A visit to the Natural History Museum Sea Center

I visited the Natural History Museum Sea Center on Stearn’s Wharf. While it was not my first time visiting the aquarium, it was the first time viewing it through a more critical lens that extended beyond simple interest in fish and marine life.

The first exhibit I encountered as I entered the building was the circular shark, ray, and skate tank. Three floor staff members stood behind the tank. One of them immediately greeted me, and encouraged me to reach in and touch the animals in the tank. She also asked if I wanted to hold a shark, which I enthusiastically agreed to. She was very engaging, and was eager to answer my questions about why the sharks were so docile, and what their relative interactive behavior was. The other two staff were very still and silent -- I suspect that they were most likely shadowing or training the first woman.

From there I moved on to another touch-tank populated with anemones, urchins, and sea stars, which was also attended by a staff member. She was also eager to talk about the animals at hand. We chatted about domoic acid poisoning and sea anemone behavior. I was wondering why these anemones were trying to catch my finger, essentially trying to eat me, while anemones I’ve found in tide pools will shrink away when touched. She postulated that this was learned behavior from the captive anemones, which were used to being prodded by curious fingers. I appreciated that she didn’t know the answer to the question, but was willing to venture an informed guess. It facilitated curiosity very well, and left me wondering about the psychology of stationary invertebrates as I left, which I never expected to think much about.

The Sea Center features a room in the back that features a large 6’x6’ opening, which looks down to the water below the wharf. A teen volunteer was lowering a basic basket-style crab trap down as I walked in, and a couple of small children were excitedly talking to him about what they might find. When nothing was pulled up after a few minutes, another employee explained to me that the water was still very warm and that most sea life would be in deeper, cooler water until temperatures decreased. We got to talking about diving and dive-fishing. This area was probably my favorite, as you have the potential to see and interact with actual wildlife, rather than the animals that are kept and fed inside.

Upstairs was somewhat less inspiring than the lower exhibits. There was a somewhat sad and very empty theater looping a marine wildlife informational video, and a dark hallway featuring several backlit tanks. The creatures in the tanks - jellyfish, decorator crabs, an octopus - were all interesting, but there was no staff upstairs to ask questions, and there was no other informational signage to learn more about them. Beyond the dark hallway was a walkway that overlooked the entrance space. Upkeep and attention to this area seemed to be somewhat sparse -- there was a small marine animal stuffed puppet theater and a humble and unlabeled white abalone tank, as well as a touch screen that did not work. It was rather odd, after experiencing the interactive and engaging tanks and activities downstairs, to end the visit on this rather flat note.

Overall, it was very interesting viewing the Sea Center with this different observational lens. The Sea Center staff, where they were stationed, were very engaging and informative. However, it was clear that they were assigned to keep to their stations and let guests come to them, rather than wandering around and prompting questions and curiosity. This staff behavior is probably much better suited to an aquarium rather than an interactive museum like MOXI. Similar to MOXI, the exhibits were not accompanied by extensive signage or information, which wasn’t necessary at attended exhibits, but perhaps would have been useful in spaces not facilitated by staff. The relative stationary behavior of Sea Center staff compared to sparks at MOXI is what struck me most, and it makes me wonder how the MOXI visitor experience would change if we as Sparks had a couple of exhibits to pay closer attention to and facilitate. While there are no current exhibits that require the level of facilitation as say, Blortasia did, it may make for somewhat more focused and purposeful engagement with guests, as well as development of facilitation techniques.

** Of course I forgot to take pictures of the exhibits, which is a shame, since aquariums lend themselves to photographs really nicely.