Национальный аквариум в Балтиморе: Исследования, спасение и экология.

Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland, USA
the aquarium in Baltimore
In 2003, the National Aquarium and the much older and independent National Aquarium in Washington, D. C., formed an alliance to operate as a single National Aquarium with two sites. The aquarium opened to the public on August 8, 1981, after three years of construction, and one year after the booming "festival marketplace" of the two Harborplace shopping pavilions further west conceived by nationally famous, local developer James Rouse. The National Aquarium, Baltimore's initial conceptual design, architecture and exhibit design was led by Peter Chermayeff of Peter Chermayeff LLC while he was at Cambridge Seven Associates. The conceptual, architectural, and exhibit design for the Glass Pavilion expansion was led by Bobby C. Poole while at Chermayeff, Sollogub & Poole. The aquarium conducts conservation efforts through events to clean up the Chesapeake Bay Wetlands, and the aquarium's Marine Animal Rescue Program (MARP), which rescues, rehabilitates, and releases marine mammals. MARP has successfully rescued, treated, and returned seals, dolphins, porpoises, pilot whales, pygmy sperm whales, sea turtles, and a manatee to their natural habitats. The National Aquarium Conservation Center (est. 2009) leads the aquarium's research efforts in resolving critical issues currently impacting coastal ecosystems and watersheds, ocean health, ecological aquaculture, and informs issues of environmental policy and advocacy through conservation research focused on aquatic ecosystems. Some of the center's projects include "The Chesapeake Bay Initiative", tracking mercury levels through the food chain in wild and captive bottlenose dolphins, and assessing chronic natural resource damages from the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. and was recognized by the Baltimore Business Journal and Smart CEO Magazine for exceptional green business practices in 2009. A 4.3 MW solar farm in Cambridge supplies about 40% of the power for the National Aquarium, and saves about 1,300 metric tons of carbon dioxide during the summer. Energy efficiency upgrades in 2015 saved an additional 3,200 tons of CO2 over the summer. In October 2020, the National Aquarium announced its acquisition of another green sea turtle, Kai, who had suffered injuries in a collision with a boat that left her unable to dive for food. Kai had been rescued in 2018 and treated at the South Carolina Aquarium, from which she was later transferred to the Animal Care and Rescue Center at the National Aquarium for long term physical rehabilitation.

This level features animals that are native to Maryland. The four exhibits create the illusion that the viewer is traveling down a Maryland stream from its source in the Allegheny Mountains, to a tidal marsh, to a coastal beach, and finally ending at the Atlantic shelf. Featured animals include wood turtle, American bullfrog, and rosyside dace in the Allegheny Stream, diamondback terrapin, striped blenny, and sheepshead minnow in the Tidal Marsh, striped burrfish and lookdown in the Coastal Beach, and clearnose skate and summer flounder in the Atlantic Shelf exhibit.

This level features fish that possess adaptations that are needed to survive in their various environments. For example, the electric eel has the rare ability to shock its prey with electricity and the peacock mantis shrimp uses its strong claws to punch its predators. Featured animals include electric eel, lined seahorse, longnose gar, peacock mantis shrimp and Spotfin butterflyfish. Living Seashore is a exhibit on the atlantic seashore featuring two touchpools and a variety of hands on experiences, giving guests the opportunity to explore the ever changing Mid Atlantic shoreline. Animals guests can interact with include little skate, Atlantic stingray, Atlantic horseshoe crab, knobbed whelk, and moon jelly.

This level displays several aquatic habitats, including a sea cliffs exhibit, which houses seabirds like Atlantic puffins and black guillemots; a Pacific coral reef exhibit housing Bangaii cardinalfish, percula clownfish and yellow tangs; a kelp forest exhibit with garibaldis, horn shark and several types of starfish; and an Amazon River forest exhibit, in which animals can be seen down in the water and up in the overlying foliage. The exhibit replaced a former touch tank and children’s zone known as Children’s Cove which housed several species of invertebrates from the Pacific Ocean. Animals housed in the Amazon River Forest include reptiles like Arrau turtles, emerald tree boas, smooth fronted caimans, amphibians such as the giant waxy monkey frog and several types of fish like the blue discus, silver arowana and white blotched river stingray.

Originally Known as The Open Ocean, this large, , ring shaped exhibit originally called open ocean replicates the deeper portions of the Atlantic coral reef, and is filled with larger reef animals such as roughtail stingray, sandbar shark, sand tiger shark, nurse shark, crevalle jack and largetooth sawfish. This exhibit formerly held lemon shark, tiger shark, and several species of gamefish and rays.

This smaller building, opened in December 1990, features the marine mammal exhibit, which is home to Atlantic bottlenose dolphins in a facility. In June 2016, the National Aquarium announced plans to construct a sanctuary in Florida or the Caribbean for its colony of bottlenose dolphins. The new sanctuary would be roughly between 50 and 100 times the size of the current dolphin exhibit. "The sanctuary would be the first of its kind in North America and will provide the dolphins with a protected, seaside habitat, creating a new option for how dolphins can thrive in human care,” according to the Aquarium's website. As of late 2023, the Aquarium had narrowed down potential locations for the sanctuary to either the U. S. Virgin Islands or Puerto Rico, and planned to relocate the dolphins there by 2026.

The National Aquarium in Washington, D. C., was a separate aquarium housed in the lower level of the United States Department of Commerce Building, renamed the Herbert C. Hoover Building in 1981. Founded in 1873, it originally was distinct from the later National Aquarium in Baltimore, opened 108 years later and 40 mile (64 km) to the northeast of Washington. On September 4, 2003, the National Aquarium Society and the Board of Governors for the National Aquarium in Baltimore announced an alliance, in which the National Aquarium in Baltimore would operate the Washington, D. C., aquarium as well. The two aquariums became a single organizational entity known as the National Aquarium with two venues. A signing ceremony formally recognizing the alliance hosted by United States Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans took place at the Herbert C. Hoover Building. However, after only ten years of joint operations, the National Aquarium in Washington permananently closed its doors on September 30, 2013, after 128 years in operation – the first time it had closed since its opening in 1885 – to make room for physical renovations of Herbert C. Hoover Building. Approximately 1,700 animals from the Washington location's collection were moved north to the National Aquarium in Baltimore.

The National Aquarium is a public, nonprofit aquarium. The aquarium building and the land upon which it is built are owned by the City of Baltimore, but the aquarium is managed by the non profit National Aquarium, Inc. which consists of a volunteer 25 member Board of Governors and larger Advisory Board, plus a full time paid staff. The National Aquarium is run by CEO John Racanelli, who came into the position on June 20, 2011. Under the terms of its management agreement with the City, the non profit corporation strives to remain self supporting for operations. Details regarding funding, staffing, and programming are made available to the public within each year's annual report downloadable on the National Aquarium Institute's website.

In 2012, the National Aquarium was named one of the best aquariums in the United States by the Travel Channel and also received the popular vote as one of the top five best aquariums to visit by the website 10best. com. Coastal Living magazine named the National Aquarium the #1 aquarium in the United States in 2009. In November 2006, the National Aquarium won a Best of Baltimore award from the Baltimore City Paper as the "Best Over Priced Destination for Families." In September 2011, the City Paper Reader's Poll awarded the National Aquarium with the title of "Best Attraction" and the "Best Place to Take Kids".