Every month our Volunteer office sorts through piles of nominations from supervisors (and sometimes entire departments!) and honors one of our volunteers for their truly stupendous efforts. Meet our latest Volunteer of the Month.

In June, we celebrated a whole department (Water Quality). Now, in July, a whole department nominated a volunteer! The entire Marine Mammals department nominated Sarah Ward to receive the Volunteer of the Month award. She represents many aspects of a great volunteer: She’s personable, versatile, takes initiative and is a great mentor to new volunteers!

Here’s the Marine Mammals Department’s enthusiastic nomination for Sarah:

We would like to nominate Sarah Ward from the Marine Mammal department for Volunteer of the Month! Sarah has been with the mammal department for almost one year. She loves the aquarium so much that she now works in the gift shop as well.  Her customer service skills are superior and she has handled difficult guest interactions professionally and appropriately.  

Sarah gets a smooch from one of the fur seals

This nomination was a group decision from all the staff that has the pleasure of working with Sarah on a weekly basis. Our department, like many others, could not run smoothly and effectively without our committed volunteers. Sarah participates in many tasks that are important to our animal’s welfare including diet preparation and exhibit cleaning. She is also creative in enriching the animal’s lives through play sessions and provides guests with valuable information about the animals during public presentations.  

Sarah takes the initiative to complete tasks and has proved to be a valuable mentor in training new volunteers and interns. She goes above and beyond to ensure the cleanliness of the area by completing the tedious job of locating and removing fish scales that get stuck everywhere. The team is lucky to have Sarah as a mentor for newer volunteers and interns because she is a very thorough and understanding teacher. She follows protocols perfectly and is never afraid to ask questions. She understands the importance of following these protocols for safety reasons and trains people accordingly.  

Sarah has a quiet presence and remains professional at all times. This ability to stay even keeled is highly valued in our department. The joy she gets from working on the mammals team and giving the animals a great day is clear in her expression and attitude. Her positive personality and work ethic makes her a great role model for everyone she is around.

Not only is she a Marine Mammals volunteer, but she also works as staff in the Gift Shop!  Join me in congratulating Sarah!

Today is Flaherty the Northern fur seal's first birthday! On this special occasion, Aquarium CFO Walter Flaherty fed his namesake a birthday feast while visitors surprised the little seal with a round of happy birthday. Watch and listen to this special moment.



You can tell that Flaherty the seal is very comfortable around Walter. That's because they have a date every month! Walter visits the New Balance Foundation Marine Mammal Center to help feed the little (but growing quickly!) seal. Flaherty usually eats a yummy assortment of herring and silver sides. It just doesn't usually come out of a festive birthday gift bag.

Happy birthday, Flaherty!

Let's take a walk down memory lane to see how little Flaherty has grown up.

• The oh-so-adorable birth announcement
• Some of the first video of the little seal with his mom Ursula while the pair was behind the scenes
• Ursula was protective of her pup when he was introduced to the exhibit.
• Flaherty's best bud is Leu. These two definitely know how to play rough and tumble. (Just check out the examples here, here and here. Oh, boys!)
• Wee Flaherty was no match for some of this winter's snow drifts
• Flaherty's not the only one with a summer birthday! Here's how the harbor seals celebrate.

Visiting the fur seals, sea lions and harbor seals at the Aquarium has never been easier! Choose the day and time you wish to visit with timed ticketing.

Happy Father's Day! We're celebrating this special day with some of the dads here at the Aquarium. Here are a few of them:

Isaac

Isaac the Northern fur seal is Flaherty's dad. While this hulking fur seal is a master basker, he knows how to get moving. His little pup, now a year old and thick as thieves with his pal Leu, is always frisky.

Banggai cardinalfish

Look for the Banggai cardinalfish in the Level One living corals exhibit. These dad are very protective, they keep fertilized eggs in their mouths until their big enough to fend for themselves.

Munawar

Munawar is a little blue penguin and one of the newest dads at the Aquarium. Meet his little blue penguin chick!

Bring your dad to meet some of the fathers at the Aquarium! And don't forget about the hundreds and hundreds of animals (including Myrtle) in the Giant Ocean Tank right now. We're all getting ready for the New Aquarium Experience, which starts July 1!

Visitors can enjoy some amazing moments at the New England Aquarium. We love it when they share those pictures with us on facebook! Here's a smattering of the fascinating, funny, elegant and amazing pictures that our visitors captured on camera.

The Giant Pacific Octopus exploring its tank.

by Anne Young

A sea jelly


A weedy sea dragon showing off its camouflage.

by Olya Scheer

Rockhopper penguins enjoying a spray. (Sprinklers regularly spray down the penguin islands to help keep them clean, learn more about the sprinklers on this Penguin Blog post!)

by Candi Imming

A northern fur seal resting on deck. It looks like he has feet!

by Mike Cook

OK, now it's your turn! Come visit us at the Aquarium, be sure to bring your camera, and then share your spectacular shots with us on facebook.