Newport Aquarium is proud to announce the opening of its latest exhibit, Hatchling Harbor, on March 3rd. This brand-new exhibit features a bustling 25-foot-long habitat filled with hundreds of colorful and curious animals. The immersive exhibit is set in a bustling corner of the Caribbean between the shore and the reef, where young fish find food, shelter, and safety among the flowing seagrasses and waving sea fans.
Hatchling Harbor is home to an array of baby animals growing and changing every day. Visitors can watch a school of Parrotfish crunch on corals and help make sand while adorable Puffers flutter around. Lobsters and Crabs climb the barnacle-covered pilings of the pier in search of their next meal. Visitors can also meet strange new friends like the long, slender Needlefish and the Scrawled Filefish, with its intricate maze-like patterns that change color when they need camouflage.
Since the exhibit is home to so many young animals, visitors can expect a new experience every time they visit. They can watch the animals change their shape, color, and markings as they grow into adulthood and ultimately head further out to sea.
Seagrass meadows are incredibly important places, and Hatchling Harbor is a perfect example of this. The grasses provide shelter and protection for a vast density of life, and many animals lay their eggs here so their babies can benefit from the protection and ample food of the flowing grasses and rocky outcrops covered in corals. Visitors to Hatchling Harbor will find a school of young parrotfish who use their bird-like beaks to crunch on corals in search of the algae they feed on, all the while making sand. Seagrasses also capture carbon dioxide from the air 35 times faster than rainforests, making them an important tool in fighting climate change.
Rebecca Foster, Newport Aquarium’s Executive Director, said, “We work hard to make sure we’re taking guests ‘beyond the glass’ when we create a new exhibit. You can better connect with the animals if you really feel like you’re with them in the environment where they live.” The immersive environment includes a pier jutting out into the harbor encrusted with barnacles, allowing visitors to experience it just like the fish, from down below with sunlight shimmering through the water’s surface above.
The new Hatchling Harbor is set to open on March 3rd. Newport Aquarium has also launched three new Annual Membership tiers, allowing guests to visit as often as they like to track the progress of the growing and changing Hatchling Harbor residents. Check out NewportAquarium.com for more information on the new exhibit and a limited-time offer allowing two free additional months on Gold or Platinum Annual Memberships.