Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration

Posted October 23rd, 2007 by badtiki

One of the nation's best-loved Aquariums is also home to Dr. Robert Ballard and his team of scientists and explorers with the Institute for Exploration. A visit here will bring you in touch with both -- the world's only exhibits based Dr. Ballard's deep sea discoveries, and a world class aquarium filled with a wonderful variety of critters from the stunning Beluga Whales to California and Stellar Sea Lions, North African Penguins and more.
Visit our new hands-on exhibit, "Ray Touch Pool" and see what it is like to touch one of these mysterious, graceful, and gentle creatures.

This spring, come visit "Hidden Amazon" where you can step under the canopy of a strange and primitive world filled with creepy tarantulas, poisonous frogs, slithering snakes, facinating piranha and soaring bats. Hidden Amazon opens in spring 2005.

And don't forget to "Return to Titanic" with Dr. Robert Ballard in Challenge of the Deep. See an accurate 18-foot model of the Titanic and discover how the Titanic looks today. Visitors even have the chance to join Dr. Ballard on his return expedition to Titanic with the best of "Titanic Live!"

Enjoy "Lions of the Sea" and meet Coco, Surfer and Tabor, the stars of the Aquarium's sea lion show in its new Marine Theater. The new "Noah's Flood & Ancient Shipwrecks" exhibit shares the secrets discovered by Dr. Ballard and his team in their exploration of the Black Sea, including 2000 year old ships and the possible solution to the mystery of Noah's Flood.

The Immersion Project is a high-tech, live interactive theater experience for older kids and grown-ups that lets visitors to the Institute's Immersion Theater explore the underwater world of the Monterey and Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuaries via a live video feed from California to Mystic. Visitors in the interactive theater can drive the underwater robot right from the Theater and pan and tilt various cameras to have a 'look around'.

Kids love the Exploration Zones which will be all over the campus starting this spring and summer and include the touch and learn "Discovery Lab" -- where kids can touch and learn all about various critters.

Enjoy daily marine mammal demonstrations, a gift shop and the new Waterfront cafe and Lakeside Patio. Handicapped accessible. Fun for children.


More Info: 
Encounter ocean animals in an exciting new way. Experience Birds of the Outback, a brand new interactive exhibit for this summer only! Enter a world filled with color and movement as over 500 birds fly freely around you and join you to feast from a seed stick. Your visit to Mystic Aquarium will get you as close as possible to ocean animals as you reach in and touch a ray or take part in a special ray feeding program. Go beak to nose with an African penguin, get eye to eye with an alligator and feel the splash of a beluga whale. Come see the stars of our sea lion show in our Marine Theater. Take a ride on the XD Motion Theater. Dive into the deep with the world's only exhibits based on Dr. Robert Ballard's expeditions, such as Return to Titanic and PT109, an exhibit that follows the discovery of John F. Kennedy's PT boat. Handicapped accessible. Fun for children. From the official website: About Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration is so much more than an aquarium. It's not just a place to visit ocean life, it's a unique experience in living marine creatures and the latest discoveries of our underwater world. In addition to a beautiful aquarium setting supported by a team of highly dedicated marine animal research experts, we have assembled some of the finest talent in oceanographic and deep-sea archeological research. In fact, we're the only aquarium in the world with exhibits based on work done by Robert Ballard and his deep-ocean exploration team… fascinating discoveries you will see almost as soon as they are uncovered. Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration are divisions of Sea Research Foundation, Inc., a nonprofit institution. The Foundation's mission is to inspire people everywhere to care about and protect our oceans by exploring and sharing their biological, ecological and cultural treasures. As a nonprofit organization, donations and revenue from admissions go to the development and execution of educational programs, marine research, marine animal rescue and deep-sea expeditions.
Location: 
Mystic Marinelife Aquarium 55 Coogan Blvd Stonington, CT
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Additional Info provided by:: 

Mystic Country

Web Site: 

www.mysticaquarium.org