Visit the New England Aquarium

During your next New England vacation, visit the New England Aquarium, home to fascinating underwater creatures. On the bustling waterfront of downtown Boston, next to the harbor tour boats and a block from Quincy Market, is a place where young and old can meet the denizens of the deep face to face, and learn about the exotic world that begins right where our world ends-below the surface of the world's waters.

Introductions begin before entering the building, which is built on a pier. An outside tank houses harbor seals. The walls are glass and the water level well above the pavement, so the seals swim by, underwater, in full view.

Beside this outdoor exhibit are the admissions booths. Current rates and hours can be found at the Aquarium's web site, http://www.neaq.org/index1. html. Before coming, visit your local library and ask if they have a loaner pass-many do, and you'll save quite a bit of money by using it.

Upon entering the main building, you have two immediate options: go straight ahead to visit the main body of the facility, or turn left to see special temporary exhibits.

The middle of the main floor of the building is the home of the blackfooted and rockhopper penguins. Humans can lean on the rail and watch them, or turn to the exhibits that line the outer walls. It's a physical pattern that is repeated throughout most of the four stories of the Aquarium.

A walkway spirals up the perimeter of the building, and at each level there are tanks that illustrate particular habitats or types of fish. Approach with no preconceptions-the strange beauty of the undersea world is a window into a different planet, where different rules apply. One tank holds common cuttlefish, cephalopods, which look like space aliens: tentacles where we'd expect a nose, eyes with "W"-shaped pupils and a jet siphon for speedy travel.

The Blue Hole tank is the home of the Queensland Grouper, which can reach 12 feet in length, and the Jewfish, which only grows to a mere eight feet! The next display houses the primitive fish, like the long-nosed gar, the sturgeon (source of the world's caviar) and the lungfish. This last creature has a lung, four rudimentary limbs, can live in a cocoon if its river or pond dries out, and breathes air when water is unavailable.

There is a close up look at a salt marsh. Close observation reveals little fish like the mummichog, stickleback, and Atlantic tomcod, as well as periwinkles, horseshoe crabs, green crabs, hermit crabs and mussels.

This is familiar turf to us here in New England, but the neighboring exhibit reveals the world of a mangrove swamp, a warren of roots populated by pufferfish that blow themselves up to triple their original size to discourage predators, and by the mudskipper, a fish which can climb out of water and up branches to catch bugs. Its unique eyes allow it to see well in both environments.

The fish in all of these tanks run the gamut from comical to intimidating, from rare to common, but all have their own unique properties, which are explained on nearby panels. There are remarkable water creatures practically everywhere. The New England Aquarium may be the only place most people will ever see a giant sea roach, a red crab, or a spotted ratfish, intriguing if ugly inhabitants of a world that's "Deep, Dark, and Cold," over 1,000 feet down, where light never shines and life seems unlikely.

Other exhibits that capture the attention are the piranha, of course, and the flooded Amazon forest, in which dwell unusual fish like the urau, whose young eat the slimy coating of the mother's body, and the arawana, built like a landing barge, but sometimes called the "water monkey" for its leaps and splashes. Closer to home are tanks simulating a trout stream, the waters off the Gloucester breakwater, and the Wharves at Eastport.

Everything in the New England Aquarium is interesting to children, but one of the best sections is the "Edge of the Sea," a hands on tide pool staffed by volunteers that contains real, live, specimens of the creatures found in local waters. Kids can pick up and examine horseshoe crabs, starfish, and other sea animals. Unlike the display tanks, there's no glass separating children from the sea here! The volunteers assist and explain, and reassure when necessary, while also ensuring that the animals aren't handled too roughly.

And then, of course, there is the aquarium's main attraction-the incredible main tank at the center of the building, a four story high glass-walled cylinder containing a replica of a Caribbean Coral reef stocked with sea turtles, sharks, bonito and many other fish. A walkway spirals down around the tank to provide constant close up looks at the creatures swimming at every depth, and those lucky enough to be there at the right time can watch as a diver enters the tanks and feeds its inhabitants-even the sharks-by hand.

Other attractions the New England Aquarium offers are whale watching cruises and the IMAX theater that's been built in front of the main building. An architectural monstrosity, it's a place to see spectacular films of the denizens of the oceans. Really, why watch movies when the real thing is right at hand? The aquarium offers an amazing opportunity to actually see, in real life, some of the most fascinating creatures on the planet, ones usually completely hidden from our view. And don't forget, it's indoors, it's warm and you can spend hours examining all it has to offer, so it's a perfect winter excursion. It's time to start planning a family trip to the New England Aquarium-and now when Boston meets the sea, so will you!

Article provided by Homesteader