The Aquarium is a regional and international leader in the quest to improve the health of the world's oceans.
We participate in a variety of cooperative programs, and have initiated many programs of our own to help preserve the health of our oceans. Among these are:
- MARP - The Aquarium's Marine Animal Rescue Program (MARP) rescues, rehabilitates, and releases marine mammals and turtles.
- Project Puffin - The Aquarium participates in this international project that studies the life of North Atlantic puffins.
- Shark Tagging - The Aquarium collects data about wild shark populations and shares that information with organizations world-wide.
- Shark Head Start - The Aquarium raises young sharks in controlled environments before releasing them to the ocean in an effort to return balance to the rapidly declining shark population.
The Blue Planet
We've all seen photos of the earth from space. Looking at the blue sphere, it seems almost as if the word earth, which can be defined as a land surface or a handful of soil, isn’t the appropriate word to describe the planet.
Oceans cover almost 75% of the Earth’s surface. They hide its deepest canyons and reveal its highest mountains.
Beneath ocean waters the largest animals to ever inhabit the Earth once swam – blue whales. Today, the ocean waters contain the whale shark – a fish that commonly grows between 30 and 40 feet in length and was once known to be as large as 50 feet.
Amazingly, the ocean’s largest fish survives by eating minute plankton, the smallest plants and animals on earth.
Oceans are diverse ecosystems, ranging from barren desert-like underwater plains where very little can survive to colorful kaleidoscopic ecosystems where a variety of fish and plants survive against a backdrop of living rock and carpets of anemone tentacles.
