Museum Review: The Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk

Do you know what happens when you dissect a moon jelly? You probably can imagine. It is a shapeless blob of goop.

Even with a printed guide to the different parts of the jellyfish, it was still difficult to differentiate between each part during dissection.

When I touched a live moon jelly in action just a few days ago, I was surprised at how firm and defined it was. It was nothing like the dead specimen I dissected in class. The little goopy jellies could apply much more pressure to my hand than I imagined. Touching jellyfish was my favorite part of the visit I made to The Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk, Connecticut, with my family last week.

I think the photos from the jellyfish room turned out well too!

The moon jelly column

My family and I took the Metro North up to Connecticut and we purchased both our train tickets and the aquarium admission at the station. By buying the tickets at the station we got a package deal to see an IMAX movie at the aquarium.

We had no idea about the movie deal so we ended up going to the movie Born to Be Wild unexpectedly. The movie was about rescuing orphaned elephants and orangutans. It was sweet and had great videography. The screen at the movie theatre was huge - it was six stories tall and as wide as two school buses parked end to end.

The aquarium itself was well organized and bigger than I thought it would be. It is family-friendly and most of the visitors I saw on Friday were there with their families. On the second floor there is even a playroom just for toddlers. There were a few hands-on exhibits where visitors were invited to touch jellyfish and stingrays. Stingrays are so soft, I never would have guessed!

The aquarium doesn't only have displays on sea creatures. We visited exhibits on reptiles, amphibians, and meerkats, too.

Weedy Sea Dragon

The gift shop had a large variety of products, including some cute t-shirts and mugs, but, like most gift shops it was expensive.

I liked how this aquarium had tanks of fish found living in the Long Island Sound, which is near the aquarium. Having local marine life on exhibit made wildlife seem closer to home rather than exotic and distant.

Local marine life

The best parts of this aquarium were the ones with living animals in them. The exhibits with just plaques were not as engaging and there could have been fewer of those.

I had a great time visiting The Maritime Aquarium  and I would suggest it to anyone interested in a fun marine-themed outing.