Recently I heard of a place called the New Bedford Oceanarium. According to Google Maps, the Oceanarium is really close to the Buttonwood Park Zoo, but I was not aware of an aquarium in New Bedford, so I tried to do some research to find out more about the place. Nothing substantive really came up, so I decided to make this post to document my research, and to see if anyone on here knew about the oceanarium or had anything to contribute. First, different sources appear to refer to the Oceanarium with different names, with some people calling it the “New Bedford Oceanarium Corporation,” and others calling it the “Oceanarium Explorium at New Bedford Seaport”. The two places have the same address on google maps (174 Union St, New Bedford, MA 02740), so I am assuming the facility was renamed at some point or that the names have some other connection. Google maps also says that the Explorium is now permanently closed, but that the Corporation is still open. I couldn’t find any other articles or sources corroborating any of this info regarding closures, however, so I do not know if Google Maps’ information is accurate. After more research, I eventually found this site (New Bedford Oceanarium Corporation - GuideStar Profile), which gave a profile on the Oceanarium Corporation. The profile describes it as a zoo / aquarium / marine science center. The site also gave me a link to what is apparently the Explorium’s official website (www.oceanexplorium.org), but this site seemed completely unconnected to the New Bedford Oceanarium, and only featured a blog for “interesting facts and stuff about oceans”. Perhaps the Explorium has permanently closed, and someone else bought the web domain name after. This is about as far as I got, so I wanted to ask if any Zoochatters have any information about the Ocean Explorium to supplement my research.
Never heard of it before, but according to that link it is in the design phase, and has been since around 2000 - which is not a good sign. It also seems the property for the aquarium that they identified in the link has been slated for a different development according to this website: https://www.newbedford-ma.gov/blog/...redevelopment-at-waterfront-power-plant-site/
It closed several years ago, after being unable to raise the funds to stay open. It was open less than a decade. The remaining animals were moved to Buttonwood in 2015.
