Genevieve is a former intern from the dive department. She joined Aquarium divers in the Bahamas to help collect fish, under special permits, so that visitors in Boston can appreciate the splendor of a healthy Caribbean reef.  After a top-to-bottom transformation, the Giant Ocean Tank is expected to reopen in early summer with more than twice the number of fish than last fall. 

Blue chromis | Photo: Mark Rosenstein

Collecting days begin at 7:00 am on the Coral Reef, in order to ensure at least three to four dives each day. On Sunday, we logged three dives, each of them very successful in terms of collecting. Between the first two dives of the day, the group collected 74 fish, the majority being blue and brown chromis.

Blue chromis | Photo: Mark Rosenstein

Blue chromis are a deep blue that will stand out against the colors of the reef in the Giant Ocean Tank, making these bright fish a priority on the fish wishlist.

Balloonfish | Photo: Mark Rosenstein

The third dive greatly increased the biodiversity of the wells, bringing up many different species of fish but in lower numbers. The porcupine fish and trumpet fish are cool additions to the Giant Ocean Tank because of their unique shape and pattern.

Pufferfish | Photo: Mark Rosenstein

Due to their social personalities, ballonfish are favorites of the GOT divers. We hope to eventually feature them in our GOT visitor interaction program. Lastly, we got our first white spotted filefish on board!

Trip fish—white-spotted filefish in a holding tank on the boat | Photo: Mark Rosenstein

The white spotted file is the fish of the trip, chosen because of their interesting color scheme and markings. They can also grow to be pretty large, a valuable trait in the new GOT. Look for these guys peering out from underneath coral overhangs.

By showing visitors the beauty of a healthy Caribbean reef, we hope to inspire people to do what they can to protect these reefs and marine habitats around the world. Thanks to Mark Rosenstein for sharing his beautiful pictures!

Genevieve is a former intern from the dive department. She joined Aquarium divers in the Bahamas to help collect fish, under special permits, so that visitors in Boston can appreciate the splendor of a healthy Caribbean reef. After a top-to-bottom transformation, the Giant Ocean Tank is expected to reopen in early summer with some of the fish collected during this trip! 

After a rough crossing from Miami to the Bahamas, the group was eager to get in the water and start diving. We stopped at Rainbow Reef, a fairly shallow and easy dive sight. This was to be the only dive of the trip when we did not catch fish, but instead, focused on feeling comfortable in the water with our equipment and for those of us who do not dive regularly, it was a nice diving refresher.

Divers on the reef | Photo: Mark Rosenstein

For our second dive at Rainbow Reef, we descended in groups of three or four and began chasing fish. The majority of our group has collected before; either at the Aquarium during the process of draining the Giant Ocean Tank for the renovations or on previous collecting trips. I dove with Christine and Shannon, who work in Visitor Education, and Mari, the 2012 Dive co-op student. We chased a bonded pair of banded butterflyfish but since we only caught one, we released the fish back onto the reef. The Aquarium makes a point to keep bonded pairs intact; if we can’t catch both, we don’t catch either. Watch this pair of bonded pair of butterflies swimming in the GOT.

Other groups had more success and we moved the first sixteen fish into the wells. All of the caught species were on the fish “wishlist”, so Sherrie, the trip leader and a Senior Aquarist for the Fishes Department, was happy with the variety in the size and color, since these are key characteristics for the inhabitants in the new Giant Ocean Tank.
By showing visitors the beauty of a healthy Caribbean reef, we hope to inspire people to do what they can to protect these reefs and marine habitats around the world.

The New England Aquarium's transformation is taking place behind the scaffolding and below the water line. Follow this link to learn more about the construction happening in the Giant Ocean Tank. And here's what's happening in the temporary display, the Tropical Oceans Exhibit.

It may not look like it now, but there is a lot happening in the temporary exhibit where all the GOT animals are living now. Here's a special look at life below the water line!



The GOT will be home to over 100 species when it reopens early this summer! This video introduces just a few of those species—like fish in the grunts family, a short bigeye, a balloonfish, spadefishes, a queen trigger, fish in the jacks family, a sargassum trigger, a Southern stingray, and of course Myrtle, the green sea turtle, and her friend (word used lightly) Carolina, the loggerhead sea turtle. And if you look closely, you'll see some of our transport devices currently residing inside the tray in this video.

Myrtle, like our marathon team runners, has been carbo loading recently to get ready for her GOT reintroduction.

Stay tuned, we'll have a lot more to say about all the new animals that will join Myrtle the GOT!