It’s the kind of brutally hot August day that pushes everyone inside, and the National Aquarium is buzzing.

Jenny Hamilton is perched on a bench in front of the Black Tip Reef underwater viewing area, feeling giddy at the overflowing energy and excitement. It’s almost hard to hear her, as campers and vacationers exit Shark Alley and noisily descend on the 27-foot viewing window that curves four feet around the underwater reef teeming with animals, from angelfish to whiptail rays.

That’s the easy part—attracting kids, school groups, and families to ooh and ahh over the sea creatures. But the more recent challenge for Hamilton, the Director of Community Partnership Strategy, has been to encourage adults to see the Inner Harbor’s iconic structure as theirs, too. To do that, she knew she would need to create a range of projects that would draw a diverse audience reflective of the city the Aquarium was created in.

To say Hamilton was successful oversimplifies the Aquarium’s flourishing Voyages program, which launches its sixth installment next month. The ongoing immersive series for adults encourages a connection between art and science, while simultaneously celebrating all things Baltimore. Artists are asked to explore a question around conservation and then create a one-night-only experience for attendees.

“The pandemic served as a natural inflection point for the Aquarium to reexamine its programs,” says Margot Amelia, the National Aquarium’s executive vice president. “How can we achieve our mission to connect people with nature, to inspire care and compassion of our ocean planet, if we don’t get new audiences like local adults to engage with us? To feel as though the Aquarium is for them?”

One part of that was building on the foundation of an already popular spot (they have an annual attendance of 1.5 million visitors and are the state’s largest tourism attraction) and the other was figuring out who isn’t visiting and why.

“I’ve always been interested in what motivates people’s behavior,” says Hamilton, who majored in psychology at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, VA. That included how people function within different community organizations.

After graduation, Hamilton took time off before graduate school and followed friends to Baltimore for what she assumed would be a brief stint. “Even though it’s been over 20 years, I still feel like I can’t quite call myself a Baltimorean,” she says. But she soon fell in love with the city. Before she knew it, five years had passed and, after working in hospitality, she realized her strengths lay in managing complex, large-scale operations—all of which led her to land a position on the National Aquarium’s operations team in 2006.

Hamilton, who was born two years before the Aquarium opened in 1981, worked in guest operations—managing front-of-house and coordinating disability access services. Through the latter, she developed a “deep understanding about barriers and accessibility” for the disability community, which then led her to wonder how to reach other marginalized, underserved communities.

Her role at the Aquarium soon morphed into creating community engagement strategies to draw local residents, many living only miles away. And not just adults, but kids who found the Aquarium prohibitively expensive or simply thought it wasn’t a space for them.

The Aquarium also wanted to make sure that conversations around Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) weren’t just abstract ideas. The question they asked, says Hamilton, was: “How can this be [incorporated] into everything we do and be a part of our identity?”

During Hamilton’s tenure, she started the Read to Reef program in partnership with the Enoch Pratt Free Library, offering Baltimore City kids who read five aquatic or conservation-themed books, four free tickets to the Aquarium. (They’ve given out more than 77,000 free tickets since 2015.)

“I like to think of myself as a professional cat herder. Like, how can I facilitate really equitable, large-scale collaborations so that the end result isn’t just one person, one face, one ego,” she says.

She pauses for a second as a crowd of kids shuffles into the exhibit.

“Someone recently said, ‘Oh, I heard you were the brain behind Voyages.’” She bristles at that assumption because there were so many hands that went into its development, from brainstorming to execution. “My least favorite phase is ‘build it and they will come.’ You have to listen. You have to collaborate,” she says.

“VOYAGES GAVE ME A CHANCE TO RE-ENVISION THAT THE AQUARIUM COULD BE A PLACE FOR ME.”

How Voyages came to be is the ultimate lesson in collaboration. More than 25 years ago, the National Aquarium received a generous endowment from Marjorie Lynn Bank to fund a lecture series. The talks were well-received, but the audience had waned, and they weren’t attracting anyone new to the building. Was there a potential to engage an audience in a different way, the Aquarium staff wondered.

The Aquarium leadership—including president and CEO John Racanelli—gave Hamilton and her team permission to explore more creative uses that would still fulfill the intent of the gift. That this was taking place in 2020 and 2021—with the pandemic in the headlines alongside racial reckoning and environmental justice—really helped shape the conversation But since they still weren’t sure what they were creating,

“We kept calling it the ‘Period of the New Thing,’” Hamilton says, laughing.

They gathered staff members with a wide range of expertise (operations, education, communication, science) but also those who had strong relationships with different areas in the city but had “never been given permission at work to say, ‘Can I build something for my people? What if I create a space for them?’” Hamilton explains.

Hamilton and her team also started going to coffee with different community members and leaders, eventually creating what she called her community advisory group.

“Something that makes me love this place so much is that it’s a city where people want to contribute, not just consume,” says Hamilton. “And it’s so collaborative—it has a DIY ethos to it.”

The idea that finally stuck—Voyages—seemed so simple. Produce a night—created by the richly talented artistic community in Baltimore—where adults can wander around, local beer in hand, and feel some wonder in a space that is always packed wall-to-wall with kids.

“As a woman who just turned 40 with no kids, I often view aquariums as family-friendly experiences,” says Liz Miller, a Baltimore County Public School art teacher and owner of Mural Art Tours Baltimore. “I do visit museums, but the Aquarium has always felt like a place that you take children,” she says. “Voyages gave me a chance to re-envision that the Aquarium could be a place for me as well.”

Now Miller has been to almost all the programs. “What Voyages does is connect the arts to science in new and innovative ways,” she says. “It trusts the scholarly mind of the artist to approach the topic of biology and be the connection to a broader audience. These experiences help the audience experience the Aquarium in a brand-new way.”

For each artist, it starts with a trip to the Aquarium to get the creative and intellectual juices flowing. “They get a membership so they can independently come talk to our staff and just sit and watch and think and dream and read all the information,” says Hamilton.

Then they come up with an artist’s statement and begin a deeper dive (so to speak). Hamilton explains that the artists always meet one-on-one with Jack Cover, the general curator—“they get to see the Aquarium through his eyes”—before being matched with other experts, whether locally or throughout the country. All of the work is tied in some way to the Aquarium’s mission.

Voyages: Chapter 1 launched in July 2022, when guests were invited to embark on an audio-focused tour of the Aquarium’s exhibits while listening to an original soundscape composed by local beatboxer, vocal percussionist, and breath artist Shodekeh. The audio was inspired by Shodekeh’s research exploring animal communication. To facilitate his research, Shodekeh was put in touch with the K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics at the Cornell Lab. (For each Voyages, Hamilton and Sarah Doccolo, community programs manager, do their own research to pair the artist with just the right sources.)

And while in the past someone from the Center for Conservation Bioacoustics at the Cornell Lab might have been flown in to present a lecture, now they are being used to create a bigger, more meaningful, often interactive project. The artists are interviewing them, asking questions, consolidating all the information, and then using that as inspiration to go out and produce work.

Thanks to the Bank endowment, the artists are able to create a team—for Shodekeh that meant visual artist Erica Hansen and audio engineer Eric Spangler—to install a one-of-a-kind art experience.

“Voyages proves that taking on this level of risk can make magic,” says Ashley Molese, who has been a curator and cultural producer for 15 years and is part of the community advisory group. “I’ve never seen anything like this done before. To me, it’s a love letter more than anything else. Baltimore is full of people who just want to pour more love into the city, and it feels like for two nights a year, Voyages gets as many of us together in one room to do just that.”

Each subsequent chapter has brought about the perfect marriage of visualization and representation. At Voyages: Chapter 2, experimental electronic musicians Jessica Keyes and Patrick McMinn “wanted to study all of the communities across species that need to come together to create something like the Bay,” says Hamilton.

All these things need to work together to be successful, much like creating music. They visited Horn Point Oyster Hatchery on the Eastern Shore—and “so we’re out there with these musicians, and seeing oysters spawn in front of us, and seeing these big vats, and they’re talking to the ecologists and they’re asking questions that the ecologist was like, ‘Those are really good questions,’” Hamilton recalls.

It is a mutual admiration between artist and scientist she sees with almost every collaboration. The scientists quickly realize, “Oh, these people are just as nerdy about that stuff as I am,” says Hamilton. “They’re just coming at it from a different angle, but at the end of the day, we both are just curious about why the world is how it is.”

And often the artist will ask questions that gives the scientist a whole new perspective on their own work. Hamilton has seen a researcher say, “‘I actually might need to go run a seminar on that next year and explore it.’ It’s really beautiful.”

Voyages: Chapter 4 featured drag artist Devon Vaow (also known as Evon Dior Michelle) focusing on adaptation. His conclusion: “Every organism on the planet has to adapt.” And so that night he used drag techniques to illustrate adaptations and to highlight the skill, craft, and beauty of drag.

For Vaow, the experience was much more than a one-off. During the months from inception to execution, the Aquarium staff kept checking in with him to ensure that his “comfort as an LGBTQ+ community member was met,” he says. They even hired inclusion and diversity specialist Jabari Lyles to come in and educate the National Aquarium staff “on the LGBTQ+ community, and inclusive language and verbiage.” It made him feel like they weren’t just checking boxes on a diversity initiative, but really wanted to learn from the relationship.

It was mutual. “Having artist-focused programming like this creates not only a sense of intersectionality within the Baltimore community, but also sends a strong message that art is universal in all of its forms,” says Vaow. “I’m proud to say that Chapter 4 was the fastest-selling chapter they’ve had, which shows how much support our [drag] community has in Baltimore.”

That’s verifiable—and according to a quick search on Google, so is this: “I’m the first drag queen in history to have an aquarium-sanctioned drag show,” Vaow says proudly. “In today’s political climate, furthermore, it solidifies that queer artists have a place in major institutions.”

Amelia, the National Aquarium’s executive vice president, always stations herself just inside the door as Voyages attendees arrive. She’ll do it again come November, when recording artist and performer Dan Deacon will take over.

“These are not our typical daytime guests,” she says. “I smile so hard it hurts.”

For Amelia, the thrill is seeing a new crop of adults all of a sudden feel included in a way they didn’t before—buying a $60 ticket, dressing up, and responding to a program that was a risk for the Aquarium.

“What I love is that never in a million years would I have developed a program like this,” says Amelia, recognizing that the establishment needed a fresh idea. “This ‘new thing’ gives me hope for the continued relevance for the next 43 years.”

Miller agrees. “The National Aquarium is doing something that I haven’t really seen done well by other institutions—it’s allowing the public to engage with an institution in a way that is education cloaked as entertainment. To this day, I’ll never forget that Pattiegonia, a conservationist drag queen, taught me that clownfish are trans.”

For Hamilton, seeing each Voyages chapter come to fruition and find success feels good.

“This is really, really validating,” she says. “Seventeen years of philosophies of how I think cultural organizations should be community-oriented—and it seems to be working.”

When Jennie Janssen saw a television show about sharks as a kid, her initial reaction was not fear, but fascination. The Silver Spring native dreamed of one day working with these infamously finned fish. Today she’s the assistant curator of the Blue Wonders exhibit at the National Aquarium, where she and her team oversee sharks, skates, rays, jellyfish, and more.

Throughout her career, however, she noticed the staff in her field was not as diverse as the animals. So in 2021, Janssen, who is Chinese-American, co-founded Minorities in Aquarium and Zoo Science (MIAZS) with her colleague, Meghan Holst, an octopus scientist at UC Davis. The nonprofit, which has 182 members and counting, provides access to professional networks, career resources, and scholarship opportunities.

You started your career in the South, most recently at the Georgia Aquarium. When you moved here over a decade ago, what made the National Aquarium enticing to you?
My husband and I are both from Maryland. He grew up in Baltimore, behind the old Memorial Stadium. This was our hometown aquarium. My family would go all the time. I remember standing inside Shark Alley, watching the sand tigers swim by. There was something electric, watching them—they’re so slow and right in front of your face; they gave me the willies! But they’re also beautiful and powerful. That was pivotal for me.

Throughout your education and career, mentorship played an important role for you, with certain professors inspiring you to pursue your passion. When did you realize that knowledge sharing was a strength of yours as well?
In college, I realized that there is the learning of knowledge, there is the use of knowledge, and then there’s the teaching of knowledge. There came a point where I thought, I can learn this, and I can do this, but if I don’t share it with anybody else, how much good is it doing?…My mentor at the Tennessee Aquarium was a turning point for me, the environment he created. [He would say,] “Don’t let anybody tell you that you are too young to do this work. And don’t be limited by what has been done before. Do the best that you can do….”

My family was very distraught about me having this unpaid internship, rightly so, but he wrote to them on official letterhead and told them about the work I was doing. It changed their support—and paved the way for me.

In 2021, you co-founded MIAZS. Tell me about your experience witnessing a lack of diversity in your field.
Throughout my career, the vast majority of people that I encountered were white. I love these people, they are my professional family, but there were almost no other people of color. Getting into our field is tricky in and of itself. There are all kinds of challenges. Then when none of the people mentoring you [look like you]….And on top of that, there are a variety of cultures that say this is not a career you should pursue like immigrant families, where there’s pressure to be a doctor, or engineer, or lawyer. And then there’s the socio-economic divide within this country.

As you alluded to, this can be a career of passion, which isn’t practical for everyone. How does MIAZS aim to address this?
There’s a level of access to even begin. And part of what we’re trying to do with MIAZS is demystify the process of getting into these careers. We’re trying to identify how managers are selecting candidates. What do they like to see on a résumé? What resources do they trust? What programs are out there? And then in turn, we work with aspiring professionals on their résumés and cover letters.

You’re never going to get the job without the interview, and if your résumé doesn’t get you the interview, it doesn’t matter. How do you find all of that out? By having a network. So we created one….Across the board, it’s about access. We want the information to be out there. And there’s no membership fee because we don’t want a financial barrier to be part of this community. And the community that has been created through MIAZS is incredibly humbling. Last fall, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums had its annual conference and there were so many MIAZS members there, from all over.

This year, you’re launching a new professional development scholarship that includes coaching and a capstone project. What inspired this program?
There are only a few opportunities for managerial training within our professional circles. And it’s something that’s really helpful in this career, because if you’re really good at taking care of animals, eventually you become a people manager, too. And it’s like, I have a lot of experience with sharks and rays and jellyfish, but I don’t know about primates. In terms of job training, often you are just perpetuating what came before you. So to intentionally think about: What are some tools and best practices for working with homo sapiens, and for being a good and effective leader to support your people so that they can support the animals? The managers are the ones who are hiring the next generation.

What’s a long-term goal for MIAZS?
Our dream is to start a program that connects with middle-schoolers. That’s the age where they’re dreaming about what they want to be when they grow up. We want them to know these are legitimate careers. And that there’s a variety of kinds of people who do this work, all to support that larger mission of the conservation of animal species and their habitats.

Standing in water so shallow, it looks like he’s walking on it, Jack Cover gazes just below the surface. Next to the nearby grasses, above the algae-clad deck at the soles of his rubber boots, there swims a school of young Atlantic silverside.

“Just look at that,” says Cover, the longtime general curator of the National Aquarium, noting that the tiny fish prefer ankle-deep water to avoid predators, like the Atlantic needlefish that he’s seen cruising lately, too. “It’s amazing—that’s what you see when you’re out on a real marsh. And here we are, in the Inner Harbor.”

Specifically, we’re in the Harbor Wetland, the Aquarium’s newest living exhibit, a 10,000-square-foot recreation of what would have been found along Baltimore’s shoreline hundreds of years ago. Floating between the Aquarium’s pedestrian bridges, spanning the Harbor’s Piers 3 and 4, it’s viewable to the public starting in August.

“Nature is here,” says Cover, and he wants you to see and learn about it, and maybe lower your blood pressure in the environs.

There’s the water, of course, like everywhere else in the harbor, but here it moves around grasses and sapling trees rather than abutting concrete. The low-lying plants grow from a recycled plastic base attached to pontoons, while air handlers move water to mimic tidal flow. Oyster reefs have been added, too.

It’s nature meets engineering, created to educate kids and other visitors, promote healthy water, and bring back native species—and it’s already working. When the vegetation was planted in mid-May, animals like crabs, eel, dragonflies, turtles, and more swam on in like they did in pre-industrial marsh.

“On day one, a mallard duck nested,” says Charmaine Dahlenburg, the Aquarium’s director of field conservation. “And the biggest shock of our life, two weeks in, were the sea otters.”

People won’t be allowed in the Harbor Wetland, to be clear, at least unsupervised. But the associated new dock overlooking it is open (and free) during the Aquarium’s business hours.

After four prototypes, it’s the first exhibit of its kind and size in the U.S. And it’s a marvel of aquatic design—the Aquarium has patents pending for the buoyancy technology.

“We hope to set the example of what you can do with a waterfront city, rather than just sweat on concrete, or watch trash float by,” says Cover.

The project is also a culmination of his life’s work. Originally from Hampden, the 67-year-old first found pleasure in nature as a kid during family vacations to Kent Island, eventually joining the Aquarium staff in 1987.

“I can’t tell you how excited and joyful I am walking through here,” he says. “I spent my youth going up little channels like this. They’re full of life.”

In Baltimore, we always say, “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.” But inside the National Aquarium’s Upland Tropical Rain Forest, which remains a balmy 80-ish degrees along the edge of the Inner Harbor all year long, that’s kind of the point.

On a February morning, assistant curator Debra Dial walks through the newly renovated exhibition, motioning to two-toed sloths and multi-colored birds in flight. The fifth-floor space, enlivened by the sounds of rushing water and chock full of vegetation, is an urbanite’s oasis. Recreating one of the planet’s most biodiverse ecosystems, it features dozens of species of exotic plants and animals.

“It’s our own moment of Zen,” says Dial, pictured left, above. The 6,000-square-foot space, which reopened last November after being closed eight months for renovations, was $8 million and four years in the making.

First and foremost, this included the replacement of its iconic glass pyramid rooftop featuring 600-plus windowpanes, which has served as both the exhibit’s ceiling and a famous symbol of the city’s skyline since first opening to the public in 1981.

After more than 40 years of wear and tear, “The time had come,” says curator Ken Howell, who also oversees the aquarium’s Australia: Wild Extremes exhibit with Dial.

Outside, the pyramid’s glass received new energy-efficient windows, which provide more adequate light to the wildlife while also protecting migratory birds from collision as they pass by—an issue for high-rise buildings in urban settings. Inside, plumbing, ventilation, and flooring repairs and replacements took place, while the tortoise habitat received a facelift, and an upper-level walkway was added to the animal enclosures.

It was an ambitious project. Perhaps the biggest task of all, though, was that during renovations, most of the exhibit’s wildlife—many of which had not left the exhibit in decades—had to be temporarily relocated, some moving to the aquarium’s off-site Animal Care and Rescue Center. And then they had to be reintroduced to the space.

“Sometimes people think that you can move animals out and then just put them back directly,” says Dial. Instead, the animals need to be reacclimated. “We staged introductions back into the forest—I think it took a solid month of thinking about who would be best in the environment first, second, third, and fourth. It was all very calculated.”

Still, the process was rewarding for the two curators, who say they have enjoyed watching the animals get comfortable in recent months. Dial says two birds—a yellow-rumped cacique and turquoise tanager—have welcomed offspring since returning home to the exhibit. And already, Howell is pleased to see the plants—cacao, vanilla orchids, bananas—respond well to the new windows. Sloths continue to be a main draw, they both agree, with the revamped rainforest holding many wonders for both the curators and visitors alike.

“It doesn’t happen every day, but when a sloth is moving,” says Howell, pictured right, above. “it’s just an amazing moment—one of those things that transfixes people.”

But there is certainly a lot to transfix—if you just know where to look.

“I love telling people who come through to stop—if you listen and look, there’s activity everywhere,” adds Dial. “All of the small tanagers are picking up nesting material and any insects they can find off of the leaves…They’re doing all the things that they would naturally be doing [out in nature], and it’s our job to support that.”

After almost 20 years with the exhibit, the excitement of the rainforest remains intact for both curators. And for his part, Howell, as a lifelong biologist, can’t imagine doing any line of work other than caring for these plants and animals.

“We get to know them on a really intimate basis,” he says. “It’s not a bad gig.”

Jen Reardon and Jenny Hamilton see the National Aquarium’s Dollar Days this weekend as a celebration. The annual tradition, where admission to the National Aquarium and other museums around the city is $1 or less, has inspired fanfare among Baltimoreans and made one of the city’s most visible attractions more accessible.

“We understand that it’s programs like these that allow so many locals to get in our door,” says Reardon, the public relations manager at the aquarium. “We have our full programming this weekend and it still feels fresh and new.”

Aside from the aquarium, other attractions including the Maryland Science Center, the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum, Port Discovery Children’s Museum, and Christmas Village, are also discounted at $1 this weekend. At the Reginald F. Lewis Museum, officials are offering special activities such as interactive claymaking for children and a screening of a new documentary from Stanley Nelson that “brings the largely unknown stories of enterprising African Americans to the forefront examining more than 150 years of African Americans.”

At the aquarium, officials are preparing for what will be an understandably busy weekend. Entry times will be staggered from when visitors buy tickets to when they are allowed inside to create an easy flow in and out. While patrons wait in line, there will be entertainment including stilt walkers, interactive hula hoops, and live music to occupy those with children. Aquarium concessions, merch, and access to partner parking garages will also be discounted to acknowledge that this is a special weekend for the aquarium—and the downtown area as a whole.

As for the aquarium itself, with 20,000 animals, there is always something new to see. The space’s dolphin exhibit is a good example of how no one visit is the same. Because each guide approaches feeding and education with their own style, visitors can get a unique experience at every demonstration.

“Our trainers share why we are doing this and things we do to keep the dolphins healthy and engaged,” Reardon says, “and about what it’s like to be a dolphin.” Officials are still working on finding a seaside sanctuary site for the dolphins, who currently reside in the Dolphins Discovery exhibit on Pier 4.

Also on the horizon for the aquarium is the recently announced $11 million in funding wetlands project between Pier 3 and Pier 4 in the Inner Harbor. Aquarium officials say that the goal for the initiative is to “bring the natural, living Chesapeake Bay back to the Inner Harbor.” A prototype that Hamilton, community programs manager at the aquarium, says has attracted new species and is already working to improve the harbor’s water quality. The goal is for the project, which is estimated to cost $14 million total, to start construction in 2021 and be finished in 2022.

“We’re priming the next generation for conservation, learning about species, and having an interest in science,” Hamilton says. “There is a symbiotic relationship between the wetlands project and the harbor, especially with education.”

The project feeds into staff’s greater mission of inspiring conservation and emphasizing its importance. That education is aided by events like Dollar Days, where the aquarium will see a high capacity of visitors taking in all that it has to offer.

“It’s one thing to read about it in a book or watch a documentary,” Hamilton says. “But to actually see animals in person in other places—it’s why these days are so important.”

Those of us who are city residents tend to regard our relationship with nature as an afterthought. Our interaction with wildlife typically involves securing our trashcan lids to deter rats and the occasional smell of fresh-cut grass feels like nothing short of a revelation.

But, in truth, people living in urban areas are surrounded by nature—whether we realize it or not. And the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) wants to remind city residents there are things they can do to protect biodiversity and watershed health right in their own backyard. For the second year in a row, the national organization is hosting Baltimore Wildlife Week from May 3-11, a chance for community members to come together to increase green space, mitigate nuisance flooding, improve water quality, and beautify neighborhoods.

“We were really inspired by similar events in Los Angeles and Seattle, but this is the only event like this on the East Coast,” says Holly Gallagher, NWF regional education manager. “In Baltimore, specifically, it will be a lot about focusing on pollinators, the Chesapeake Bay watershed and iconic species that people can relate like orioles and oysters.”

The organization has worked with a number of partners over the past eight months to plan the week-long program including the National Aquarium, Waterfront Partnership, Blue Water Baltimore, neighborhood associations, and what may seem like an unlikely partner in Charm City Meadworks—which has really embraced the cause and ran with it.

“We produce a product that relies heavily on clean water, bees, and other pollinators every day,” says Derek Vaughn Brown, marketing coordinator at Charm City Meadworks, which is making a special mead with local ingredients for the occasion. “It’s hard to sit idly by when you make something that relies on nature and so we’ve help take the lead on bringing people together and creating some fun events.”

Those events kick off these weekend in the Meadworks taproom, first with a dance party where urban creature costumes are encouraged and a portion of the proceeds go to Baltimore Wildlife Week. The taproom will also feature a pop-up exhibition curated by local artist Bridget Parlato, a show where scientists will discuss their research and get “gonged” if it gets too wonky, and a Jones Falls Watershed walking tour on Sunday that benefits Blue Water Baltimore and Baltimore Heritage.

“The easiest way to physically show people how close we are to nature is take this two-mile walk from Druid Hill Park down to Round Falls,” Brown says. “The idea is to walk along the river, ask thought-provoking questions, and realize nature is all around us.”

Beyond that, there are a ton of other environmental events throughout the week, including a volunteer cleanup on May 6 at Camden Yards, where NWF created a 10,000-square-foot oriole habitat to try and attract the real birds to the stadium. Plus, community conservation forum will take place at Whitelock Farm in Reservoir Hill, the B’More Wild Fest & GreenScape will take over Middle Branch Park, and the first community-preserved forest in Baltimore City will be celebrated in the Glenham-Belhar neighborhood.

“Our big goal is to make these events accessible to different neighborhoods and utilize underused space in the city,” Gallagher says. “We try to focus on issues that are important to people—whether it’s reducing trash, saving money on energy bills, or improving your mental and physical health by having a green space to walk to.”

Gallagher stresses that, while this is a wonderful week to focus on the environment, NWF is working on these initiatives in urban areas all year-round. In fact, last year the organization helped establish Baltimore City as a certified Community Wildlife Habitat, something that may come as a surprise when you choose to only see brick, Formstone, and concrete.

“The more we work with community residents, the more these neighborhoods will change,” Gallagher says. “If kids grow up with that change already instilled in them, there are more likely to have that environmental stewardship as a priority from the start.”

Looking to add a bit of culture to your afternoon? There is no shortage of great museums around Baltimore. Whether it’s art, science, history, or a particular famous figure you’re interested in, there’s a place nearby to spend your day wandering and learning.

American Visionary Art Museum

This unique museum celebrating outsider art was named by Congress as the country’s official museum for self-taught art. Come for the elaborate sculptures, gorgeous drawings, and interesting assemblage pieces, then stick around to browse Sideshow, the treasure trove of a museum store downstairs. As a bonus, AVAM is free for federal employees (and up to three others) during the 2019 government shutdown with a valid ID.

For more visionary and local art, try: MICA Galleries, Eubie Blake Cultural Center

Baltimore Museum of Art

This free museum houses a collection of 95,000 works, so you’re sure to find something to interest everyone among its vast collection. Lovers of modern art will want to linger in the galleries housing the famed Cone Collection, while those looking for the more non-traditional can usually find something interesting and extraordinary in the Contemporary Wing or special exhibition galleries. Recent shows have included a John Waters retrospective, surreal visions of some of Europe’s great conflicts, and a look back at the BMA’s first exhibit to feature black artists.

For more art and antiques, try: Maryland Art Place, School 33 Art Center

Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African-American History & Culture

The Smithsonian-affiliated Reginald F. Lewis Museum is home to art, photographs, sculptures, military antiques, and ephemera chronicling Maryland’s African-American history from 1784 to the present. Although it’s connected to the Smithsonian, the Lewis Museum remains open throughout the shutdown and is offering free admission to furloughed workers and up to three guests with a valid government I.D.

For more African-American history and culture, try: Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park, National Great Blacks in Wax Museum

The Walters Art Museum

Housed across three buildings (including a historic residence) in Mount Vernon, the Walters features an extensive collection of Asian antiquities and decorative arts. Wander the Chamber of Wonders to experience what a 1600s nobleman might have shown off in his lavish home, or head to the 1 West Mount Vernon Place to see contemporary art placed alongside the preserved architecture of a 19th-century townhouse.

For more historic homes and exhibits, try: The Johns Hopkins Museums, The Star-Spangled Banner Flag House

The Baltimore Museum of Industry

Explore Baltimore’s history as a hub of business and industry at this South Baltimore museum housed in a former cannery. Exhibits include a 1900s garment loft, a recreated soda fountain, a print shop, and a gallery dedicated to how Baltimore fueled the rise of the automobile. Don’t forget to stop by the Baltimore docked outside—she’s the oldest steam-powered tugboat in the United States.

For more transportation and industrial history, try: The B&O Railroad Museum, Baltimore Streetcar Museum

Maryland Historical Society

The MdHS is the state’s oldest, continuously operating cultural institution, having been responsible for documenting Maryland history since 1844. With exhibits featuring figures such as The Catonsville Nine, Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte, and the Peale Family of painters, this collection is comprised of more than seven million items from pre-Colonial times to the present.

For more great figures from Baltimore’s past, try: The Babe Ruth Birthplace & Museum, Edgar Allan Poe House & Museum

Maryland Science Center

With a history going back to 1797 with the Maryland Academy of Sciences, this Inner Harbor spot has evolved into a family-friendly exploration of the natural world, from the smallest cells to history’s largest creatures. Visitors can also take advantage of Davis Planetarium or catch a movie on the IMAX screen, which will reopen in March after theater renovations are complete.

For more hands-on learning, try: Port Discovery Children’s Museum, Historic Ships in Baltimore

National Aquarium

Plan to spend some serious time at this colorful spot. Beyond the normal fish, rays, and other aquatic critters, you’ll find sloths, puffins, crocodiles, and more scattered across the many habitats housed in this multi-level aquarium. An indoor rainforest, a stories-high shark tank, and a living reef featuring Calypso, a rescued sea turtle, are just a few of the highlights in this gem overlooking the Inner Harbor. Book your timed entry ticket online to avoid long lines, and go first thing in the morning or late in the day to avoid the field trip crowd.

For more nature encounters, try: The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, Rawlings Conservatory

EC STRONG
This past Sunday, an estimated 8.4 inches of rain fell in less than three hours in Ellicott City, causing another devastating flood less than two years after another catastrophic storm left a path of local destruction in July 2016—then considered a one-in-a-thousand-year event. This time, the waters gutted businesses, submerged cars, and in some cases rose as high as the first-floor ceilings. One Maryland National Guardsman, Sgt. Eddison A. Hermond, lost his life while trying to rescue a local shopkeeper. Buildings are still being assessed for structural damage, but many residents and business owners have vowed to rebuild, as they did after the last storm. Fundraisers and donation drives are now being organized to help the town in its recovery. Located in a valley at the confluence of three substantial streams feeding into the Patapsco River, experts are now assessing the impact of development and climate change on this already flood-prone geography.

GOOD CATCH
In early May, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources released the results of the 2018 winter survey, which shows that the blue crab’s population remains stable. The overall population is down, with increased mortality for adult females due in part by a cold winter but remains near its long-term average. Meanwhile, the number of juveniles has increased by 34 percent. The study suggests that these numbers may lead to a slow start for the harvest in the spring and early summer months, followed by improvements later in the season.

SLIM PICKINGS
At the same time, the Maryland seafood industry has felt the ripple effects of the Trump administration’s immigration stance, with nearly half of the Eastern Shore’s crab-picking houses left with no workers to pick the meat. Since the 1980s, the seasonal workforce has largely consisted of Latin American women who arrive by the hundreds on guest work visas. This year, for the first time, those H-2B visas were awarded by lottery, compared to the traditional first-come, first-served basis, with federal labor officials receiving some 81,000 applications nationwide while only 33,000 were approved. In Maryland, at least 200 applications were denied. With the local crab season nearly two months underway, it is unclear what impact this could have on prices. Some within the industry fear a sharp increase in picked meat prices, due to a decreased supply from the worker shortage, doubled with a decrease price for steamed crabs because of surplus of hard shells that would have otherwise been picked. According to Rep. Andy Harris, the Trump administration has agreed to approve more visas, but no update has been given at this time. Gov. Larry Hogan has requested the federal government take immediate action to increase the cap.

HAPPY SWIMMING
In late May, the Waterfront Partnership’s Healthy Harbor Initiative announced dramatic progress documented in an annual report on the Baltimore Harbor, making the nonprofit’s goal of a swimmable, fishable harbor by 2020 all the more realistic. Thirty-two out of 49 monitoring stations showed substantial improvement, including every stream, with parts of the Jones Falls now considered safe for swimming. They hope that a new $430 million infrastructure upgrade to reduce sewer overflows by 80 percent will also have a dramatic impact by its completion in 2020. An overhaul of the storm water system is also in the works, with an expected completion by 2021. In 2017, 150 tons less trash was collected in the harbor, and bacteria scores have shown signs of improvement as well.

AQUATIC TLC
On Thursday, the National Aquarium opened its new Animal Care and Rescue Center on East Fayette Street in Jonestown. Previously located in an anonymous Fells Point warehouse, the $20 million state-of-the-art facility will now be open for limited tours to the public. Starting this summer, visitors will be allowed a behind-the-scenes look at the aquarium’s 50,000-square-foot space that will provide animal care and veterinary services for up to 5,000 creatures, ranging from fish and sea turtles to stingrays and seals. New features include individually temperature-controlled tanks, specialized lighting that mimics natural sunrises and sunsets, and the ability to produce some 15,000 gallons of saltwater. The space will also be used to fabricate the aquarium’s intricate animal habitats.

SHELL GAME
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources and local scientists are working to bring freshwater mussels back to the state’s rivers and streams where the bivalves were once prolific along local waterways. These tiny filter-feeders have all but disappeared, due to pollution, runoff, dams, and the loss of host fish, but efforts are underway to propagate 10,000 baby Eastern Elliptio mussels to be planted in the Patapsco River. Once established, they can live for up to 20 or 30 years. As oysters are being used to help restore the Chesapeake Bay, scientists hope these native mussels will help clean the rebounding river, which runs from central Maryland to Baltimore before flowing into the estuary. Similarly, volunteers from The Great Baltimore Oyster Partnership planted more than 200,000 oysters this month along a protected reef near Fort Carroll on the Patapsco, part of its ongoing mission to plant 5 million oysters on by the year 2020.

FINDING FLIPPER
With increased sightings taking place along local waterways, researchers have confirmed that dolphins are now appearing in the Chesapeake Bay by the hundreds. While such reports are not new for the estuary, with records dating back to the 1800s, it is leading to increased efforts to track the sea mammals and study the role of improved water quality and rebounding fisheries. Last June, researchers launched the Chesapeake Dolphin Watch website for citizens to submit their sightings. They plan to release a mobile app version of the website in the future.

FORWARD THINKING
The Friends School of Baltimore has announced plans to start using 100 percent renewable energy starting by July 1, 2018. Using CleanChoice Energy, the Quaker school will now receive electricity from regional wind and solar farms, with the move being inspired in part by the upper school’s student-faculty Green Club. Committed to environmental stewardship, Friends was named an official Maryland Green School in 2017.

On the walls of a second-floor classroom in The Green School of Baltimore hang hand-drawn welcome cards, scribbled in crayon and colored pencil. Each is different, decorated with waves, grasses, and fish, but one image is constant: a prominent, bright green turtle. 

These cards are for the class pet, Hidey Hermit Crab, who is, in fact, a diamondback terrapin. Once prolific along the Chesapeake Bay, this speckled-skin turtle with an iconic shell was designated the Maryland state reptile in 1994 but has since been classified as a threatened or endangered species in some East Coast states, though its populations do seem secure along our local estuary.

For now, at least, Hidey is hiding safely beneath faux grasses and a plastic rock in Diana Duce’s first grade classroom as part of the National Aquarium’s decade-old Terrapins in the Classroom program, which brings the elusive turtle right before her students’ eyes. Each fall, more than 40 Maryland schools (elementary through high school) receive hatchling terrapins—then the size of a quarter—for students to observe, study, and learn from throughout the year. Since 2008, the program has raised more than 400 terrapins with the goal of inspiring a future generation to feel connected to the Chesapeake Bay.

“We’re hoping that, by understanding the impact that the bay’s health can have on this animal, the students will want to be lifelong stewards of their environments,” says program director Marcie Orenstein. “It has even encouraged some students to pursue careers in environmental science and veterinary medicine.”

This month, once the terrapin has grown, some of Ms. Duce’s students will then hop on school buses, throw on life jackets, and head out on boats bound for Poplar Island on the Eastern Shore. Here, the turtle, having been tagged at the aquarium for future research purposes, will be released back into the waters from which it came.

On these trips, “some students get to experience the Chesapeake Bay for the first time,” says Orenstein. “Through this program, they can see the effects of erosion and pollution and really understand how their actions, even in the schoolyard, can impact these natural habitats and the animals that live in them.”

Watching the turtle swim away can be somewhat emotional for the kids, who write good luck notes and throw going away parties before their departure. “I’m going to be happy but also sad,” says Brooklyn O’Neal Dorsey, 7, echoing the shared sentiment of her classmates, “because I really love him and he’s my friend.” For that, Ms. Duce makes sure to remind her students of what an amazing thing it is that they have done. “We’ll stop and say, hey, Hidey is back in the wild now,” she says. “I wonder where he is today. I wonder what he’s doing.”

On Monday, a coalition of Chesapeake Bay advocates launched a lofty new commitment: adding 10 billion new oysters to the Chesapeake Bay by 2025.

Local oyster populations are currently said to be less than 1 percent of their historic peak, which some estimate included as many as one trillion oysters only 150 years ago. Numbers started to plummet in the late 1800s, with current estimates as low as one billion, due in part to overharvesting, habitat loss, pollution, and disease.

In a Herculean effort, the Chesapeake 10 Billion Oysters Partnership—made up of some 20 nonprofits, scientific organizations, community groups, and oystermen from Maryland and Virginia—wants to bring the oyster back, and, in doing so, the health of the Chesapeake Bay.

“As a bay community, we have come a long way—oysters are doing much better, but they’re nowhere near where they could be,” says Will Baker, president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF). “We hope that setting a numeric goal can have a real effect on accelerating that restoration.”

Over the course of the next seven years, this collaborative initiative has three priorities: restore oyster sanctuaries, or traditional oyster reefs restricted from harvest; promote science-based fishery management, as more than 75 percent of the bay’s oyster bottom is open to commercial fishing; and increase oyster aquaculture, a fast-growing industry that involves cultivating seafood in an aquatic environment.

The end-goals start with water quality. In recent years, the Chesapeake Bay has shown signs of improved health, including increased water clarity and the resurgence of underwater grasses, but it still earns a C on its annual environmental report card. One mature oyster can filter as much as 50 gallons of water each day, with local lore claiming that the historic bivalves were once able to filter the entire 18-trillion-gallon estuary in as little as one week. Ten billion oysters could eventually mean as much as 500 billion gallons every 24 hours.

Oyster restoration is nothing new for the Chesapeake Bay, where efforts have been in place for decades and some 1 billion spat, or baby oysters, are now planted each year. Currently, the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement has been working since 2014 to restore and protect oyster sanctuaries in 10 regional tributaries by the same deadline of 2025. In Baltimore, the CBF and Waterfront Partnership’s Great Baltimore Oyster Partnership are growing an annual 250,000 oysters in five oyster gardens around the harbor that are then transferred to an oyster sanctuary on the Patapsco River.

In addition to water quality, oyster reefs act as habitat for small fish, invertebrates, as well as their own young. Oyster larvae latch onto these hardy, intricate structures, often made up of the shells of adult oysters, where they can then safely grow. Through organizations like the Oyster Recovery Partnership (ORP), oyster shells are now being regularly recycled throughout the region to help rebuild depleted reefs, with each bushel of shell able to produce some 6,000 baby oysters. One such location is at the National Aquarium, where an artificial reef sits near Pier 3.

Reefs also help protect shorelines, acting as a buffer from inclement or, these days, extreme weather. After Hurricane Sandy, the state of New York approved a $60-million restoration project to add oyster beds back into the New York City harbor, where some 200,000 acres of reef once protected against erosion, storm damage, and flooding. The city’s similar Billion Oyster Project also has the goal of adding one billion oysters to the waters by 2035. “Oysters are increasingly being seen as a relatively inexpensive way to gird the environment against natural catastrophes which we know are coming with climate change,” says Rona Kobell, science writer for the Maryland Sea Grant and former reporter for the Chesapeake Bay Journal where she covered the oyster industry. “You can also use volunteers and make it an educational tool.”

Beyond environmental impacts, another goal of the 10 Billion Oysters Partnership is to engage new constituencies and inspire government action in uncertain political times. “We realistically believe this is an attainable goal,” says Baker, noting that a formal population study won’t be complete until the end of the year, “but there’s one wild card, and that’s federal funding.”

The Trump Administration has proposed budget cuts that would dramatically impact restoration efforts on the Chesapeake Bay, including eliminating the Environmental Protection Agency’s funding for cleanup efforts via the Chesapeake Bay Program, as well as support for other critical programs led by the Army Corps of Engineers and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), like the Sea Grant. “One of the big parts of this partnership will be lobbying for federal and state money,” says Baker. “We’re very concerned that those resources will not be available without a real fight.”

The coalition also hopes to drive economic growth throughout the watershed. Maryland and Virginia have lost more than $4 billion in the last three decades due to oyster population decline. “More oysters are going to mean more jobs,” says Baker. “Jobs occur at every level of the species. The wild harvest clearly involves commercial watermen who for centuries have caught oysters along the Chesapeake Bay. Those are really important jobs, especially for local, rural communities. But that only tells part of the story. Once an oyster hits the dock, it takes many people to process, ship, and prepare it, so there are economic multipliers that people don’t often think of.”

The same notion applies to oyster aquaculture, commonly referred to as oyster farming, which raises native Eastern, or crassotrea virginica, oysters around the bay. As the wild harvest continues to struggle, oyster farming has grown into a $30-million industry. Virginia leads the charge, having adopted the practice as far back as the 19th century. Maryland, on the other hand, took until 2009 to fully support it across the state, but since 2012, the number of aquaculture leases has jumped by 1,000 percent.

As the owner of the Orchard Point Oyster Company on the Eastern Shore, Scott Budden sees the coalition’s large network as a major advantage for both new and established oyster farmers. “For new growers, the coalition provides a big resource,” he says, as starting an oyster farm requires not only financial capital but also technical know-how and state approval. “For those of us who have been around a little while, it gives us political clout. There’s currently no unified shellfish growers’ association in Maryland, so we don’t have a political arm to lean on when things come through Annapolis that are potentially detrimental to our industry.” 

With previously individual efforts uniting for this common goal, it’s a matter of strength in numbers, with each of the 20 partners able to benefit from the other, be it a local university, NGO, or federal agency—a recreational oyster gardener, professional oyster farmer, or traditional waterman. There has long been a contentious, somewhat territorial relationship between the latter two, but programs like OysterFutures, run by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) and the likes of waterman-turned-aquaculturist Johnny Shockley of Hoopers Island Oyster Company, have been working to bring those communities together and encourage both to succeed.

“The goal here is to build oyster populations, increase their ecological role in the sanctuaries, and really promote and develop aquaculture into its full potential,” says Donald Boesch, president emeritus of UMCES and one of the partnership’s scientific advisors, “but also to use good science to find more sustainable ways to allow a public fishery.”

But the question remains: Is this ambitious objective even realistic? “What makes this partnership unique is the audacity of the number,” says John Racanelli, CEO of the National Aquarium. “Growing our oyster population tenfold by 2025 is a bold, yet attainable goal.”

Boesch points to the UMCES-run Horn Point Laboratory oyster hatchery on the Eastern Shore, where nearly 2 billion spat-on-shell are now produced each year. “My colleagues and I looked at this and said, ‘Why limit it to 10 billion?’”

And if they hit that mark before their deadline? “You can rest assured,” says Baker, “we’re going to set a higher goal and keep on working.” 

Like Riding a Bike

After a tumultuous first year that included temporary suspension of service, Baltimore Bikeshare is expanding. According to an announcement in its most recent membership newsletter, Bikeshare will add nine locations around the city, bringing the total number of stations to 50. The new locations include two in South Baltimore, two in East Baltimore, and four in Mt. Vernon/Station North. Installation of the new locations, which will also include a new downtown station at the Charles Center metro stop, will begin December 15.

The locations are:

• Charles Center
• Chase Street and St. Paul Street
• 1200 Maryland Avenue
• North Avenue and Maryland Avenue
• St. Paul Street and Madison Street
• Light Street and Ostend Street
• Charles Street and Fort Avenue
• Betty Hyatt Community Park (near Broadway and East Baltimore Street)
• Perkins Homes (1400 Gough Street)  

Maryland Goes Anti Antibiotic 

Maryland farmers raising animals for consumption will have to abide by stricter criteria when administering antibiotics to a member of their flock or herd thanks to a newly enacted state law. Passed by the state legislature earlier this year, the so-called Keep Antibiotics Effective Act, prohibits dosing healthy cattle, hogs, and poultry with broad-spectrum antibiotics in order to promote growth, a common industry practice that scientists warn has contributed to the rise antibiotic resistance. Now, in order to administer an antibiotic to an animal, farmers will need the express approval of a licensed veterinarian. Furthermore, the law outright bans agricultural use of some medically precious antibiotics. In enacting the law, Maryland becomes only the second state (after California) to place limits on antibiotic usage in livestock. 

However, prominent public health officials charge that the law does not go far enough. Firstly, the law does not apply to farming operations classified as small, which, in this case, means farms selling fewer than 200 cattle or pigs, or 60,000 birds per year. Secondly, in a recent oped in The Washington Post, Ellen Silbergeld, a food systems expert at The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, notes that while the bill requires veterinarian approval it does not require that veterinarian to confirm the presence “of disease in the herd or flock before animals can be treated with antibiotics.” Given these parameters, she says it would be easy for a cooperative veterinarian to write an unneeded prescription based on risk factors—or the threat of disease—rather than the actual presence of disease. 

“Given the crowded conditions characteristic of factory farms, it would not be difficult for a veterinarian to conclude that every animal stands a reasonable risk of contracting a disease,” she writers. “This situation is analogous to how a pediatrician might conclude that every child who attends day care should take antibiotics on a daily basis throughout childhood simply because they have an increased risk of contracting strep throat.”

First Day Hikes

For those looking to start 2018 off on the right foot (so to speak), the Maryland Department of Natural Resources has posted a list of New Year’s Day hikes at 32 state parks. Hike times, distances, and difficulty levels vary (but most are easy to moderate). Local options include ambles through the historic Jerusalem Mill Village section of Gunpowder Falls State Park, a 2-mile jaunt around North Point State Park, and easy excursions into both the Avalon and McKeldin areas of Patapsco Valley State Park. More information can be found on the DNR’s website.   

Park Places

Earlier this month, it was announced that Baltimore City’s parks received $7.6 million from the state for fiscal year 2018. The funds, which come from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, are earmarked for 10 projects around the city’s green spaces. The largest chunk of funding ($2.4 million) is allocated for the renovation/rebuilding of the Cahill Fitness and Wellness Center in Leakin Park. Other line items include $500,000 for a new artificial turf multipurpose playing field, scoreboard, lighting, fencing, and ADA-compliant pathways in Clifton Park; $300,000 for upgraded lighting, an expanded community garden, and renovated park entrances and pathways in Patterson Park; and $300,000 for improved trailhead access to the Jones Falls Trail in Druid Hill Park. The city also received $1.5 million for general activities such as “continued maintenance, planning, volunteer support, and operations.” Details on the various projects can be found in the city’s grant application, which is available as a PDF here.     

Hopkins Cuts Coal

The Johns Hopkins University is joining the global movement to cut financial ties with fossil fuel companies. On Friday, December 8, the university’s board of trustees voted to withdraw its investment holdings in companies that produce coal for electric power as a major part of their business. The new policy also prohibits future purchases of shares in companies that earn more than 35 percent of their revenue from electricity-generating coal. Studies have shown that burning coal for electricity produces more greenhouse gas emissions per unit than any other fossil fuel. In embracing the new edict, Hopkins joins a growing list of academic institutions, state and local governments, faith-based organizations, nonprofits, and businesses that are jettisoning investments with fossil-fuel-burning energy giants. The University of Maryland announced a similar pledge last year, but its directive went even further, eliminating investment in any coal, oil, and natural gas companies.  

Turtles Rescued 

In our continuing sea turtle coverage, the National Aquarium took in a group of 30 sea turtles in November after the aquatic reptiles fell victim to cold water temperatures off the coast of Cape Cod. The turtles arrived suffering from a range of ailments, including pneumonia and blood chemical imbalances, which can arise when the water temperatures drop rapidly and the turtles become “cold stunned.” Cold stunned season typically last from December through April, but a chilly New England fall caused an early onset. The group of turtles is largest ever taken in by the aquarium, which is a member of the Greater Atlantic Region Stranding Network, a network of zoos, aquariums, and conservation groups along that East Coast that respond to animals in peril. Aquarium employees had fun with their newest charges, naming each turtle after a breakfast food. Resultant names include Waffles, Bacon, Flapjack, and Benedict.      

In an era where there’s an app for everything and 3-year-olds have tablets, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for parents to pull devices away from kids. The National Aquarium in Baltimore and the Enoch Pratt Free Library have come together to encourage local kids to dive into books. 

The “Read to Reef” book club will be relaunching in October for its second year, challenging fifth graders and younger to read five age-appropriate, aquatic-themed books in order to receive free passes to the Aquarium.

In order to develop a well-rounded list for the book club, Pratt librarians worked with experts from the Aquarium to find fresh, new books for each age group. Jenny Hamilton, community programs manager for the National Aquarium, loves that kids are able to read about aquatic life and then experience it firsthand.

“We are teaching kids to develop this love of nature,” she said. “We are shaping and nurturing future environmentalists.”

Since its inception, “Read to Reef” has served nearly 4,000 children in the Baltimore area with more than 19,000 books read. Hamilton says that the program has been “overwhelmingly successful” in terms of attendance at the aquarium—nearly 15,000 guests have come as a result.

Last year, Emerson Mowbray was able to celebrate his fourth birthday at the Aquarium because of the program. He and his dad, Doug, are regulars at the Waverly branch and joined the program last fall to make their library trips more enjoyable.

“We like to do kind of a treasure hunt to find books in the stacks of the children’s section,” Doug said. “This gives you the opportunity to hunt for something more specific—themes of aquatic adventures, books about sea creatures, and the like.”

The special “Read to Reef” bookmarks, which can be redeemed for Aquarium admission, will be available at all Pratt Library locations starting October 1 and participants will have until December 28 to read the required five books.

“It’s not just for kids but for the kid at heart, too,” Doug says. “It’s an opportunity for other, less fortunate participants in the program to experience the Aquarium. It’s a tremendous gift.”

Inside Mt. Vernon Marketplace, Tj Tate walks up to the counter at The Local Oyster and peruses the menu. 

“Where are your shrimp from?” she asks in an accent still colored by her Kentucky roots. “Gulf of Mexico,” the woman behind the counter replies. “That’s what I thought,” Tate says, “and I bet I know the fisherman who caught them.”

If Tj Tate had her way, we’d all be asking where our seafood comes from—and we might even know the name of the fisherman who caught it, as well. Tate is the National Aquarium’s first director of seafood sustainability. She was hired more than two years ago to get the word out that, yes, seafood tastes great and is good for you, but more importantly, if we keep harvesting fish as we have been doing, there won’t be enough left for our grandkids to enjoy.

“When you think about the number of people who are going to be on this planet and what they’re going to eat in 20 years, some people are going to be lucky enough to still be eating shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico,” she says. “We’ve got to start working toward a system of sustainability.”

Highlighting sustainability—in this case seafood that is either caught or farmed in ways that consider the long-term vitality of species and the health of the ocean—is a decidedly different tact for the National Aquarium, an organization better known for educating visitors about marine life than advising them on which fish they should be eating. Until Tate started her job in March 2015, the institution had no programs to instruct its 1.4 million annual visitors on what to do about it. Dubbed Seafood Smart, the aquarium’s new program hopes to create a sustainable seafood movement on the Chesapeake Bay and beyond.

“There was a need for someone to reach the consumer, to fill the gap, to work with industry and watermen. The National Aquarium had the position to be that unbiased voice for a really big region,” Tate explains.

 Aquaculture, the honchos at the aquarium believe, is the best way to preserve our wild fisheries. “Aquaculture is a way to ensure our oceans are healthy and our people have sustainable protein,” says Kris Hoellen, the aquarium’s chief conservation officer and Tate’s boss. “That’s a different place for the aquarium—it’s about making conservation relevant.” 

If Tj Tate had her way, we’d all ask where our seafood comes from.

What that means for Tate is working to shift the entire regional seafood supply chain, from the watermen who catch or grow it to the seafood distributors who sell it to the chefs who cook it, and, ultimately, to the consumers who demand it. But, if there’s one thing Tate has already learned, bringing new ideas to a region steeped in tradition is easier said than done.

Back at The Local Oyster, Tate squeezes lemon juice on a half-dozen Skinny Dipper oysters, grown in St. Mary’s County. She adds a dollop of cocktail sauce to each one and slurps them out of the shell like it’s second nature. With her long strawberry blond hair and a quick smile, Tate has the easygoing manner of someone who’s spent the last 20 years on boats.

At 48 years old, she’s a salt-sprayed ball of energy, talking about her 6-year-old daughter one minute (“The only fish she’ll eat is halibut. Halibut!”) and firing off statistics the next: “There are more than thousands of types of seafood that we could be eating, but most people typically only eat five to 10 of some species—that’s just silly.” She seems as if she could get along with anybody, which, in this job, might be her most important asset.

“To be able to communicate what’s important about sustainable fisheries to watermen and the folks in the seafood industry is super important, but it’s a different conversation than one you have with a chef or someone wandering into the aquarium,” says Patrick Hudson, co-owner of The Local Oyster and the farmer who grew the bivalves Tate is eating. “She’s got to wear different hats and make some progress on sustainable seafood in the Chesapeake Bay, which is sometimes much more of a battle than people realize, particularly in Maryland where you have a really conservative group who have been in the industry for generations.”

Tate didn’t grow up around the water. She was raised in a small town in western Kentucky, miles from the sea. The first time she went fishing with her father, she caught a tire. As a teenager, she thought about becoming a marine biologist, but instead majored in communications and worked at a radio station in her hometown. (“Yes, I was known as Tj the deejay,” she quips.)

But something about the ocean, where she vacationed every year as a kid, kept calling. She decided to go back to school for another bachelor’s degree in biology and then a master’s. She settled in Florida and worked for an environmental consulting group before taking over as executive director of the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders Alliance, an organization that works to protect sustainable fisheries and the fishing industry in the Gulf. There, she made a name for herself as a savvy advocate, one who helped defeat a Florida congressman who wanted to reallocate fishing rights held by commercial fishermen to recreational anglers. She also helped start Gulf Wild, a national initiative that let consumers trace a tag on a fish to learn exactly where it was caught, who caught it, and by what method.

“Organizing fishermen is harder than herding cats,” says Buddy Guindon, a fisherman out of Galveston, Texas, and president of the alliance board, which hired Tate. “She was able to coordinate the fishermen, implement sustainable fishing practices, and create change in the Gulf.” 

But like anyone who stirs up the pot, she made a few enemies along the way. Disgruntled fishermen accused her of “stealing quota,” which refers to the amount of a particular fish watermen are allowed to catch in the Gulf. Someone tried to spread a rumor that one of her board members had fathered her child. Through it all, Tate remained resolute. 

“Fishermen are either the biggest part of the solution or the biggest part of the problem,” notes Tate. The problem in the Chesapeake Bay is a general distrust by watermen over rules and regulations restricting the catch. And sustainability remains a dirty word among some watermen.  

Robert T. Brown, head of the Maryland Watermen’s Association, says that regulators base catch limits on “guesstimates” of fish and crabs, rather than hard science. It’s the watermen, who have plied the bay for generations, he says, who know best about the fishery—and how to sustain it. “The scientists are doing the best they can with what they’ve got, but the problem is, it’s still a guesstimate. We do have a sustainable fishery. If we didn’t, we’d be out of business.”

For her part, Tate says her position at the aquarium doesn’t involve being an advocate or taking sides so much as being a facilitator or an educator. “Now I don’t feel like I’m pushing an agenda,” she says. “I feel like I’m protecting a whole area. We want to help people make better decisions. To me that’s the coolest thing. Nobody wants to throw stones at an aquarium.”

When Tate arrived in Baltimore, it didn’t take her long to assess the state of affairs in the bay. “You’ve got amazing seafood and an amazing cultural heritage, but you’ve got a lot of consumers who aren’t eating the seafood,” she says. “They think crabs and that’s it. You’ve got a watermen community that’s fractured—they want to be doing the best for the bay because they want to have a future—but they are still trying to figure out what that means.”

When it comes to sustainability practices, Tate estimates the Chesapeake is about 20 years behind the Gulf, which in turn, is about 20 years behind methods employed on the West Coast. “I expected more people to be on the seafood-sustainability bandwagon a bit, but they’re just not thinking about it,” she says. “Even though there’s all this great seafood, there’s a disconnect. [In Baltimore], you don’t have a lot of fish houses lined up where people see the commercial boats like in Maine or the Pacific Northwest. You see shrimp boats in the Gulf all the time, so you think seafood. One reason why farm to table is doing so well is you see farmers at farmers’ markets, you see the farms. You don’t see fishermen.”

Tate is working
to shift the entire regional seafood supply chain.

In her first few months on the job, Tate met with key players to see how they could work together. And along the way, she’s helped watermen like Billy Rice, who fishes blue catfish on the Potomac River, get a better price for his haul. Blue catfish is an invasive species, so, as Rice says, “It’s actually something [the Department of Natural Resources] wants us to get out of the water.” Tate arranged for chefs and wholesalers to go out on Rice’s boat to witness his work, establishing the kind of relationship that farmers have with buyers of their produce. “She’s been a huge help,” says Rice. “The Chesapeake needs someone like Tj. She can take the message to watermen that you can’t do business like you did 30 years ago.”

Getting chefs, supermarkets, and consumers to demand the bay’s less popular seafood will help create new markets for watermen, while taking pressure off the celebrated species like rockfish. “We put a lot of stress on serving the sexy fish populations, but we fish them to death,” says John Shields, who loves putting what he calls the “trash” fish of the Chesapeake—yellow perch, hardhead catfish, white perch—on his menu at Gertrude’s periodically. He believes other chefs shouldn’t be afraid to follow his lead, particularly when it comes to serving blue catfish. “There’s a percentage of chefs who are already on board, but many chefs, they’re already stretched to the limit. They’re happy if they can get the salmon in, much less worry about where it comes from. But as they learn more about the issues involved, they’ll get on board.”

With recent news reports about slave labor used in Asian fisheries and health and safety concerns about aquaculture overseas, overcoming the stigma of farmed fish is another challenge facing Tate. Up to 90 percent of our seafood is imported, she says, yet the United States has some of the world’s largest wild fisheries and some of the best-managed fish farms. But Americans like their cheap imported fish. Sustainably caught or grown fish will cost more, explains Hudson, who says he has to charge more for his Skinny Dipper oysters than watermen harvesting the wild varieties. Tate will have to convince chefs and consumers the expense is worth it, and convince watermen that the added investments will pay off.

For chefs like Spike Gjerde of Woodberry Kitchen, paying more—and charging more—is a no-brainer. “We have some of the best fish and shellfish in the world and it should command a premium,” he says. “Anything that’s higher quality that requires more work to get, that value should go back to the watermen.”

For now, oysters are the primary crop for aquaculturists around the bay, but Tate says there’s no reason rockfish or other species couldn’t be farmed. Hudson, who at age 31 represents a new breed of forward-thinking farmers, is experimenting with seaweed and soft-shell clams, while he and his father are helping to raise tilapia in an aquaponics facility in Bel Air.  “It’s an ‘and’ not an ‘or,’” says Hoellen. “It’s aquaculture and wild-caught because if the wild-caught can’t be consistently supplied in our restaurants and retail outlets, then it doesn’t stay on the menu. You need both to keep both industries moving.”

Now all Tate has to do is convince people to ask for sustainable seafood. “Nobody is going to do it unless you have someone lighting that spark,” says Shields. “If there ever was a cheerleader for this region, it’s Tj. She was a very good catch.”

We’ve grown accustomed to seeing Baltimore touted on outlets like Food Network and Travel Channel. But last week, the oh-so-chic publication of Vogue published a travel piece lauding some of our best off-the-beaten-path sights, restaurants, and accommodations.

Penned by lifestyle editor Virginia Van Zanten, the article praises the city as an ideal weekend destination, mentioning that Penn Station is only a quick Amtrak ride away from most major boroughs along the northern East Coast.

“One of the great things about Baltimore is that there isn’t an overwhelming amount to do and see,” the piece reads. “There is more than enough to keep you busy, to be sure, but there isn’t the ‘must see and do it all’ pressure that comes with, say, a weekend in New York City.”

Van Zanten suggests booking a room at Mt. Vernon’s luxe Ivy Hotel, and goes on to list standout sights in neighborhoods like Hampden, Fells Point, and Federal Hill.

While a few of our time-honored treasures were thrown in (any Baltimore travel article would be remiss without mentioning the National Aquarium, the Walters Art Museum, and Camden Yards), the writer also gave shout-outs to not-so-touristy destinations including local businesses Bottle of Bread in Mt. Vernon and The Wine Source in Hampden.

A spotlight was also placed on the city’s thriving culinary scene, with nods to trendy food hall Mt. Vernon Marketplace, cozy coffee corner The Bun Shop, French fine-dining destination Arômes, and Korean-inspired eateries Dooby’s and Ekiben—whose “Tofu Brah” steamed buns and baskets of tempura broccoli were described as “unreal.” Van Zanten even gives kudos to the local kombucha stocked in the mini-fridge at the Ivy.

Noticeably absent was any mention of crab houses or the burgeoning oyster bar scene in Baltimore. In classic Vogue style, Van Zanten stuck with the more bourgeois side of the city and avoided getting her hands dirty. In fact, one Reddit user pointed out something similar, writing “I know it’s Vogue, but that’s literally the most expensive weekend one could spend in Baltimore.”

Still, local businesses were understandably thrilled with the national attention. The owners of Ekiben wrote on Instagram: “What do Beyoncé , the new Gilmore Girls series, Obama’s mom jeans, and Ekiben all have in common? They were all featured in this month’s Vogue.”

Regardless of the magazine’s choices, we’re excited that the local scene is getting some well-deserved recognition. Vogue sums it up best by saying that Charm City “may not be the first place that comes to mind when pondering a relaxing weekend getaway; but it should be.”

The exhibit is part of the aquarium’s move toward a more conservation-minded approach to its mission that includes relocating its Atlantic bottlenose dolphins to an outdoor, seawater sanctuary by 2020.

“As the highest honor for new exhibits, this award recognizes the National Aquarium’s innovation and commitment in designing a dynamic, immersive habitat that provides the best in animal care and public education to help connect people with nature,” said Keith Winstein, chair of the AZA’s Honors and Award Committee.

We couldn’t agree more and offer our hearty congratulations to both the zoo and the aquarium. But if you suspect that this post is mostly an excuse to post cute penguin videos, well, you’re right.

William Donald Schaefer stood at the edge of the National Aquarium’s 70,000-gallon seal pool and looked out at the reporters and spectators surrounding the tank. It was July 1981, and the Aquarium was a month behind schedule. The project was a $21.5-million risk, but it was a risk Schaefer knew he needed to take to help revive his city, struggling beneath the weight of empty row houses, unemployment, and high crime. As part of his Inner Harbor project, he believed the Aquarium would help restore Baltimore’s image and faltering economy, and he was willing to swim with the seals to prove it.

Wearing a striped Victorian-era swimsuit and straw hat, Schaefer took a 15-minute splash with a gray seal named Ike and a young model dressed as a mermaid. Onlookers laughed and cheered and, less than a month later, the Aquarium opened its doors on August 8, 1981, beginning the next phase of Baltimore’s urban revitalization.

As the National Aquarium celebrates its 35th anniversary this week, it’s standing on the edge again. As the interests and opinions of its visitors continue to shift away from aging point-and-look exhibits and traditional captivity methods, the Aquarium must follow the example of its original champion and commit to evolving as the city does.

When the 81-year-old National Aquarium closed in Washington D.C. in 2013, the Baltimore location snapped into action. It consolidated its animal collections and employees, redefined the future of the Aquarium, and mapped out the necessary steps to ensure it remained relevant to a changing audience.

“As the reality of the health of the world’s oceans came into sharper focus in recent decades, the Aquarium recognized and embraced the role it could play in motivating people to act on behalf of our planet’s well-being,” says Dale Schmidt, the Aquariums’ executive vice president and COO. “We have focused our efforts on conservation, which has led to the development of a comprehensive plan, and, so far, the reaction by our visitors and partners have been very supportive.”

With the help of a design firm and intelligence company, the Aquarium devised a plan to help it evolve from a tourist attraction with preservation projects into a full-fledged conservation program. Three major projects have been given first priority: creating a waterfront campus, building an off-site animal care and rescue center, and constructing North America’s first seaside dolphin sanctuary.

No one is more eager for change than the eight Atlantic bottlenose dolphins swimming circles in the Marine Mammal Pavilion. For more than 20 years, they had jumped, spun, and whistled for audiences up to seven times a day, before the death of two baby dolphins in 2011 and visitors’ increased discomfort with animal captivity spurred the cancellation of the dolphin shows.

Overnight, the 1,300-seat pavilion transformed from a theater into an educational exhibit, where guests can visit and interact with the dolphins. In June of this year, the Aquarium announced that it plans to build an outdoor, seawater facility for the dolphins by the end of 2020. But until a site location is chosen, purchased, constructed, and the animals are relocated and retrained to live in an ocean-like environment, they will continue to wait in their 1.2 million gallon tank overlooking the Inner Harbor.

Walking through the Aquarium, evidence of the evolution is apparent in every corner. In 2012, the Wings in the Water exhibit, which was housed in the center of the original building for 32 years, was given a $12.5-million renovation and transformed into a replica of an Indo-Pacific coral reef, full of sting rays, sharks, and other larger fish. More recently, the third floor was gutted to create the Living Seashore exhibit, where visitors can experience the sights and sounds of the Mid-Atlantic shoreline.

Kate Rowe, director of media relations for the National Aquarium, says the Aquarium strives to give visitors an experience they can take home.

“You can read things, like some of our exhibits have placards with the animal’s Latin name, and a bit of information, but not everyone understands or takes anything away from that,” Rowe says. “Seeing, smelling, and touch makes it a whole other level of learning.”

Over the past five years, the Aquarium recognized a shift away from ogling at animals behind Plexiglas to engaging in the animals’ daily routines. To accommodate, they added activities like feedings and cleanings to the exhibits, which offer guests opportunities to observe every aspect of the animals’ day-to-day life.

In July, the Aquarium held more than 40 scheduled animal-to-visitor connections each day, which didn’t include daily feedings or other spontaneous interactions. According to Rowe, bringing the behind-the-scenes work to the floor has allowed Aquarium staff members to share their work directly with guests.

“The original thought was that it needed to be beautiful for when people visit,” she says. “But now, it’s so much more of an experience to see how we do it, when we do it, why we do it.”

“I like representing Baltimore in a way,” says Susan Magri, charter volunteer and exhibit guide for the last 35 years. “If I can give a visitor a good experience, hopefully they will tell other people that they had a positive time here in Baltimore.”

The Aquarium drew 1.34 million people in 2012, marking the first increase in visitor attendance since 2006. Six months after the opening of the award-winning Blacktip Reef exhibit, the Aquarium reported a 2.4 percent increase due to the amount of people lined up to see honeycomb stingrays and a rescued three-finned sea turtle named Calypso. In June of this year, The Aquarium announced that it’s on track to increase 7 percent above projections of about 1.3 million visitors.

The Aquarium still has work to do, as the interior layout begs for a change, and the additions of the Marine Mammal Pavilion and Australia: Wild Extremes exhibit have created enough of a traffic flow problem that a committee of volunteers is strategically stationed to help visitors navigate through the building. Jeanne Gang, the architect leading the redesign of the National Aquarium, has recommended relocating the entrance and realigning the escalators to help visitors move through the facility more easily, but restructuring the interior of the Aquarium is not on the immediate to-do list.

Even with a list of changes to be made, one glimpse at the mockup plans for the Inner Harbor 2.0 or the Blacktip Reef exhibit shows how far the Aquarium has come and where it wants to go. It also continues to modernize outside of its walls, through a growing social media presence with daily Instagram posts, Facebook comment contests, and regular video uploads to YouTube.

“The evolution of our offerings and the evolution of our guests have given us the opportunity to see that people want to learn,” Rowe says, “and they want so much more than to just see a tank of beautiful fish.”

Sleepover with the Sharks
7/1. National Aquarium, 501 E. Pratt St. 5:30 p.m.-9 a.m. $120. 410-659-4230. Discover the incredible nature of sharks with a kid-friendly dinner, 4-D film, behind-the-scenes tour, and sleepover.

Owl Prowl & Campfire
7/15. Cromwell Valley Park, 2002 Cromwell Bridge Rd. 8-9:30 p.m. $2-4. 410-887-2503. In the heat of summer, trek through the woods, build a campfire, and learn how to hoot for owls.

Where the Wild Things Art
7/20. The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, 1876 Mansion House Dr. 5:30-8 p.m. $45. 443-552-5276. For one night, sip wine, enjoy a drink, and meet the animals at the zoo.

Wine & Wag
7/21. Maryland SPCA, 3300 Falls Rd. 5:30-7:30 p.m. $10.410-245-8826. At this summertime happy hour, sip orange crushes, listen to live music, and bring your pets to benefit the animals at Maryland SPCA.

Water, Water, Everywhere!
7/23. Irvine Nature Center, 11201 Garrison Forest Rd., Owings Mills. 9:30-11 a.m. $20-40. 443-738-9200. Spend a morning exploring local streams and discovering water life like turtles, crayfish, and frogs.

Yappy Hour
7/21. Hunt Valley Towne Centre, 118 Shawan Rd., Cockeysville. 6 p.m.-dark. Free. 410-833-8848. This happy hour features fun for dog lovers and dogs, with drinks and mingling to benefit the Baltimore Humane Society.

Surrounded by the steel and cement of Baltimore’s urban landscape, it’s easy to forget that natural wonders like the Appalachian Mountains and Chesapeake Bay are within our reach. This Earth Day (April 22), take the opportunity to give back to the environment.

African-American achievements, culture, and heritage are worth celebrating year-round, but this month, take a moment to honor the black community of Baltimore and beyond at one of these special events. In light of recent social unrest here and around the country, use them as a reminder of the leaps and bounds America has made, but also how far we have left to go.

FEB. 5 // AQUARIUM’S BLACK HISTORY MONTH CELEBRATION
National Aquarium, 501 E. Pratt St. 5-8 p.m. Free-$19.95. 410-576-3800. Join the National Aquarium in celebrating African-American heritage with an evening of music, performance, and family fun.

FEB. 6 // MORGAN STATE CHOIR CONCERT
Reginald F. Lewis Museum, 830 E. Pratt St. 3 p.m. $25-30. 443-263-1800. The renowned Morgan State Choir performs traditional African-American spirituals and gospel music in its “Rejoicing in the Spirit” concert.

FEB. 6 // BOOKLOVER’S BREAKFAST
Marriot Waterfront, 700 Aliceanna St. 8:30 a.m. Free. 410-396-5430. The Enoch Pratt Free Library’s 28th bibliophile breakfast features Edward Lewis, co-founder of Essence magazine and author of The Man From Essence: Creating a Magazine for Black Women.

FEB. 8-29 // BLACK HISTORY MONTH AT THE B&O
B&O Railroad Museum, 901 W. Pratt St. Mon.-Sat. 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Sun. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Free-$18. 410-752-2490. This new exhibit celebrates African-American contributions to the American railroad industry.

FEB. 11-14 // THE MEETING
Baltimore Theatre Project, 45 W. Preston St. Thurs.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m. $22. 410-752-8558. Jeff Stetson’s compelling play depicts the supposed meeting of two civil-rights icons, Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

FEB. 25 // SWIMMING IN DARK WATERS
Weinberg Center for the Arts, 20 W. Patrick St., Frederick. 7:30 p.m. $22.50-32.50. 301-600-2828. Performers such as Rhiannon Giddens, Leyla McCalla, and Bhi Bhiman explore the rich history of protest songs in the South.

FEB. 27 // ETHNIC HERITAGE ENSEMBLE
An die Musik Live, 409 N. Charles St. 8 & 9:30 p.m. $20-23. 410-385-2638. This acclaimed jazz trio hits the stage with drums, kalimba, reeds, and trumpets for their 12th annual Black History Month celebration.

FEB. 27-MAR. 5 // BLACK HISTORY MONTH STUDENT COMPETITION & ART EXHIBITION
Creative Alliance, 3134 Eastern Ave. Tues.-Sat. 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Free. 410-276-1651. Now in its sixth year, the Amalie Rothschild Gallery features accomplished artworks by East Baltimore public school students that depict the history of African-Americans in Baltimore City.

There’s a renaissance underway in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay, and it’s not just the delicious, repopulating rockfish. Oysters are everywhere these days, and while they’re no longer confined to “R” months, we’re finally in prime season for wild, salty-sweet ‘sters. This October, make Maryland your oyster and get your shuck on at these seven half-shell happenings.

MERMAID KISS OYSTER FEST
10/6: National Aquarium. 6 p.m. $95-170. Join the Oyster Recovery Partnership to support local oyster restoration and the health of the Chesapeake at its fifth annual party, full of food, music, and drinks on the Inner Harbor.

ROCK HALL FALL FEST
10/10: Main St., Rock Hall. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Free. In this waterfront whistle-stop on the Eastern Shore, mingle with local watermen while you enjoy fresh-caught seafood, a New Orleans-style parade, and live blues and bluegrass.

RYLEIGH’S OYSTERFEST
10/10-11: Ryleigh’s Oyster, 12-9 p.m. Free-$99. For two full days, celebrate the bay’s bivalves in historic Federal Hill with 10-plus raw bars, live music, and the fourth annual shucking competition to benefit the Oyster Recovery Partnership and Living Classrooms.

U.S. OYSTER FEST
10/17-18: St. Mary’s County Fairgrounds, Leonardtown. Times vary. Free-$5. At the king of all oyster festivals, see the best of the best compete in the U.S. National Oyster Shucking Competition, with tons of food, live music, and local vendors in St. Mary’s County.

BULL & OYSTER ROAST
10/24: Mount Harmon Plantation, Earleville. 5 p.m. $60. Take part in the Land of Pleasant Living tradition of fresh oysters and spicy barbecue at this beautiful, old plantation in Cecil County.

THE GREAT BALTIMORE OYSTER FESTIVAL
10/24: West Shore Park. 1-5 p.m. Free. For the first time, spend an afternoon in the Inner Harbor slurping oysters, sipping beer, and listening to live music by bluegrass bands like Them Eastport Oyster Boys and The High & Wides.

ST. MICHAELS OYSTER FEST
10/31: Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, St. Michaels. 10 a.m. Free-$18. Get your Eastern Shore oyster on with wild shucks, live music, boat rides, retriever demonstrations, and, best of all, a peek inside the museum’s working boatyard.

If you find yourself—like most shopping malls, drug stores, and Starbucks—already over Thanksgiving and eager to skip straight to snowmen and hot chocolate, then you’re in luck. Here are nine early holiday happenings to get you that festive fix. 

THE POLAR EXPRESS IN 4-D
NOV. 14-JAN. 4, 2015: National Aquarium, 501 E. Pratt St. Showtimes vary. $5-35. 410-576-3800. This festive film goes 4-D with special effects and sensory details like mist, wind, and the smell of hot chocolate.

WINDOW WONDERLAND
NOV. 19: Harbor East. 5:30-8:30 p.m. Free. The unveiling event for this month-long holiday arts exhibit features seasonal storefronts decorated by local artists, plus carolers, stilt walkers, acrobats, and refreshments.

INNER HARBOR ICE SKATING
NOV. 21-JAN. 19: Inner Harbor Ice Rink, McKeldin Sq. Open daily. Times subject to change. $7-12. 443-743-3306. For the first time in a decade, ice skating returns to the Inner Harbor with this seasonal, outdoor rink, so grab a sweater (and your beau) and take advantage while it lasts.

CHRISTMAS VILLAGE IN BALTIMORE
NOV. 27-DEC. 24: West Shore Park, 501 Light St. Sun.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-7 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Free-$5. 443-760-0686. This outdoor German Christmas market boasts 45 vendors of arts, crafts, and goods, plus a Bavarian beer garden for brews, bratwurst, and mulled wine. 

THE BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA CHRISTMAS SHOW
NOV. 28: Weinberg Center for the Arts, 20 W. Patrick St., Frederick. 8 p.m. $20-30. 301-600-2828. The Grammy-winning Blind Boys of Alabama perform their creative take on classic holiday hits. 

25TH ANNUAL FESTIVAL OF TREES
NOV. 28-30: Maryland State Fairgrounds, 2200 York Rd., Timonium. Fri.-Sat. 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Sun. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Free-$13. 443-923-7300. This holiday extravaganza includes gingerbread towns, toy trains, live music, festive food, and over 100 craft boutiques.

HOLIDAY FESTIVAL OF TRAINS AND TOYS
NOV. 28-JAN. 25, 2015: B&O Railroad Museum at Ellicott City Station, 2711 Maryland Ave., Ellicott City. Wed.-Sun. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Free-$16. 410-461-1945. For post-Thanksgiving family fun, head to the B&O Museum for its annual holiday celebration of toy trains and model railroads. 

A CHRISTMAS CAROL
NOV. 29-DEC. 23: Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, 7 S. Calvert St. Thurs.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 & 7 p.m. $15-48. 410-244-8570. Kick off the holiday season with this Charles Dickens classic. Set in 19th-century Baltimore, the play gets a Charm City twist and features a cast of local ghosts. 

JASON’S WOODS
OCT. 3-NOV. 8: Jason’s Woods, 99 Stehman Rd., Lancaster, PA. Fri-Sat. 7-10 p.m., Sun. 7-9 p.m. jasonswoods.com. Six attractions, including a Horrifying Hayride and a cursed corn maze.

MAKE-YOUR-OWN GLASS-BLOWN PUMPKIN
OCT. 23: Corradetti Glassblowing Studio & Gallery, 2010 Clipper Park Rd., Ste. 119. 6, 7, and 8 p.m. corradetti.com. Create your own four-inch pumpkin. Wine served!

ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE
OCT. 24: Cromwell Valley Park, 2002 Cromwell Bridge Rd., Parkville. 6:30-8 p.m. cromwellvalleypark.org. Learn wilderness survival skills you would need if modern technology fails. Ages 10 and up.

ZOMBIE HORDE SCAVENGER HUNT
OCT. 24: Robert E. Lee Park, 1000 Lakeside Dr. 7 p.m. relpnc.org. Escape zombies and win prizes for collecting items along the trail.  Ages 12 and up.

ZOOBOOO!
OCT. 24-26:The Maryland Zoo, 1876 Mansion House Dr. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Free-$17.50 marylandzoo.org. Celebration full of trick-or-treating, fun carnival games, and live entertainment. 

ANNUAL HALLOWMARINE CELEBRATION
OCT. 25-26: National Aquarium, 501 E. Pratt St. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. aqua.org. Celebration with crafts, a costume parade, and animal encounters.

SPOOKY SCIENCE
OCT. 25: Maryland Science Center, 601 Light St. 12-4 p.m. mdsci.org. Enjoy creepy crafts, activities, and fang-tastic demonstrations.

HARRY POTTER HALLOWEEN
OCT. 25-26: Oregon Ridge Nature Center, 13555 Beaver Dam Rd., Cockeysville. 1 p.m. oregonridgenaturecenter.org. Enter the world of Harry Potter with wizard crafts and a visit from a magical creature. Ages 5 and up. 

15TH ANNUAL GREAT HALLOWEEN LANTERN PARADE & FESTIVAL: KALEIDOSCOPE
OCT. 25: Patterson Park, 3:30 p.m. creativealliance.org. Annual lantern parade and festival. Parade at 7 p.m.

GLOW BALL DANCE PARTY & COSTUME CONTEST
OCT. 25: Creative Alliance, 3134 Eastern Ave. 8:30 p.m. creativealliance.org. Adults-only Lantern Parade after-party.

HAUNTED HALLOWEEN HIKE
OCT. 25: Robert E. Lee Park, 1000 Lakeside Dr. 6:30-8:30 p.m. relpnc.org. Solve a Halloween mystery while encountering witches and wildlife along the way. Costumes welcome. Ages 5 to 12. 

15TH ANNUAL GOODWILL GRIDIRON HALLOWEEN PARTY
OCT. 27: Dave & Busters, 7000 Arundel Mills Cir., Hanover. 7 p.m. goodwillgridiron.com. Party with the Baltimore Ravens that includes food, open bar, a costume contest, dancing, games, and a silent auction.

TRICKS AND TREATS AT OREGON RIDGE
OCT. 31: Oregon Ridge Nature Center, 13555 Beaver Dam Rd., Cockeysville. 4:30 p.m. oregonridgenaturecenter.org. Wear your costume and discover the tricks and treats that plants and animals present along the way. Ages 5 and up. 

HALLOWEEN 2014
OCT. 31: Maryland Science Center, 601 Light St., 8 p.m.-1 a.m. $35-65. halloween-baltimore.com. In its third year, this Halloween extravaganza features craft beer, live music across four unique areas, a costume contest, all of the science exhibits open, and a new art gallery.

For 20 years, the National Aquarium was synonymous with its dolphin show until it was canceled and turned into “Dolphin Discovery” in 2012. Now, the aquarium is in talks to relocate its eight dolphins altogether. 

“Most large mammals in zoos get to ‘retire’ in elephant or lion sanctuaries,” says Aquarium CEO John Racanelli. “But there isn’t one yet for dolphins. If we do relocate them, it must be a carefully researched project.” 

The aquarium is in talks to spearhead the first seaside dolphin sanctuary in the country—although it’s at least three to five years away—and its priorities include keeping the dolphins together and maintaining a connection between the animals and visitors (perhaps through a program like Skype). 

“Our audience has evolved,” Racanelli says. “Baby boomers grew up on Flipper, but millennials grew up on Free Willy and The Cove. They are interested in these animals being treated more humanely.” 

He admits that conservation documentaries like The Cove and Blackfish have added some pressure: “They have been a real catalyst. Anyone who is still keeping dolphins and whales is paying attention to these trends.”