New England Aquarium

Boston Public Garden , Boston Overview

Boston’s oldest and largest non-profit aquarium, the New England Aquarium, is home to a wide range of underwater species. The aquarium area also has an IMAX theatre as well as a whale watch centre which is open for specific months in the years. Located at the Central Wharf in Boston the New England Aquarium houses more than 20,000 animals of 600 exotic species of animals. The main aquarium building has several exhibits like the Indo-Pacific coral reef, Atlantic harbour seals, penguins and the Amazon forest.

Amongst the many more well-made exhibits the centre of the atrium has a four-storey exhibit called the Giant Ocean tank which is 200,000 gallons and represents the Caribbean coral reef. The tank houses several turtles, stingrays, eels and 1,000 other reef animals. In addition to the several exhibits, the aquarium also has an IMAX theatre as well as a whale watch area. The aquarium has almost 1.3 million annual visitors as well as upcoming new exhibits, tours and animals.

How to reach the New England Aquarium

By Train: The closet aquarium stop is only 100 yards away from the aquarium. The best like to use is the Blue line which is approximately 1-3 minutes. All the other lines also connect here but take a longer time to walk, the green and red lines take approximately 10 minutes whereas the orange lines take about 7 minutes to walk to the aquarium.

By Boat: There are several boat services that visitors can take like the MBTA, The Salem Ferry as well as the Winthrop Ferry. These boats drop visors at Central Wharf which is just adjacent to the aquarium.

By foot:If visitors are already in the Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market area, the North End, Government Center, or the Financial District the aquarium is not a long walk.

By car: By car, the best way for anyone by car is to use google maps to be sure about reaching the aquarium. The irregular roads of Boston can be a little confusing for new visitors and hence using this software is recommended.

Things to do at New England Aquarium

The New England aquarium has several things to do for visitors who come for the first or second time. The aquarium has 15 exhibits with up to 600 species of marine life, animals, and reefs. The exhibits are extremely well crafted for the visitors. This proves to be one of the main things to do for visitors.

The aquarium also has a theatre known as the Simon theatre which displays a series of short but yet knowledgeable films about marine life on its six-story high screen. Visitors should pre-book their movie tickets either before or after their aquarium experience as there is no re-entry back to the aquarium after visiting the theatre.

It offer the visitors animal encounters with the sea lions, fur sea lions, harbor sea lions, penguins, and the giant ocean tank. These encounters are currently virtual and visitors can book a slot for these online.

The most interesting thing to do here is the whale watch. The visitors are taken to the Boston, Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary which is only a few miles away from the aquarium. Here the visitors can see a wide range of whale species like the humpback whales, finback whales, minke whales, as well as pilot whales which are a potentially endangered species. They can also see white-sided dolphins in this sanctuary. If no whales or dolphins are sighted, the aquarium gives them a free whale watch ticket in the future. Although this is only open from April through November.

Exhibits of Exotic Species at the Aquarium

The aquarium has 15 exhibits with 600 species of different animals:

Indo Pacific Coral Reef
Amazon Rainforest
Science of Sharks
Penguins
Atlantic Harbour Seal exhibit
New balance foundation marine mammal centre
Giant ocean tank
Blue planet action centre
Edge of the Sea touch tank
Gulf of Maine
Olympic coast exhibit
Seadragon exhibit
Sea jellies
Shark and ray touch tank
Yawkey coral reef centre

Dinning Options at the New England Aquarium

The aquarium has several dining options:

Harbour View cafe
Reef bar
Dog n claw

New England Aquarium Gift shop

The gift shop at the aquarium has a wide range of educational books, DVDs, CDs it also has clothes, T-shirts, soft toys, and other souvenirs. The gift shop gives the visitors a memory of their experience at the New England Aquarium.

History of the New England Aquarium.

The New England Aquarium was opened to the public on June 20, 1969. Since then the aquarium has only been building on its exhibits and paying close attention to the smaller details in the aquarium. The aquarium originally had a 1,000 seater arena with a 151600 cylinder tank in the center. There used to be a dolphin as well as a sea lion show for the visitors until they were sent away from the aquarium.

In addition to this when the aquarium was originally built the giant ocean tank was the world’s largest exhibit when it was opened in 1970. The exhibit now has multiple coral reefs which are man-made as well natural. The temperature in the waiter is also now adjusted as per the convenience of the 1,000 animals present in the tank. The tank now represents the Caribbean coral reef.

In 2001, the IMAX theatre opened with 428 seats and a six-storey high screen for the best experiences. As years went by the aquarium started having more facilities and better exhibits for the best experience of the visitors.