When aquarium aficionados talk about US public aquariums, they usually talk about the Big 3 - Monterey Bay, Shedd, and Georgia. All of which, to be sure, are excellent facilities. Still, the US aquarium that I've been most excited to finally see was the New York Aquarium, located in Brooklyn's Coney Island, just steps from the beach. The reason for this interest was history. Aquariums as a rule tend to be much younger than US zoos, but the New York Aquarium is one of the oldest and most storied in the country. Though only its present location since 1957 ("Only"... as if that alone didn't make it much older than many other aquariums), the facility itself dates back to 1896, when it was located in Battery Park. Over that history, it has paved the way for other aquariums to follow in its footsteps. The Aquarium formed a single entity with the Bronx Zoo long before the city's other small zoos joined them under the Wildlife Conservation Society umbrella.
It also doesn't hurt that it's just a real nice aquarium, as well.
Part of the appeal of this facility to me was also how different it is from most aquariums. It's not just one big building - it's actually several buildings, spread across a 14 acre campus. This gives a more pleasant, park-like vibe than one sees at many aquariums. It also makes the facility less claustrophic and allows you to not be trapped with a single screaming school group for the entire course of your visit.
Speaking of claustrophobia, one of the most remarkable sights in the Aquarium for a zoo enthusiast is located right outside the front gate - the original bathysphere, used by WCS Curator and scientist-explorer William Beebe.
Most visitors enter through the Conservation Hall, what I would think of as the main aquarium building. The signature exhibit here is Glover's Reef, a depiction of a reef off the coast of Belize. Many aquariums have tropical reefs, but this was tailored to a specific habitat, reflecting WCS's long-standing commitment to highlighting specific habitats that it works with in the field, where the Society maintains a research station. It's a pleasant, long, well-lit gallery, home to an assortment of attractive species, from colorful parrotfish and butterflyfish to schooling yellowtail snapper to lurking green morays. The signage does a good job of emphasizing the conservation work of the organization and the need to protect coral reef habitats.
The rest of the building is dedicated to smaller tanks highlighting other ecosystems around the world, both marine (including the coral labs which seem ubiquitous in aquariums these days) and freshwater. The latter, for instance, is depicted in part with a gorgeous display of African cichlids, explaining how the unique fish of Africa's Great Lakes have been threatened by invasive species. As with many aquariums, there is also a strong Amazon focus here, with piranhas, pacus, tetra, and catfish. The most modest exhibits, which I actually found the most interesting, were the tiny, plain tanks of little Madagascar freshwater fish - rainbowfish and killifish. These tanks were set up not as immersive displays showing a habitat, but to show how aquariums work to propagate endangered fish under human care in almost lab-like settings. It's the sort of display that would have been behind-the-scenes in the past, not is now being shown front and center more.
Outside, in the central area of the aquarium, are the outdoor habitats for marine mammals and penguins. Formerly known as Sea Cliffs - the habitats are a panorama of rocky exhibits fronted with pools - the area has since been restyled as Sea Change, highlighting how human-caused changes to the oceans are impacting some of the most charismatic animals in the seas. Habitats feature California sea lions (the one species seen as each WCS facility), harbor seals, sea otters, and African penguins. Animals can be seen from the surface or through an underwater gallery, where a few more small aquarium tanks can also be seen. Signage was surprisingly bold and frank about the need to address climate change if we're to save species - looking at it, I couldn't help but wonder if the Aquarium might find itself under attack from certain political factions for its message.
Tomorrow, we'll look into the rest of the campus, including the newest and, in the eyes of many, most spectacular exhibit.
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