Press Releases & Statements

NORWALK, CT  –  The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk’s IMAX Theater will reopen Thanksgiving weekend for seven weeks of spectacular films – including the holiday classic “The Polar Express” – in a memorable giant-screen finale. The theater has been closed by the pandemic since March 13 and is slated for demolition in 2021 to make way for a federal railroad bridge replacement project. To send the theater out in... Read More

NORWALK, CT  –  For the fourth time in five years, The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk is being honored for one of the best educational initiatives of any zoo or aquarium in America.  The Maritime Aquarium’s “Sound Resilience: Get on Board!” program – a four-year public outreach that included engaging middle- and high-school students in modeling how to brace our coastline against climate change – received a Significant Achievement Award in... Read More

NORWALK, CT  –  Area schools that have had to eliminate field trips from the new school year can still welcome seals, sea turtles, sharks and other marine animals into their classrooms through live online programs offered by The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk.  Long a regional resource to educators for fulfilling STEM-based teaching standards, The Maritime Aquarium has shifted from primarily presenting in-person classes to now offering 25 online distance-learning lessons.... Read More

NORWALK, CT  –  An invasive jellyfish no bigger than a nickel – but one that has sent people to the hospital in agony – now can be seen in a rare public display in The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk. Clinging jellyfish  (Gonionemus vertens)  are now clinging and pulsing safely behind glass as The Maritime Aquarium becomes one of the few aquariums... Read More

The Maritime Aquarium joins 19 other top U.S. aquariums in opposition to the final rule announced   today by the Trump Administration to modify the regulations for implementing the National   Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The rule poses a threat to many of our communities and to valuable   ocean and freshwater ecosystems that our aquariums work to restore and protect.   NEPA was enacted with strong bipartisan support to ensure environmental review... Read More

NORWALK, CT  –  Meet amazing animals with the natural ability to glow in the dark in “Living Lights,” a special exhibit open now in The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk. “Living Lights” introduces guests to some of the most strangely interesting creatures in the sea: animals that can give off light through a process called bioluminescence. Live animals displayed include flashlight fish, pinecone fish, chain catsharks, crystal jellyfish and more. ... Read More

NORWALK, CT –  The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk is one of 17 aquariums in the U.S. – and the only one in New England – tending to live corals rescued from Florida in an unprecedented effort to save North America’s largest bank reef. Thirty-five corals, representing 13 different species, arrived at The Maritime Aquarium last month from the Florida Reef Tract, a 360-mile bank reef that extends from Port Saint Lucie down to the Florida Keys. In... Read More

NORWALK, CT  –  The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk has begun construction of a 4D movie theater and a large new seal exhibit, part of the popular attraction’s advance response to the rebuilding of an adjacent railroad bridge.  On Nov. 11, the Aquarium’s five harbor seals moved into a home-away-from-home – on view to guests in the former “Go Fish!” exhibit – so construction could begin on a 150,000-gallon, two-story habitat on the site of... Read More

NORWALK, CT  –  Federal, state and local officials ceremonially broke ground at The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk Nov. 18 on a new seal exhibit and 4D movie theater, part of the popular attraction’s advance response to the rebuilding of an adjacent railroad bridge.  Funded with state and federal dollars through a $40 million “functional replacement” agreement, the simultaneous projects are expected to be completed in a year and... Read More

NORWALK, CT  –  The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk is inviting guests to follow along as it seeks insights into horseshoe crabs, a favored marine creature whose mystique and environmental importance make up for what it rather lacks in charm.  The Maritime Aquarium recently opened its new “Horseshoe Crab Culture Lab,” where staff will investigate the creatures’ physical processes, food preferences, breeding behaviors and more. A lab window lets Aquarium... Read More