It is great that the Mystic Aquarium has Steller Sea Lions, which are very rare in the US, but I was surprised to see this unnaturalistic dungeon-style gate featured prominently in the back of their exhibit. I asked, and someone said it is there to keep staff safe as they primarily interact with the sea lions in a protected contact situation. That made sense considering the animals' size, and I'm sure the sea lions aren't too bothered by the metal bars, but from a visitor's perspective the exhibit would look much nicer if the aquarium found a way to hide the unnaturalistic metal barrier.
@ZooElephantMan Yeah, it's so ugly, especially after you pass the belugas and seal pools. This one feels too small and looks like it's from 60 years ago. Oregon's pool was built for stellers and doesn't have anything that looks like this; there's ways to build a protected contacted gate without it being so garish and obvious.
@TinoPup it seems like the last major animal addition was the beluga whale habitat which opened in 1999. It would be very exciting if they will ever get around to another animal-centric project of that size, although considering how slow things tend to move at zoos and aquariums in New England, I wouldn’t want to get my hopes up.
@ZooElephantMan They spent $8 mil on their research building a few years ago, then had the arrival of all of these sick belugas, so it's understandable they haven't worked on much that's public-facing.
