Harbor Seal Pool
The harbor seal pool at The Maritime Aquarium is where you’ll find several of our most popular residents. What many people don’t know is that harbor seals can also be found in Long Island Sound during the winter! And while these furry marine mammals may look cute (…many people say their faces look like a Labrador retriever’s…), the 1973 Marine Mammal Protection Act prohibits people from hunting or even approaching a wild seal. You’ll never get a better look at a harbor seal than here at The Maritime Aquarium, especially during feeding time (11:45 a.m. and 1:45 & 3:45 p.m. daily).
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grow to between 5 and 6 feet long and can weigh between 175 – 225 pounds.
Males are sometimes larger. |
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can be found throughout the northern Atlantic, along both coasts. |
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range in color from brown, tan, light grey and silver with dark spots.
Their thick short coat is made of coarse guard hairs and finer, but denser
under hairs. |
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River Otter Habitat
River Otters are sleek, furry, streamlined aquatic mammals that live in Canada and the USA. Although they’re not frequently seen by most people, river otters are actually very common in the Long Island Sound watershed and prefer life on the shores of deep, clear rivers, lakes, large marshes, and ocean bays. With their webbed feet and eyes near the top of their heads—our river otters are as adept at hunting under water (looking up to see prey near the surface) as they are on land. Their thick coats are waterproof and keep them warm during the winter and in cold water.
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are a large type of weasel that grow 3-4 feet long?
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have a keen sense of smell, and use their sensitive whiskers to help find prey in muddy water?
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are carnivores that eat mainly fish, insects, frogs, and birds? |
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are nocturnal (active at night)? During the day they like to rest in underground dens. |
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The Rocky Intertidal Zone Touch Tank
One of the Maritime Aquarium’s most popular exhibits—our intertidal zone Touch Tank—gives visitors a real feel for some of Long Island Sound’s most interesting creatures. Come feel a green crab tickle your palm, rub a horseshoe crab’s belly, and touch the rough surface of a sea star. Our Aquarium volunteers make sure everyone has some quality time with the animals; and who knows, you might even learn a few interesting facts about them in the process.
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live on the rocky sea floor and move along using hundreds of tiny tube feet?
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are carnivores (meat-eaters), and eat clams, oysters, coral and fish?
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have light sensors at the tip of each arm; and if an arm is cut off, it will regenerate (regrow)?
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juveniles can change color to match their surroundings?
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are able colonizers and efficient predators and have the potential to significantly alter any ecosystem it invades?
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have already invaded numerous coastal communities outside of its native range, including South Africa, Australia, and both coasts of North America?
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can endure extreme temperatures and go a year without eating?
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use their tail as a rudder to plow themselves through the sand and muck and to right itself when it accidentally tips over?
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can swim upside down in the open ocean using their dozen legs (most with claws) and a flap hiding nearly 200 flattened gills to propel themselves?
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Open Ocean Exhibit
Yes, swimmers, there ARE sharks in Long Island Sound! Sand tiger sharks, which grow to be about ten feet long, are the featured creature in The Maritime Aquarium’s 110,000 gallon Open Ocean exhibit, where they live peacefully with other inhabitants of the Sound’s deeper depths. And although the number of attacks world-wide by sand tiger sharks make them the fourth most dangerous species in the world, there hasn’t been a recorded incident in Long Island Sound since 1961.
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maximum length is about 10.5 feet?
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diet consists mainly of large and small bony fish, small sharks, rays, squid, and crustaceans?
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are generally considered harmless?
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are found in shallow waters, but also swim down to depths of 200 meters?
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teeth are large, long, smooth, and narrow-edged—which are arranged in three rows on each side of the upper jaw midline? |
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Jellyfish Encounter
Few marine creatures are as mysterious and intimidating as jellyfish. Jellyfish Encounter offers close, safe studies of one of the most mesmerizing and unusual creatures in the ocean. Jellies (so called because they’re not really fish) are 95 percent water and have no brain, heart, blood, lungs or gills, yet they’ve existed on Earth for 650 million years.
Most species featured in our Jellyfish Encounter are commonly spotted each summer in Long Island Sound, including: moon jellyfish, a relatively harmless jelly; lion's mane jellyfish, a vicious stinger that can grow to be the biggest of all jellies; and sea nettles, so named because encountering one feels like brushing into a thicket of nettles.
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inhabit every major ocean of the world?
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are capable of withstanding a wide range of temperatures and salinities?
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are very fragile, often containing less than 5% solid organic matter?
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tentacles of some jellyfish can reach lengths greater than 100 feet?
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mostly live in shallow coastal waters, but a few inhabit depths of 12,000 feet
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Loggerhead Sea Turtles
Amazing loggerhead sea turtles in a 15,000-gallon habitat are the centerpiece of this permanent marine life exhibit. Come see them up-close and wrinkly!
Also included are interpretive displays on sea turtle conservation, life history, behavior, migration, and the latest research studies about Sea Turtles. There’s even an area where you can see how you measure up to different sea turtle shells. Come see our additional animals featured in the exhibit—including—garden eels, jaw fish and diamondback terrapins (North American aquatic turtles).
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live up to 60 - 75 years or more?
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reach 4- 5 feet in length and weigh up to 400 - 500 pounds?
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have massive skulls, providing an anchor for the strong jaw muscles that are needed to crush shellfish?
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often acquire barnacles and seaweed growing on their shells?
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females come onto the beaches at night, digging their nests above the high-tide mark?
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Marine Lab
There's always something new to see in the Marine Lab. Find animals that are new to the Aquarium, animals in transition between exhibits, plus get a close-up look at how The Maritime Aquarium raises baby jellyfish and seahorses.
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is a member of the pipefish family?
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grows up to 5 inches long?
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lives among grasses for camouflage?
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can be found from Nova Scotia to South America?
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males (not females) carry the young?
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Frogs
A new permanent exhibit!
Meeting colorful and unusual frogs from around the world is a ribbitt-ing experience! See brightly hued tropical frogs, big African bullfrogs, bizarrely flat Surinam frogs, and tree frogs from New England as you learn what actions we can take to help reverse declining amphibian populations.
Download a fun Frogs Activity Sheet
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can breathe through its skin? |
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was the first land animal with vocal cords?
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can jump 20 times its body length?
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can be found on every continent except Antarctica?
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usually lives in water, but toads usually live on dry land?
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