During your visit to this Norwalk, Connecticut attraction, the Aquarium’s galleries will take you on a journey through the Sound, from its edge at the shallow salt marsh to deeper and deeper waters. The Maritime Aquarium also offers dining at Cascade Café and shopping in the Gift Shop.
Rizi Family Promenade
Orient yourself with the Long Island Sound as you stroll along the Rizi Family Promenade. Panels along the promenade examine some of the estuary’s special aspects and explore the impact you have in the health of this important body of water.
Newman’s Owen Hall
Newman’s Owen Hall features an interactive visitor introduction to the Long Island Sound including a 36-by-12 foot map of the Sound, an image that will challenge you with interactive quizzes about the Sound’s marine animals and habitats and videos that feature the Sound’s history. A unique indoor/outdoor exhibit in Newman’s Owen Hall will allow you to spend time with the Maritime Aquarium’s seals.
Aquarium Galleries
The Sound & Beyond
At the center of The Sound and Beyond journey is the Sharks and Rays Gallery, allowing you to stroke the backs of nurse sharks and a variety of rays as well as see baby sharks, touch shark teeth, pose in a dive cage and discover fascinating facts about sharks. Explore humans’ important cultural connections to fish in Go Fish! The Marine Care and Culture Lab lets you witness some of the aquarium operations that were formerly behind-the-scenes including the jellyfish and seahorse “nurseries” where the Aquarium’s year-round supply of these animals are raised. You can see six sibling meerkats in the Meerkats exhibit, offering a window into their underground burrows. Africa: From Desert to the Sea features amazing fish from the Nile River, Red Sea and lakes of Africa’s Great Rift Valley. Additionally, The Sound & Beyond features a frog exhibit with dozens of species of frogs, toads and other amphibians from around the world.
Hokin Family Sound Voyage Galleries
Crossing over a bridge you will enter a shallow salt marsh in the Hokin Family Sound Voyage Galleries and proceed through 20 marine environments to the deep ocean waters of the Sound and the ocean beyond. Each exhibit within the Hokin Family Sound Voyage Galleries offers a realistic look at each successive level of various habitats found in the Sound.
Rivers to the Sound
Leave the salt marsh and enter a river-woodlands habitat. Displays in the gallery explore the Long Island Sound watershed, encompassing all the rivers and streams that empty into the Sound. Displays explore the salmon and sturgeon that migrate as adults from the salty ocean up freshwater rivers to spawn as well as reptiles that live in watershed and woodland habitats including snakes and turtles.
Depths of the Sound
As you venture deeper into the Aquarium, you will enter the Depths of the Sound. From the pouts, sculpin and lobsters that live at “The Muddy Bottom” to the cod, wolfish and sea ravens in “A Ship Wreck,” exhibits within the gallery showcase different habitats on Long Island Sound’s floor and their inhabitants.
The Ocean Beyond the Sound
See a visual interpretation of the location where the Long Island Sound meets the Atlantic Ocean. The Ocean Beyond the Sound features a 110,000-gallon habitat home to sand tiger sharks, a lemon shark, red drum, black drum, sea bass and other larger schooling fish.
Jellyfish Encounter
Uncover the mysteries of the most mesmerizing and unusual creature in the sea in Jellyfish Encounter. While jellyfish have no brain, heart, blood, lungs or gills, they have existed for millions of years.
Sea Turtles
Meet the two green sea turtles who live in a 10,000-gallon tank. Displays that surround the tank explore the endangered sea turtle species, as well as turtle migration and conservation.
Dining at Cascade Café
Enjoy a snack or lunch at Maritime Aquarium’s Cascade Café. Cascade Café’s menu features sandwiches, salads, burgers, clam chowder, chicken fingers, hot dogs, pizza, pretzels, cookies, yoghurt and fresh fruit. Beverages including soda, juice, milk, bottled water and fresh coffee are also available.
Shopping in the Gift Shop
Be sure to stop by Maritime Aquarium’s Gift Shop. Apparel and accessories like jewelry and logoed t-shirts, toys including plush animals and games, a selection of books and elegant home décor are just some of the items the Gift Shop carries.
- The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk is ADA compliant. Wheelchairs are available for use.
- Seal shows take place in Newman’s Owen Hall at 11:45, 13:45 and 15:45 daily and offer a great opportunity to ask any questions you may have about the seals at the Maritime Aquarium.