Boston Aquarium Day Trip

BOSTON AQUARIUM

The Boston Aquarium is also known as the New England Aquarium. It opened its doors to the public in June of 1969 and was unexpectedly inundated by more than twelve thousand (12,000) visitors on that first day. By the end of 1969, a mere six months later, well over four hundred and twenty five thousand (425,000) visitors had passed through the door of the Boston Aquarium to experience its state of the art exhibits. The Boston Aquarium has been a booming success ever since and has served as a model for similar undertakings around the world.

It had been discovered through the unfortunate demise of short-lived aquariums and acquarial gardens that to succeed, a modern day aquarium must be attractive enough to capture and sustain public interest, it must stir up curiosity and wonderment, it must take on the responsibility to educate as well as to generate the awe inspiring awareness of the wonders of aquatic nature that will then lead to respect and reverence of the environment. In short, to be successful an aquarium must be able to continually balance an amusement factor with an educational factor and that fine balance must be regularly examined, reexamined and adjusted as the needs arise.

With these facts in mind, the main objectives of the Boston Aquarium designers were to reconnect Boston to its waterfront, to provide a learning underwater experience for its visitors, to conduct research, to promote education and to encourage conservation of the oceans around the world and the lives they sustain. All these objectives have been met and surpassed through growth, expansion, renovation and the development of new programs.

Entertainment and education aside, aquariums have a therapeutic value. Viewing life under the sea potentially leads to a state of meditative contemplation that is above and beyond the thrill of entertainment and educational explanations. Many visitors to the Boston Aquarium just want to look, admire and fantasize while leaving their own dry-land lives behind for the duration of their stay.

On its steadfast path to growth and advancement, the Boston Aquarium opened a giant ocean tank in 1970 which at the time was the largest circular, salt water tank in the world and in 2001 it opened the only 3D theater in Boston, the Matthew and Marcia Simons Imax. The Boston Aquarium also offers a few tactile hands-on exhibits such as The Think Gallery (focuses on evolution, survival in harsh surroundings and the function of fish shapes) and the At the Edge of the Sea (encourages visitors to touch and even pick up sea creatures like sea stars, periwinkles, horseshoe crabs and many more). Additional special exhibits and events feature the jelly fish exhibit and whale watching tours. For more comprehensive details please visit their official website at http://www.neaq.org/.

The Boston Aquarium is open year round every day of the week; their rates are quite reasonable to the general public and they offer free admission to wheelchair bound and visually impaired guests and guide and service dogs are welcome; an American Sign Language interpreter is regularly available once a month but arrangements for a special guided tour can be made in advance and they are ease to get to from anywhere in Boston and its vicinity. With so much to offer and so many accommodating provisions, there is no excuse for any visitors to Boston not to incorporate the Boston Aquarium into their itineraries.

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