Woods Hole Science Aquarium Woods Hole Science Aquarium

ZooElephantMan

ZooElephantMan

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10+ year member
The Woods Hole Science Aquarium is a small aquarium on Cape Cod, in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. It is owned by the US government, and operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The aquarium was established in 1885, and according to their website, is the oldest in the country.

Built right on the ocean, the aquarium’s exhibits focus on species from the Northeast- and Mid-Atlantic.

I was hoping to visit the aquarium during a trip to The Cape this summer, but apparently the aquarium is closed to the public due to covid, which I found pretty surprising. If the aquarium is still closed at this point in the pandemic, I wonder if they will reopen at all.

Have any zoochatters visited the aquarium before? As far as I can tell, there are no other threads about the aquarium, and no media in the gallery.

I’d also be curious if there is any debate as to whether the aquarium truly is the oldest in the US. I know there is a lot of debate as to which US zoo is the oldest (either Central Park or Philadelphia), and expect similar contention here.
 
They are going to open again, they've just been doing a bit of fixing up as well, and being a NOAA building their opening restrictions are different from regular places (I spoke with them last week).

There actually is a big debate over the first aquarium! There were several older ones that have since closed, for one. Belle Isle also claims the title, but they usually phrase it as oldest continually operating aquarium, I think? New York Aquarium, Birch Aquarium at Scripps, and Waikiki Aquarium are all from around 1900, as well.
 
I visited the aquarium yesterday. It was nice, but very small. The collection focuses only on species native to New England waters, and the whole place can easily be seen in under an hour-and-a-half. The seal exhibit could use some work, but seemed sufficient for the seals they have (0.1 blind juvenile named Kitt and 1.0 geriatric named Bubba). I wish they could invest some more money into the place.

I enjoyed my visit, but I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to check it out unless you're already on the Cape. Still, it is a really interesting place. They have a lot of signage about the aquarium's history (considering that they are one of the first aquariums in the country), Woods Hole, NOAA, and oceanography in general, which I enjoyed reading about. I liked the aquarium's focus on science, and you can tell that it really is an institution dedicated to its causes: research, rehab, and local conservation. However, I was surprised they were not accredited by the AZA. Maybe that would be a good goal for the aquarium to work towards.

I am going to be very busy over the next couple days, but I took a bunch of pictures for the gallery (which I will try to upload soon). I am working on typing up a species list as well.
 
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