August 22, 2005
The Norman expansion | Blue Hill's Marine Environmental Research Institute gets a little bigger, and a lumpfish finds a new home
By Joseph Thompson
On the coast of Blue Hill Bay, Norman has discovered the proverbial good life. He eats his daily fill of squid and skeletal shrimp, everybody loves him and, unlike his European brethren, Norman will never know the horror of being dried and eaten as a delicacy in Iceland.
But even for Norman, the year-old lumpfish at the Marine Environmental Research Institute Center's Ocean Aquarium Room, there is trouble in paradise. When he fell off the mooring line a MERI field team pulled up last September off the western coast of Long Island in Blue Hill Bay, Norman measured about one inch long. He was so small that researchers took him to his new home in a water bottle. Since then, however, Norman has outgrown the touch tank he calls home.
Norman is just one reason the MERI Center broke ground during the last week of July, beginning an expansion effort scheduled for completion in spring of 2006. The $312,000 project represents the first expansion for the center, which was founded in 2001 as the public face of MERI's research operation. "We've had this small version of an aquarium for these four years, and over this period of time it's become more and more obvious that we need to enlarge it because it's so popular," said Dr. Susan Shaw, MERI's founder and executive director.
During the summer, the aquarium room draws an average of 300 kids a week; while the number drops to 50 a week during the school year, the room can only accommodate 10 to 12 children at a time. "We really need to have 20 or 30 children in there at a time," said Shaw, "which the new space will allow us to do."
Being able to accommodate more students is an essential part of the MERI mission, which focuses on public outreach and education. "By [expanding] we're able to better fulfill our goal of environmental stewardship through education," said Greg Williams, MERI's outreach coordinator.
Monterey, Calif.-based Tenji Inc., the designer of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, created the designs for MERI's expansion. In the proposal, aesthetics, education and usability played important roles in conceptualizing the new space. The expansion will more than double the current size of the aquarium room, from 240 feet to 570 feet, transforming it into the MERI Center's Ocean Aquarium. The additional space means MERI will have room for several new exhibits, including an expanded touch tank for Norman, a predator touch tank with small sharks and skates, a wharf piling display tank and a mounted seal skeleton.
The new floor, an easily overlooked detail, will be a sand-colored Terra-lite "tub," which can handle constant water spillage while looking like a large sand beach. In addition, the wiring in the Ocean Room will be upgraded, and a new $10,000 life support system for the fish capable of handling the large amount of pollutants touch tanks collect from visitors' hands will be installed.
The total expansion will cost MERI $312,000. Of this, $62,000 will be covered by a federal Community Development Block Grant, which MERI secured with the assistance of Congressman Michael Michaud. The remaining $250,000 will come from MERI's $1.75 million capital campaign. The institute has already raised $1.5 million; raising the funds for the aquarium will complete the campaign.
The aquarium effect
Unlike most aquariums, MERI's Ocean Room is not housed in a big city in an ultra-modern building designed specifically as an aquarium. Rather, the center occupies a mid-19th century, historic building on Main Street in Blue Hill. The concept of the MERI Center was developed a decade after Shaw, a toxicologist, founded MERI to monitor the levels of persistent pollutants in marine animals, like dioxins and PCBs in seals, and to get that information out to the public. The institute occupied a storefront in Brooklin prior to 2001, but as MERI grew, and its public outreach expanded, it became more important to be visible in the community. "Blue Hill is the service center area for the area," said Williams. "We really wanted to have a presence in the community."
As groups of students come to MERI from area schools and the YMCA, Shaw sees the aquarium bringing children closer to one of the most valuable resources in the state. "The Ocean Room is just like a magnet to children," said Shaw. "They come in and they immediately are connected with the ocean. They begin to understand the ocean and become curious about it."
According to Jim Schatz, first selectman for Blue Hill, the Ocean Room often provides area kids with their first exposure to marine science. "This is very important because it can motivate young people to provide information to their parents, to become more sensitive and supportive of environmental concerns," said Schatz. "And, it also motivates them to take on curriculum and do reading in the area that might get them into the field in the future."
There is also the tourism effect. "It's an enlightening event [MERI] provides for a broad population," said Schatz, adding that the aquarium offers an experience unique in Maine. While many historic coastal towns offer fine dining and breathtaking views, not many offer a chance to look a little deeper at what provides that succulent lobster and awe-inspiring scenery. "Here is a place where learning can take place," Schatz said. "Where [tourists] can find out about the environment around here and see it from a different perspective rather than just for its obvious beauty."
Beyond tourism and education, Schatz identified something less tangible the institute brings to Blue Hill. As a mostly recreational bay, it often gets bypassed by the state, or researchers doing studies on local environments. Things the state may have missed, like rising levels of E. coli or decreasing oxygen counts in the area watershed, have helped to identify potential health risks to people in the local swimming areas, and risks to fish survival in the local rivers.
"It's important to realize that we have these toxicology studies," said Shaw. "Our mission is to protect the marine environment and human health through research and education."
But even for Norman, the year-old lumpfish at the Marine Environmental Research Institute Center's Ocean Aquarium Room, there is trouble in paradise. When he fell off the mooring line a MERI field team pulled up last September off the western coast of Long Island in Blue Hill Bay, Norman measured about one inch long. He was so small that researchers took him to his new home in a water bottle. Since then, however, Norman has outgrown the touch tank he calls home.
Norman is just one reason the MERI Center broke ground during the last week of July, beginning an expansion effort scheduled for completion in spring of 2006. The $312,000 project represents the first expansion for the center, which was founded in 2001 as the public face of MERI's research operation. "We've had this small version of an aquarium for these four years, and over this period of time it's become more and more obvious that we need to enlarge it because it's so popular," said Dr. Susan Shaw, MERI's founder and executive director.
During the summer, the aquarium room draws an average of 300 kids a week; while the number drops to 50 a week during the school year, the room can only accommodate 10 to 12 children at a time. "We really need to have 20 or 30 children in there at a time," said Shaw, "which the new space will allow us to do."
Being able to accommodate more students is an essential part of the MERI mission, which focuses on public outreach and education. "By [expanding] we're able to better fulfill our goal of environmental stewardship through education," said Greg Williams, MERI's outreach coordinator.
Monterey, Calif.-based Tenji Inc., the designer of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, created the designs for MERI's expansion. In the proposal, aesthetics, education and usability played important roles in conceptualizing the new space. The expansion will more than double the current size of the aquarium room, from 240 feet to 570 feet, transforming it into the MERI Center's Ocean Aquarium. The additional space means MERI will have room for several new exhibits, including an expanded touch tank for Norman, a predator touch tank with small sharks and skates, a wharf piling display tank and a mounted seal skeleton.
The new floor, an easily overlooked detail, will be a sand-colored Terra-lite "tub," which can handle constant water spillage while looking like a large sand beach. In addition, the wiring in the Ocean Room will be upgraded, and a new $10,000 life support system for the fish capable of handling the large amount of pollutants touch tanks collect from visitors' hands will be installed.
The total expansion will cost MERI $312,000. Of this, $62,000 will be covered by a federal Community Development Block Grant, which MERI secured with the assistance of Congressman Michael Michaud. The remaining $250,000 will come from MERI's $1.75 million capital campaign. The institute has already raised $1.5 million; raising the funds for the aquarium will complete the campaign.
The aquarium effect
Unlike most aquariums, MERI's Ocean Room is not housed in a big city in an ultra-modern building designed specifically as an aquarium. Rather, the center occupies a mid-19th century, historic building on Main Street in Blue Hill. The concept of the MERI Center was developed a decade after Shaw, a toxicologist, founded MERI to monitor the levels of persistent pollutants in marine animals, like dioxins and PCBs in seals, and to get that information out to the public. The institute occupied a storefront in Brooklin prior to 2001, but as MERI grew, and its public outreach expanded, it became more important to be visible in the community. "Blue Hill is the service center area for the area," said Williams. "We really wanted to have a presence in the community."
As groups of students come to MERI from area schools and the YMCA, Shaw sees the aquarium bringing children closer to one of the most valuable resources in the state. "The Ocean Room is just like a magnet to children," said Shaw. "They come in and they immediately are connected with the ocean. They begin to understand the ocean and become curious about it."
According to Jim Schatz, first selectman for Blue Hill, the Ocean Room often provides area kids with their first exposure to marine science. "This is very important because it can motivate young people to provide information to their parents, to become more sensitive and supportive of environmental concerns," said Schatz. "And, it also motivates them to take on curriculum and do reading in the area that might get them into the field in the future."
There is also the tourism effect. "It's an enlightening event [MERI] provides for a broad population," said Schatz, adding that the aquarium offers an experience unique in Maine. While many historic coastal towns offer fine dining and breathtaking views, not many offer a chance to look a little deeper at what provides that succulent lobster and awe-inspiring scenery. "Here is a place where learning can take place," Schatz said. "Where [tourists] can find out about the environment around here and see it from a different perspective rather than just for its obvious beauty."
Beyond tourism and education, Schatz identified something less tangible the institute brings to Blue Hill. As a mostly recreational bay, it often gets bypassed by the state, or researchers doing studies on local environments. Things the state may have missed, like rising levels of E. coli or decreasing oxygen counts in the area watershed, have helped to identify potential health risks to people in the local swimming areas, and risks to fish survival in the local rivers.
"It's important to realize that we have these toxicology studies," said Shaw. "Our mission is to protect the marine environment and human health through research and education."
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