New York Aquarium New York Aquarium News

They sent out their last female for breeding not because they didn't want them anymore. And if we're being honest, they never really had the enclosure size Walruses deserve.

The aquarium has been and continues to work on developing new exhibits to better it's facilities and it's collection. They're also firmly committed to the collection of rare and endangered species already present and continuing to come in. Their situation is pretty much the opposite of what's happened/happening to London. It's not the spacial limitations of the zoo that's doomed them, it's the management.

~Thylo

 

That's what I feared as well. I remembering going to the aquarium on NY Eve four years ago. The Aquarium was not open at night, but between 12 and 5, it was just dead. Sharks was being built, there were no shows, the last walrus had left, and there very seedy-looking displays that looked misfit toys ruined by Sandy. But then! Boom! Sharks! opens to spectacular reviews, and that wasn't even the end. The boom has continued with flurry of new animals, a new exhibit, and one in the works. I no longer think that not holding walrus is a sign of decline, rather an AZA decision to get a group of breeding candidates in one location where having a "colony" as in nature would hopefully increase reproductive success. With the Georgia Aquarium becoming bigger and better with each passing month, it's hard to.imagine them NOT yearning for walrus.

 

So I don't think any specific date has been posted yet as to when the exhibit opens, but it seems the aquarium is already allowing elementary schools to visit it: Spineless Sea (Coming in 2020) - New York Aquarium

~Thylo

 

If people can visit it, then why is it not open yet?

https://external-preview.redd.it/UE...bp&s=21032b88ac0ee2ee73a2dda37d3560ae1277cfc1

 

Well just because it's suitable to hold children's education programs doesn't mean it's ready to debut yet. For all we know not all of the animals or educational displays are present yet.

~Thylo

 

beautiful aquarium

 

what want they costruction ? walruses ? i hope yes

 

They're building an exhibit for invertebrates right now. Sadly they got rid of all their walruses and I don't think they plan on getting any back.

 

Ok thank you

 

They had to send their last animal out for breeding and I don't think there are enough animals left in the program for them to get any back. To be honest, they didn't have the best enclosure for a species their size.

~Thylo

 

I dropped in for a visit yesterday and had the place mostly to myself. The Sharks! building itself is the visual highlight of the campus, making everything else, comparatively, a bit tired. Of course, there is still construction with barriers of all kinds nearly everywhere. The 4D theatre looks like the tent structure it really is. And the new Playcuarium and Spineless Wonders exhibits will still be in their original building, which were built soon after the Aquarium moved from from Castle Clinton at Manhattan's tip in 1957. Fun facts for history buffs:. Robert Moses, longtime power broker of parks and buildings and highways, had always hated the Coney Island amusement area (which used to span 35 blocks) and as retribution for someone expressing disapproval at building the Battery Tunnel to Brooklyn, he unexpectedly declared the Castle Clinton building unsafe and banished the aquarium to its site in Coney Island, which was then a popular and heavily-used public bath house. Without any facilities in their new location, the collection had to live at the Bronx Zoo for two years. It really was a banishment; I daresay attendance was higher then than it might be now.

In any case, most of the Zoo's original buildings are still in use, and the incredible new building really makes it apparent. Coney Island history buffs, myself included, lament the vast reduction in size of the original amusement district. There were once 7 rollercoasters on Coney Island! The Keyspan field and the AAA baseball team combined with the Abe Stark skating rink has now left the west end of amusements at about 18th Street, and Aquarium is it's east-end border. It's interesting to note that the Aquarium has been increasing in area over the years, with the Ocean Wonders building pushing to the east. The western border was always 8th Street, but the quiet purchase of a boardwalk building aboht 7 years ago made an education building a presence on the boardwalk past 8th St.. I thought it would just be isolated from the rest of the aquarium, but yesterday, I noticed a whole raft of trucking containers filling the whole property, both to 8th St. and all the way to Surf Avenue. I think it's possible that this might just be paving the way for what would be a sizeable increase in space. Perhaps it would become the new parking lot and free up the current one for exhibit space.

Thisl also may be part of the Sharks exhibit that has mystified me. The Zoo showed the final move of the sharks themselves from some mystery location to thet very top of the new building by moving them quite a long distance, one by one, by forklift under the boardwalk. I can't imagine where there could be a space big enough to house the 8 or 9 sharks they moved that day. And it wasn't as if they were newly arrived--keepers were talking to and about them using the sharks' names. They clearly already had a strong relationship. Where could they have been along the boardwalk? Behind the education building?

One area under construction is the underwater viewing of Sea Cliffs, whose current residents east to west are about 30 black-footed penguins (most of which are off exhibit), 2 sea otters sharing 2 exhibits, 2 harbor seals, and then 3 sea lions. (Five more live in the performance grandstand). There was construction going on there too, thereby cancelling the sea lion show.

I learned something about the current SSP strategy for sea otters. The Zoo's two are males, Jacob and Quint are clearly not part of a breeding plan, and with their status as endangered, why their wouldn't be more breeding efforts around the country? The answer was that there are so many sea otters being rescued that current zoo facilities are needed to house animals that can not return to the wild. Apparently, despite their endangered status, there is no SSP breeding anywhere. This would be consistent with Jacob missing an eye and Georgia Aquarium's adoptions of two young sea otters from Monterey. However, it vexes me somewhat. Why can't both rescue and breeding occur in zoos? Surely many zoos could accommodate small aquatic animals and increase their numbers in human care as a backup population? I'm sure sea otters could become the new sloths in popularity and both represent their plight and breed to increase the population.

The Sharks! exhibits are really beautiful. There was even a huge loggerhead sea turtle I didn't expect who was actively stealing the show! The way that fish come toward you out of the blackness is just amazing, and then seeing them swim overtop in the tunnel exhibit really makes you feel like a silent observer plopped in the middle of their world. It just gets better with subsequent visits.

 

Does the touch tank area have any special species? I skipped it on my visit.

 

It was raining, so I didn't stop by the one by the turtles. The one on the roof of the new building offers bamboo and epaulette sharks, but assuming the roof was closed for the season, I didn't even try.

 

WCS has announced that Spineless and PlayQuarium will open this summer. There is a special member preview March 27-April 2.

 

With the renovation of these buildings into exciting new uses, plus Sharks!, plus all the Sandy renovation, it may seem as if the Aquarium is on a roll that will just keep going. The reality is that WCS can't possibly maintain this level of expenditure for just one of its parks. And even if there were money just sitting around in abundance, the fact is that the Aquarium has utilized just about every square inch of its property and really has no room for any big additions or expansions.

Unless. The Aquarium does have one modest building outside of its landlocked environs. Across 8th Street on the Boardwalk is a very plain concrete building that is labelled as the Education Building. That "foot OUT of the door," so to speak, could be very important. The City has taken ownership of nearly all of the old "entertainment district" from the Aquarium to 20th Street. Buying or giving that building to the Aquarium could mean that the City really likes the Aquarium's presence here and would not be opposed to breaking through its current boundaries. (Parks Commissioner Robert Moses moved the Aquarium to this spot because he felt all the rides and games led to a level of excitement that could burst out of control into crime.). I once thought that the education building was to be used only temporarily, until the Sandy cleanup was over. If this parcel, which goes back to Surf Avenue, remains as part of the park, this could be a means of expansion. Even if a few parcels on Surf Avenue (behind Boardwalk structures) could be obtained, the parking lot--or even a 2-story parking deck--could replace the current parking lot and free up that space. At the very least, a new front entrance could give focus to all the different buildings a visitor sees on arrival.

 

With all these exhibits the Aquarium will be pretty great. It will have a diverse collection of species and will well utilize its site. The last thing that needs to get done is reopening the underwater viewing of Sea Cliffs. After that I don't think the Aquarium needs much to any attention for a while.

The Bronx Zoo I would imagine is next in line. Central Park uses all of its sites, has consistent attendance and there is no need for anything new to keep people coming. Much of the same would go for the Queens Zoo, which would benefit from a new exhibit, but again has a solid collection and uses most of its site. Prospect Park of the small zoos could benefit most from a new addition. The former kangaroo exhibits is a large area that could easily fit a star species, which the zoo is lacking. But anything that build at Prospect Park will likely cost a minimal amount compared to projects at the Aquarium and Bronx Zoo.

 

I didn't mean to suggest that anything was needed now. I was just imagining ways they could get around being tightly-packed and landlocked in the future. I think parking may be the next real need. WCS members get free parking at Bronx and Queens but only 3 hours at the Aquarium. Yes, this is also to prevent members from using it to spend the rest of the day on the beach or on rides, but with more employees and more visitors, this limit is the only way of providing remotely enough parking for its guests.

Why did the underwater viewing close? The broad answer is probably Sandy-related damage, but it's hard to.imagine something that could have been unfixable.

 

I believe that area completely flooded and remained at least partly flooded after the storm surge resided. I'm not sure why it's taken the longest to reopen or if they plan to rework the area like they have with the other buildings, though.

~Thylo

 

The windows must be intact or the pools would be leaking, and a pump could get any floodwater out. I almost wonder if it was a code issue, like the stairs being too steep or too narrow. They could be used that way, grandfathered in, until any kind of repair, when new code requirements would have to be met, including ADA accessability. Suddenly doing all of that rebuilding could be a major project.

 

According to the NY Aquarium's website Spineless and the Playquarium are opening to the public on Friday, April 3. The week before will be a members preview which I will be visiting. There is a short video of the exhibit which of course is geared for children to explore a coral reef, kelp forest and go into a submarine to see the "deep sea". Spineless looks really nice with a popup window in the octopus exhibit, plus several jellyfish species, cuttlefish, spider crabs and other species. The graphics look very interactive (similar to Sharks!) and hopefully will be another great addition.

As for the Sea Cliffs underwater viewing it appears it will take longer to reopen; it received the worst flooding and I wonder if the delays relate to not wanting to take the very popular animals off exhibit until all the other new exhibits open. Original plans that were posted at the aquarium showed a full renovation of the indoor areas (with walrus in the pictures), but as we know plans can change.