New York Aquarium New York Aquarium News

The older female walrus, in her 30s, died sometime in 2016 I believe before they moved the younger female to Washington to hopefully breed. When they moved Mitik, they said they planned to bring him back, but the population has not seen much growth, so may be difficult to do. I think the current thinking is that walrus may breed better in captivity in larger groups.

 

I noticed too that they never announced the walruses leaving the aquarium, however on renderings of the renovation to Sea Cliffs (which I have no idea when that will begin) they show walruses; so hopefully at some time they will return. The sea lions are now where the walruses once were and a flock of brown pelicans are in the old sea lion exhibit.

 

The grand opening page is no longer up at the website, so the the Grand Opening might no longer be on June 30.

 

Per the website and the NY Times the June 30 opening is now official: How Do You Move a Shark? Very Carefully

 

Article and on camera interview today confirming opening on June 30: The sharks are coming! (to the New York Aquarium)

 

What species?

 

Long AP story on the opening, picked up by the San Francisco Chronicle: Sandy-ravaged aquarium opens splashy new shark exhibit

 

A New York Times article on the new exhibit, opening in a few days: Coney Island’s Newest Wonder: Sharks!

 

Here's a YouTube video I found regarding the exhibit.

 

The exhibit is awesome. Highly recommended.

You can ask me about the exhibit, I've already been there.

 

Just realized I never posted this but I visited as well last month, and really enjoyed the new exhibit. I was also expecting it to be a bit bigger, but I'm certainly not complaining with what we got. It's a fantastic addition and it expertly combines animal displays with the WCS conservation message. The aquarium seems to have already begun work on the next new area and I look forward to seeing how it all turns out.

~Thylo

 

The aquarium has added 3.2 very large Atlantic Sturgeon to its collection. I believe they are in the main shark tank but am not 100% positive.

~Thylo

 

I actually believe they're in that reef area with the cownose rays.

 

Hi Thylo, these are western Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus) I assume? The subspecies should be oxyrinchus - the one ranging from Hudson river down to Florida. The Gulf region has the other subspecies desotoi.

The eastern Atlantic sturgeon Acipenser sturio) is the one resident in Europe's major western river systems and at the moment only is still extant in its natural state in the Garonne river on the mid Atlantic French coastline with an area of only 10km2. A major captive-breeding facility exists in France and several European fisheries' institutes have now satellite programs. A trial re-introduction program is running in the Dutch rivers Rijn, Schelde and Maas with the hope that the trial program will in a few years produce sufficient stock for a full-on re-introduction program.

 

You should be correct on your identification, yes.

~Thylo

 

The aquarium welcomed some new penguins.

4 penguin youngsters join New York Aquarium

 

So it appears Spineless Wonders is ready to open (the old Alien Stingers exhibit). I had heard nothing about this other then it would open in the near future and nothing is on the WCS website, but on PBS they are inside discussing the exhibit. The exhibit has Pacific octopus, cuttlefish, nautilus, and several crab and jellyfish species. The video below focuses on the octopus, but hopefully more news will come out soon about the new exhibit.

Octopus: Making Contact | Full Episode | Nature | PBS

Nature on PBS on Twitter

 

That second link says that the aquarium will be announcing an opening date in the coming months.

~Thylo

 

With the devastation of Sandy and the huge expense of the shark exhibit, I'm surprised, but delighted, that new additions keep rolling out. And the Playcuarium is yet to come! Bravo to NYA for not only getting past terrible circumstances, but thriving.

 

Makes me scared what's going to happen in the future. Out of all the WCS locations, the aquarium is the most limited in size. With the loss of walruses, I worry that the aquarium may go on a London Zoo-esque downward spiral.