The Maritime Aquarium is a longtime Carver before and after-school and summer program partner.
They are integral to our STEAM project-based and hands-on learning experiences and they regularly provide our students with access to the aquarium itself.
We are excited about their new "Pinniped Cove," home for the Maritime Aquarium's harbor seals. It is the largest aquatic display in the aquarium's 33-year history.
The harbor seals have always been a big attraction at the Maritime Aquarium since its opening in 1988, so much so that the aquarium's logo even pays tribute to them.
Now the aquarium's five seals, Ariel, Leila, Polly, Rasal, and Tillie, have more room to swim and relax in an area meant to evoke their natural environment: a classic New England cove.
The seals' original home was mainly a pool with straight walls, with one side of the pool inside the facility and one outside. Now guests can view the seals underwater from the cavernous bottom half of the two-level exhibit, or head upstairs to see the seals traverse around or lounge upon the exhibit's fabricated rock work.
The 22-foot deep exhibit holds 160,000 gallons of water and is over eight times larger than the seals' original 19,000-gallon exhibit, where they had lived since the aquarium's opening.
Pinniped Cove is also nearly 50 percent larger than the aquarium's popular 110,000-gallon, 18-foot-deep shark exhibit, which was previously the facility's largest display.
The construction of the seal exhibit and the 4D theater represents a unique collaborative effort by the state, the city of Norwalk, and the aquarium to address the impacts of the upcoming replacement of the Walk Bridge, a 125-year-old railroad bridge adjacent to the aquarium.
The project required razing the aquarium's former IMAX theater and replacing the original seal habitat, which was partially outdoors, to ensure the seals and aquarium guests can enjoy a secure indoor habitat protected from the construction noise just yards away.
The state provided $40 million in funding and the city managed the capital construction project for the aquarium to compensate for the loss of those signature assets.
That the Maritime Aquarium staff and city completed the project in the midst of a global pandemic is a testament to the hard work and dedication of everyone involved in making this one of the nation’s most important aquariums.