Located on the waterfront in Norwalk, Connecticut, the Maritime Aquarium is built on the site (and partially incorporating) an old ironworks. At the time of its opening in 1988, it was billed as the Maritime Center and was more of a general museum, with the name changing in 1996 to place more focus on the live animal exhibits which were quickly becoming central to the facility. It's hard to describe, but when I visited, it seemed like the aquarium had a somewhat different feel from many others that I'd visited - much brighter, airier, maybe more of a kid-friendly vibe to the whole facility than I've seen in many others, which tend to be somewhat dark.
The aquarium is a two-level facility, with much of the emphasis being on the native wildlife of nearby Long Island Sound. Immediately inside the lobby you pass through a corridor of gift shops, snacks, and a theater; this mall-like atmosphere gave me a case of deja zoo, immediately reminding me of the Oklahoma Aquarium, a similarity that stuck with me for much of the visit. In the heart of the aquarium is probably its star exhibit, an indoor/outdoor two-level habitat for harbor seals, with viewing through underwater windows as well as a catwalk around the surface level. Daily feeding demonstrations are offered several times daily.
A meandering hallway past the seals leads through a series of habitats of Long Island Sound marine life, from the residents of the salt marshes that live where the rivers meet the sea to the deep water haunts of sea turtles, sand tiger sharks, and other large oceanic residents. The 110,000 gallon shark tank offers tall viewing windows that provide excellent viewing of the sharks as they cruise by. (When I visit aquariums, I often find that the shark exhibit is the exhibit that I spend the least time at, both because they all sort of look alike to me, as well as my unwillingness to push myself through the enormous crowds that they gather). The aquarium is, by and large, fairly boilerplate in most of its other exhibits, including giant Pacific octopus, seahorses, a jellyfish gallery (in their standard, eerie glowing tank), a shark and ray touch tank, and Atlantic sturgeons in a separate touch tank.
Being a New England facility, it seems almost obligatory that there's an impressive specimen of American lobster on display. I really enjoyed seeing the various local fishes that I'd never heard of or had the chance to photograph, though seeing Atlantic salmon was also a bit of a treat; outside of my visit to the Pacific Northwest, I don't think I'd seen salmon in aquariums before, or at least with much regularity, considering how important the species is to us. A small gallery features native reptiles and amphibians, with my favorite being a handsome display of diamondback terrapins. I also liked the horseshoe crab exhibit, with a window into a culturing lab.
Perhaps the least-impressive exhibit is the river otter habitat; by no means the worst I've seen (and certainly better than Oklahoma Aquarium, the first comparison that I made), but I've just seen to many relatively plain, smallish, all-indoor river otter exhibits in aquariums and nature museums, and it would be nice to see something better for the animals.
Like many aquariums I've been to, it sometimes seems that the Maritime Aquarium isn't totally convinced in the star power of its own aquatic species, and feels the need to branch out a bit. A gallery on the second floor is said to focus on how water connects different habitats, but as far as I can tell it mostly serves as a good enough excuse for the aquarium to feature an assortment of non-fishy species, such as meerkats, small primates, porcupines, and tortoises. Which, to be fair, this is hardly the only aquarium to do... To be honest, I was mostly just surprised that it didn't go all in on being an Amazon rainforest exhibit to complete the standard aquarium checklist of required exhibits.
The Maritime Aquarium won't knock the socks off of an zoo or aquarium hobbyist on the search for new species or very striking exhibits, but it is a pleasant, attractive facility with a decent collection of native and exotic species in habitats which are, by and large, decent, and the visitors that I saw that day all seemed to be enjoying themselves. Maybe not worth making a pilgrimage just to see, the way I would some of the truly spectacular aquariums out there, but still well worth a visit if you're in the area.
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