Every spring our interactive program with the seals switches over from the winter program to an even more immersive activity called Take a Dip with the Marine Mammals. This popular program gives you a behind-the-scenes look at the marine mammal exhibits—either the harbor seal exhibit on the front plaza or the marine mammal center overlooking Boston Harbor with fur seals and sea lions—and lets you get in the water with the animals!

Billy Hoysgaard shared his video with us and we thought it would be a fantastic way to impress on our blog readers just how close you can get to the animals with this fantastic Aquarium experience! Here's his first-hand perspective.


Take a Dip with a harbor seal at the New England Aquarium by Billy Hoysgaard

As Billy experienced, visitors slide down to sit in the water and work side by side with a trainer. While the actual activities each visitor will do varies depending on the animal that day, participants will likely be able to feed, rub an animal's fur, deliver hand signals and maybe even get a kiss.

"I learned so much from the trainer Erin, and Lana the seal," Billy said. "Erin was really welcoming, warm, informative and knowledgable. Whether Lana was doing twirls or giving kisses, she was so well behaved...and beautiful! I loved feeding her, and working on a new 'hand holding' skill that Erin was teaching Lana."

Taking a Dip with the fur seals

These programs make great gifts for any animal lover—like Billy. "My girlfriend surprised me for my 32nd birthday with Take a Dip with Lana. She learned about it from a friend who had also done the Take a Dip program," Billy explained. "What made it even more special is once we arrived at the Aquarium, we learned that just days before, it was also Lana's 32nd birthday!" These programs are also a great opportunity to expand your knowledge of the Aquarium as well as marine mammals in the wild.

A seal smooches a participant in our Take a Dip with a harbor seal program

Reservations are required for these special programs. Call 617-973-5206 to book your Take a Dip program to find out what the animals eat, discover their unique personalities, favorite toys and each seal's special skills. And you'll walk away with new appreciation for these amazing marine mammals and wonderful memories of a truly unique experience.

The first animals visitors see during a trip to the Aquarium is usually the harbor seals. Their outdoor exhibit on the front plaza lets you get within inches of these plump pinnipeds to watch them bask on flat rocks, bob or glide through the water. It's such a thrill watching people—young and old—light up when they see the seals' faces, especially when the seals interact through the glass.

A recent visitor shared this image of his daughter going nose-to-nose with Chacoda. Will you look at the delight on her face?! Thank you for sharing your picture, Bill Woods.

A young visitor interacts with Chacoda | Photo: Bill Woods

Chacoda is from our family of spotted seals. He's known for his painting masterpieces, clean teeth and his sporting prowess. But what really gets people's attention is his voice. Listen to him cheer for the Patriots. In fact, you can even download a Chacoda ringtone—no joke!

Come by the Aquarium this weekend and see if the seals want to interact through the glass. Want to get even closer to a seal? Like, in the water with a seal? Consider our Take a Dip with a Seal programs with the fur and harbor seals! Before the weather turns cold for good, don waders for one of these incredible interactive experiences. Get a front-row seat as a trainer teaches new skills, feel the seal's belly fur, maybe even get a kiss.

The Atlantic harbor seals that reside in the exhibit on the Aquarium Plaza can often be spotted bobbing in the water, napping or playing with toys. Sometimes you can catch them during a group lap swim!


In this post, we explain how the harbor seals and fur seals use very different techniques to glide through the water. The fur seals use their long, flexible front flippers to propel themselves through the water. The harbor seals use their hind flippers and body to glide through the water, their short front flippers are used more for navigation.


Visitors love interacting with the seals on the Aquarium's Plaza.

Come by to watch the seals in action at the New England Aquarium. Pay attention to see how they move through the water, then head inside to compare the harbor seal swim with our fur seals and sea lions. There are many different ways to get moving, and that's OK. Just stay active!

With the 116th Boston Marathon just around the corner, I am always inspired to get out there and start running again. This got me thinking about how the different types of seals at the Aquarium move around on land. Eared seals (all fur seals and sea lions) have adapted to move quickly and easily on land, while true seals, like our harbor seals aren't quite as agile. Why is that?

It all comes down to feet, or in this case, flippers. Fur seals and sea lions have larger flippers and can rotate their back flippers underneath their bodies so they have "four on the floor." Check out Ursula's flippers here.



Other seals have much shorter flippers and their back flippers stay behind them. To move on land they have to move on their bellies, similar to an inchworm.



Now lets see those flippers in action. (Be sure to listen carefully, you can hear Trumpet's belly slapping the ground when she moves!)



We have a few people from the Aquarium running the Marathon on Monday. We wish them and all of the participants the best of luck!

And don't forget, next Friday, April 20, the fur seals will be taking on Team Tiburon in a friendly competition in preparation for the upcoming "Tough Mudder" race. We hope to see you all here at the NEAq cheering on your favorite team. Our next Fitness Friday post will highlight the training techniques used by the seals to prepare, so stay tuned!

Last week we saw Chacoda doing some crunches. Now it's Amelia's turn. Even the trainer is getting in on the action!



 The harbor seals at the Aquarium come from two different families — the spotted family and the non-spotted family. Chuck hails from the spotted family, these guys have distinct spots on their bellies.


Amelia is a member of the non-spotted family.



No matter their relatives, each of our harbor seals stays quite active. Happy Fitness Friday, all!

The harbor seals at the New England Aquarium may not have the long, graceful flippers of their furry cousins in the New Balance Foundation Marine Mammal Center, but they certainly can move. Watch as Trumpet and Amelia execute their version of a jump in the watery harbor seal exhibit.



If you're impressed by this marine mammal action, don't miss the rest of the New Balance Foundation Fitness Friday videos! Check out Isaac doing a flipper-stand, or see Ursula doing some good quality stretching with friends.

Photo: John Correa

Ever wonder what it’s like to get up close and personal to an Atlantic harbor seal? How about a Northern fur seal? Well now’s your chance! Sign up for one of our Meet and Greet programs and this could be you:



You’ll be paired up with one of the marine mammal trainers, get a behind-the-scenes tour of our exhibits and then come join us for a training session. Each program is unique depending on the trainer and the animal, but you might have the opportunity to touch, kiss, feed or train one of our seals!These programs can make great gifts!

Contact our reservations department for more information and to make your reservation for this special program. Call 617-973-5206 and ask about the Meet and Greet the Seals program. This program is available from November through March.

We look forward to seeing you soon!

Good news seal fans! The Aquarium's new Take a Dip with the Harbor Seals program is up and running. We posted about this fun opportunity earlier, but now we have a web page devoted to the program and we've made this video preview of what will happen when you come hang out with the seals.



Get program details and find out how to book here. We'll see you with the seals!

This summer, the New England Aquarium is letting visitors get closer than ever to the animals. Not only can you touch shark and rays at the Aquarium's new touch tank, but now you can put on a pair of waders and hop into the harbor seals exhibit! We're happy to announce a brand new program for visitors to add to their Aquarium visit. We're calling it "Take a Dip with the Harbor Seals."


So what happens in the program? Here are the details. Visitors can sit waist deep in the water with the harbor seals at your fingertips! Being in the water is a unique and exciting way to learn about our harbor seals.


The participant is escorted behind the scenes of the Harbor Seal Exhibit by a trainer or volunteer. They are briefed on what will occur during the session and how to safely interact with the seals. Then the participant puts on water proof waders and enter the exhibit area with the trainer. They step into the water and sit on a flat rock so they are waist deep in the water with their feet hanging over the edge of the rock.


Then the trainer calls the seal over and the interaction begins. You will be eye to eye with the seal, and may have the opportunity to give a belly rub, touch a flipper, feed the seal some fish and perhaps even get a kiss. During this program the trainer will point out some of the harbor seal's unique characteristics and what to do if you come across a seal on the beach, or while fishing or boating. We can't guarantee specific interactions, but these are examples of some that may be offered on any particular day. So are you ready to come hang out with the seals?




Get the program specifics here.

How would you like to hear a harbor seal say "hey! hey!" every time your phone rings? Well now you can. The Aquarium's youngest harbor seal, Chacoda, often makes gutteral noises. The trainers have been working with that behavior to see if Chacoda can learn to vocalize like his famous grandfather, Hoover.



Well, sounds like Chuck is getting pretty close to the sound of someone calling out "hey!" Click the play button to hear for yourself and use the links to download an MP3 for your phone.

Download MP3. (Some users may need to right click and select "save" or "save as.")

It has been a while since our seal of the week blog. The arrival of our fur seals and the opening of the New Balance Foundation Marine Mammal Center has certainly kept us busy. So, sorry for the delay and on we go with our Seal Of The Week! This week we are going to highlight Reggae.

Reggae is a male Atlantic harbor seal born at the New England Aquarium on May 30, 1993. He is the son of Smoke and the brother of Amelia. Just like Smoke, Reggae has no spots on his belly. He also happens to be the largest of our seals. His maximum weight is 230 lbs!

Reggae knows a lot of different behaviors. One of the newest is a high five that Lindsay posted last week. Check it out! He also recently had an x-ray done of his teeth. Through training, Reggae learned to hold a small x-ray plate in his mouth while on his back. He had to hold completely still with the hand held x-ray machine against his chin. Stay tuned for a video blog showing how great Reggae was during the procedure.

In addition to doing x-rays of his teeth, we also brush Reggae's teeth on a regular basis. Unlike humans, seals have no molars for chewing. Reggae uses his sharp teeth to grip onto the fish that we feed him and then he swallows it down whole. His birthday blog shows what that looks like. We want to make sure that those teeth stay in tip top shape. Here is a picture of Reggae having his teeth brushed.

We are always working on new things with Reggae so every session is different. We feed Reggae and his exhibit mates four times a day so come check it out!

~Patty

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If you have walked by the Atlantic Harbor Seal exhibit recently, you may have seen something that only happens during this time of year. Our harbor seals are molting! Molting is a process where a seal sheds its old coat of hair as a brand new beautiful coat grows in. For much of the two to three weeks it takes to molt, our seals spend a lot of time hauled out on the rocks. It may look like they are just taking advantage of the beautiful summer weather, but staying out on the rocks serves a really important purpose.


This gives them the opportunity to rest and conserve energy as their bodies go through the molting process. During the molting season, which begins in early July and ends in early August, there are days when you may find all seven seals taking a snooze during the day. As the new hair grows in, their skin can be more sensitive, so we give the seals Vitamin E until their new coats are complete. Check out the picture above. How many seals can you find hauled out on the rocks?

Smoke made the paper the other day! Her picture was featured in Boston's Metro newspaper in an article discussing affordable family outings. Click here for the article. What the Metro forgot to mention is that the Aquarium's harbor seal exhibit is FREE to the public. Talk about a bargain! Stop by the next time you're in the downtown area.

-Justin

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Trumpet and her two kids, Cayenne and Chuck, have birthdays within one day of each other so we decided to have a group celebration this weekend. Cayenne turns 16 tomorrow, Trumpet turns 24 on Sunday, and Chuck is 14 years old Monday! We celebrated with a birthday cake, but instead of having one made out of ice cream, their cake was made out of capelin and squid. Yum! Of course, we had to take some birthday pictures.

We are always trying to come up with new enrichment ideas for the seals, and in fact, this was one of my goals for the year. Yesterday we introduced 10 moonjellies to the harbor seal exhibit, with the hopes that the seals would enjoy something that actively moved throughout the water column.



Most of the seals were resting, so they didn't pay any attention to the jellies at all, but they did attract Chuck's attention.

Check it out!




-Erin

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