Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk
Encyclopedia
The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk (formerly Maritime Center) is an aquarium located in the South Norwalk (or "SoNo") section of Norwalk
, Connecticut
.
The aquarium has seals, river otters, steely sharks, jellyfish
, loggerhead turtles, and hundreds of other animals living in re-creations of their natural Long Island Sound
habitats. There are two touch tanks that feature smooth stingrays, crabs, sea stars and other coastal creatures.
The aquarium also has an IMAX
Theater with a screen six-stories tall and the equivalent of eight-stories wide. It was opened in October 2007 to show regular, feature-length movies on weekend evenings. Part of the upgrade was installation of a 10,000-watt, digital, proprietary, surround-sound system. The aquarium features educational programs, year-round study cruises on its 40 feet (12.2 m) trawler, Research Vessel Oceanic, special exhibits, and fun 3-D simulator/adventure rides.
The aquarium's budget for 2006-2007 fiscal year amounted to about $10.7 million. More than $4 million came in from admissions; with 36 percent coming from out-of-state visitors. Demonstrating increasing regional appeal, out-of-state attendance revenue has increased 55% since 2002.
Additional revenues are generated from educational programming fees, the gift shop, catering, business dinners and other events and donations. The state gave it a grant of $675,000 to promote tourism.
The "Maritime Center" opened July 16, 1988. The name was changed to the "Maritime Aquarium" in 1996 to stress the live animals featured there.
It first opened by renovating a former 1860's iron works factory and building the IMAX Theater. Visitors as they walk past the Ray Touch Pool toward the Marine Lab still tred on the original wood floors under original wood beams of the iron works. Occupying approximately 100,000 gross square feet, first animal exhibits included Harbor Seals, Open Ocean and Touch Tank.
The cultural section of the Aquarium originally explored boat building
and human exploration of the sea, but the boat-building activities were eliminated in early 2007. In the last seven years of its 19-year run, the boat-building program helped people construct about 500 boats and 20,000 children took part in classes that created more than 5,000 model boats, but aquarium officials said the shop only served 3 to 5 percent of patrons.
The boat-building shop was replaced with a new Marine Lab with baby seahorse
s and jellyfish (and other animals new to the Aquarium), as well as information on aquaculture, sustainable seafood, and responsible home aquarium keeping.
In recent years, the Maritime Aquarium has emphasized helping visitors understand the ecology of Long Island Sound and its watershed. The Aquarium participates in or directs local scientific research on Long Island Sound's residents, including a counting and tagging program for horseshoe crab
s and annual counts of harbor seal
s. The Maritime Aquarium also helped create a Long Island Sound Biodiversity Database open to the public.
In 2006, the Aquarium became a partner in SeafoodWatch, a program that encourages consumers to make responsible seafood choices that have a low impact on the environment and promote sustainable fisheries
.
There is a display of detailed ship models with 14 in cases, as well as charts and interpretive signs. In the ship model area and throughout the Cascade Cafe are signs describing the nautical origins of many popular sayings, for example: "bitter end," "scuttle butt," "cat out of the bag," "under the weather" and "three squares a day".
Norwalk, Connecticut
Norwalk is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of the city is 85,603, making Norwalk sixth in population in Connecticut, and third in Fairfield County...
, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
.
The aquarium has seals, river otters, steely sharks, jellyfish
Jellyfish
Jellyfish are free-swimming members of the phylum Cnidaria. Medusa is another word for jellyfish, and refers to any free-swimming jellyfish stages in the phylum Cnidaria...
, loggerhead turtles, and hundreds of other animals living in re-creations of their natural Long Island Sound
Long Island Sound
Long Island Sound is an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean, located in the United States between Connecticut to the north and Long Island, New York to the south. The mouth of the Connecticut River at Old Saybrook, Connecticut, empties into the sound. On its western end the sound is bounded by the Bronx...
habitats. There are two touch tanks that feature smooth stingrays, crabs, sea stars and other coastal creatures.
The aquarium also has an IMAX
IMAX
IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
Theater with a screen six-stories tall and the equivalent of eight-stories wide. It was opened in October 2007 to show regular, feature-length movies on weekend evenings. Part of the upgrade was installation of a 10,000-watt, digital, proprietary, surround-sound system. The aquarium features educational programs, year-round study cruises on its 40 feet (12.2 m) trawler, Research Vessel Oceanic, special exhibits, and fun 3-D simulator/adventure rides.
Attendance
The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk is one of Connecticut's top tourist attractions. Annual attendance averages 500,000 visitors, with about 100,000 of them from New York state. The Maritime Aquarium estimated state-wide economic impact is almost $42 million; it contributes approximately $25 million to Norwalk's economy every year.The aquarium's budget for 2006-2007 fiscal year amounted to about $10.7 million. More than $4 million came in from admissions; with 36 percent coming from out-of-state visitors. Demonstrating increasing regional appeal, out-of-state attendance revenue has increased 55% since 2002.
Additional revenues are generated from educational programming fees, the gift shop, catering, business dinners and other events and donations. The state gave it a grant of $675,000 to promote tourism.
History
It first opened by renovating a former 1860's iron works factory and building the IMAX Theater. Visitors as they walk past the Ray Touch Pool toward the Marine Lab still tred on the original wood floors under original wood beams of the iron works. Occupying approximately 100,000 gross square feet, first animal exhibits included Harbor Seals, Open Ocean and Touch Tank.
Boat building
Boat building, one of the oldest branches of engineering, is concerned with constructing the hulls of boats and, for sailboats, the masts, spars and rigging.-Parts:* Bow - the front and generally sharp end of the hull...
and human exploration of the sea, but the boat-building activities were eliminated in early 2007. In the last seven years of its 19-year run, the boat-building program helped people construct about 500 boats and 20,000 children took part in classes that created more than 5,000 model boats, but aquarium officials said the shop only served 3 to 5 percent of patrons.
The boat-building shop was replaced with a new Marine Lab with baby seahorse
Seahorse
Seahorses compose the fish genus Hippocampus within the family Syngnathidae, in order Syngnathiformes. Syngnathidae also includes the pipefishes. "Hippocampus" comes from the Ancient Greek hippos meaning "horse" and kampos meaning “sea monster”.There are nearly 50 species of seahorse...
s and jellyfish (and other animals new to the Aquarium), as well as information on aquaculture, sustainable seafood, and responsible home aquarium keeping.
- 1991: Exhibit space is expanded by adding the 7000 square feet (650.3 m²) "Featured Exhibits" area, a semi-permanent fabric and steel structure. The first exhibit is "Real Sea Monsters," featuring extinct sea creatures like Kronosaurus and Carcharadon. The current exhibit is "African Underwater Safari."
- 1994: Outdoor exhibit space, including bleachers, is added along the Norwalk River for summertime exhibits and shows. It opens with a "Birds of Prey" show.
- 1995: Jellyfish Encounter opens. Aquarium curators solve significant challenges to display these delicate animals that are approximately 95 percent water.
- 1996: "The Maritime Center" changes its name to "The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk" to better identify itself to the public and underscore increasing importance of live animal exhibits. River Otters and Ray Touch Pool open.
- 2001: The Aquarium expands into the Hatch and Bailey factory building, converting and rehabilitating 33000 square feet (3,065.8 m²) of space into a new $9.5 million Environmental Education Center (funded through corporate, private and state contributions). New space allows a reconfiguring of the existing Aquarium:
- Giant Sea Turtles opens including a 15,000-gallon habitat, interpretive signs, turtle shell photo opportunity and more.
- A new main entrance improves visitor reception and admission.
- New Oyster Hall group orientation and lunchroom just off the main entrance, allows for staging and organizing busloads of students when they visit.
- New high-tech classrooms with multimedia and wet lab facilities are added, as are teachers' rooms, to expand The Maritime Aquarium's educational programs.
- Cascade Cafe opens with seating for 180 people.
- Gift shop moves and expands.
- 2006: Touch Tank is moved and greatly enhanced to create a more natural display, allow animals to live "on-site" and offer better access to visitors. The Aquarium's Volunteer Staff funds reconstruction.
- 2007: Frogs! opens, a new permanent exhibit displaying amphibians from Long Island Sound shores and watershed, as well as other exotics from around the world, to draw attention to the importance of amphibians as bellwether species for environmental change. The small boat building shop is closed.
- 2008: During the summer the "Great White Alligator" is displayed in the outdoor exhibit space.
- 2009: African Penguins temporary outdoor exhibit opens.
In recent years, the Maritime Aquarium has emphasized helping visitors understand the ecology of Long Island Sound and its watershed. The Aquarium participates in or directs local scientific research on Long Island Sound's residents, including a counting and tagging program for horseshoe crab
Horseshoe crab
The Atlantic horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus, is a marine chelicerate arthropod. Despite its name, it is more closely related to spiders, ticks, and scorpions than to crabs. Horseshoe crabs are most commonly found in the Gulf of Mexico and along the northern Atlantic coast of North America...
s and annual counts of harbor seal
Harbor Seal
The harbor seal , also known as the common seal, is a true seal found along temperate and Arctic marine coastlines of the Northern Hemisphere...
s. The Maritime Aquarium also helped create a Long Island Sound Biodiversity Database open to the public.
In 2006, the Aquarium became a partner in SeafoodWatch, a program that encourages consumers to make responsible seafood choices that have a low impact on the environment and promote sustainable fisheries
Sustainable fisheries
Sustainability in fisheries combines theoretical disciplines, such as the population dynamics of fisheries, with practical strategies, such as avoiding overfishing through techniques such as individual fishing quotas, curtailing destructive and illegal fishing practices by lobbying for appropriate...
.
Exhibits
The Maritime Aquarium is approximately 140000 square feet (13,006.4 m²) and has more than 177,000 gallons of water in its live animal exhibits. On exhibit are more than 2,000 marine animals and reptiles representing in excess of 300 species. There are 93 exhibit tanks ranging in size from 10 to 110,000 gallons. There are two exhibit pools: seals and ray touch. Off-exhibit are another 30-some tanks (varies) and a small pool.There is a display of detailed ship models with 14 in cases, as well as charts and interpretive signs. In the ship model area and throughout the Cascade Cafe are signs describing the nautical origins of many popular sayings, for example: "bitter end," "scuttle butt," "cat out of the bag," "under the weather" and "three squares a day".
See also
- New York AquariumNew York AquariumThe New York Aquarium is the oldest continually operating aquarium in the United States, having opened in Castle Garden in Battery Park, Manhattan in 1896. Since 1957, it has been located on the boardwalk in Coney Island, Brooklyn. The aquarium is managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society as...
is located on Coney IslandConey IslandConey Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York, United States. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill....
in the Queens borough of New York City and is the closest aquarium to The Maritime Aquarium - Mystic Aquarium & Institute for ExplorationMystic Aquarium & Institute for ExplorationThe Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration is an aquarium and oceanography institute in Mystic, Connecticut. The Aquarium is one of only four U.S. facilities nation where people can see Steller sea lions and has one of the largest outdoor Beluga Whale exhibits in the United States. It is also...
is the only other aquarium in Connecticut and the only other aquarium on Long Island Sound - Atlantis Marine WorldAtlantis Marine WorldLong Island Aquarium and Exhibition Center is a museum with an Atlantis theme which opened in 2000 on Long Island in Riverhead, New York, United States....
in Riverhead, New York is a privately owned aquarium on the Peconic River at the eastern end of Long Island