he will first meet Kit, a female fur seal pup born at the Aquarium this past August that will undoubtedly become his same age playmate. They will later be joined by Flaherty, a male one year old also born in Boston and Leu (Lou), a two year old rescued in California. Chiidax will most likely go on public display with his mates sometime in January in the Aquarium’s spectacular, harbor-side seal exhibit that has truly become a fur seal playground.

Meet the fleet of frisky pups at the Marine Mammal Center!

• Kitovi the Northern fur seal was born at the Aquarium this year
• Watch Kit's bashful debut on exhibit
• Her big brother Flaherty celebrated his first birthday this summer
• Leu is another rescued Northern fur seal
• Zoe and Sierra are rescued California sea lions with a lot of spunk

Thanks to all those who participated in our contest on Facebook, and congratulations to our winners. Plug in to our online social community on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Google+ pages so you can be in the know when we're giving away tickets.

Can't wait? Get your tickets online!

Did you know that about two-thirds of our visitor education team are volunteers? These Aquarium Guides help visitors have an engaging educational experience by sharing information about the exhibits, answering visitor questions, assisting live animal presentations and engaging visitors at our touch tanks…all while graciously donating their time to the community!

A volunteer answers visitors' questions at the Edge of the Sea touch tank.

With more than 1.3 million visitors each year, it takes a lot of help from some enthusiastic volunteers to make sure the visitors have a quality experience. We are looking for individuals who are excited about communicating our mission of protecting the blue planet with weekday availability (sorry, all our weekend slots are full!). In addition, there are two major requirements to being a volunteer at the Aquarium: 1) successful completion of the Aquarium Guide Training (AGT) course, and 2) having one set day a week free for six months.

The AGT course ensures our volunteers are armed with all the helpful information about our animals, exhibits and the blue planet. These courses are held three times each year. The next AGT course is starting January 15!

Once you learn more about Aquarium Guides, then fill out an online application form. If we have vacancies that match your availability, staff from the Volunteer Office will then be in contact for the next steps (unfortunately, weekend positions are not available at this time). 

Still not sure? Here’s a testimonial from Taylor Engelsman, a AGT graduate:

I was thrilled when I received the phone call informing me I had been chosen to be a part of an amazing group of people who had been selected to begin Aquarium Guide Training. I soon received an email from Kim McCabe welcoming me to AGT. She was really great at outlining everything we would be learning. She also made it clear they would give us all the tools we would need to be excellent Aquarium Educators.  

I was blown away by the diversity of the people in my class and their motivation for volunteering at the Aquarium. There was everyone from high school students to retirees and everyone in between. Despite the small group it seemed everyone had a different reason for being there. Some were considering majoring in Marine Biology, others were thinking of changing careers, others wanted experience interacting with visitors and still others just loved the Aquarium so much they wanted to give something back.  

We learned not only what I affectionately call ‘fish facts,’ we also learned about several important major themes central to the Aquarium’s mission, including climate change, sustainable seafood and conservation. We were also given techniques and tools for sharing these important messages with visitors and customer service skills to help make everyone’s experience the best possible. By the time I hit the Aquarium floor on my first official day as an Aquarium Visitor Educator I felt completely prepared to share my excitement and new knowledge with visitors.  

As you may be able to tell from my post I absolutely love volunteering at the aquarium. If you are considering volunteering, do it! And if you aren’t considering it, you should be! You won’t regret it!

If you have any questions, see the FAQ page or feel free to email vols@neaq.org!