Benthic Bonanza- Exhibit Profile

When I signed on with the Aquarium, I couldn't wait to get behind the scenes at the exhibits.
Now I am, and it rocks so much I gotta blog about it.

Several weeks ago I did a two-parter on the history and inner workings of the Aquarium's signature exhibit, the Giant Ocean Tank. Now it's time for another one.

It's time to shine some light on the ocean floor. DSN does this all the time. So I was reading Craig's latest update on deep sea mining, and I started thinking about how aquariums and zoos promote conservation by connecting visitors with the animals that meet protecting.

It seems to me, and to many exhibit designers, that this conservation challenge is especially difficult with benthic communities because they aren't populated by the loveable megafauna. Sea cucumbers aren't as sexy as sea turtles, right?

Wrong I say! My new favorite exhibit at the Aquarium is the Gulf of Main tank.



It's a 4,000 gallon cold water tank depicting the ocean floor in Stellwagen Marine Sanctuary. Sure, the ladies in this picture don't look too thrilled, and there aren't any tentacles flailing out at them, but this exhibit pays big dividends if you just stand still and absorb it. It's got sea stars and sea cucumbers, carefully set on different levels so the cukes don't get eaten. It's got wolffish, lobsters and this gihugic snow crab:



The more you look at this rocky mass teeming with bizarre lifeforms, the more you realize that you are staring at a universe that is completely alien to human experience. Even better, since the exhibit shows a local environment, our New England visitors feel a sense of belonging to this seemingly foreign seascape. Suddenly there's a very real connection to the animals they're used to eating with lemon and butter.

This article from the NOAA does a great summary of the effort that went into making this exhibit happen. But what stands out to me is that this exists at all. Exhibit space at the Aquarium is extremely tight. Unlike the nation's gigantic Aquariums, NEAQ is an urban space that can't sprawl beyond it's one-block confines. Yet the decision was made to put an incredible amount of time and money (including modifying the structural supports of the building) to include this depiction of an often overlooked underwater vista. I mean, let's be honest, from the standpoint of drawing visitors, this does not look promising:



But they went through with it anyway, and like I said, it pays huge dividends.
When lobster fisheries are in the news, people who have seen this exhibit will have an image of what the ocean floor looks like. When laws are being considered they'll remember the other creatures surrounding the animals they eat. And I daresay they will remember it with a sense of wonder.