IV. The Aquarium 



The aquarium has always been a vital part of Woods 

 Hole as a scientific and educational center. It was organized 

 by Baird, who strongly believed in the necessity of popularizing 

 marine biology and explaining to the general public the aims 

 and achievements of government research in conservation. No 

 appropriations were made, however, for the operation of the 

 aquarium. It was assumed that this work would be performed 

 voluntarily and jointly by the Director and Superintendent of 

 the Station. For many years R. A. Goffin, collector for the 

 Laboratory and later its Superintendent until 1941, took care 

 of the aquarium to the best of his ability and with limited funds. 

 In arranging the aquarium material, emphasis was placed on 

 New England food fishes and on invertebrates commonly found 

 along the shores and used in the MBL classes and for research. 

 The aquarium doors were open every day from 8:00 a. m. to 

 8:00 p. m. in order to give the MBL investigators a chance to 

 visit the exhibits between breakfast time and the beginning of 

 morning classes at 9:00 a.m. Another favored time was 

 between 7:00 and 8:00 p. m. The tourists and other visitors 

 usually came between 10:00 a. m. and 5:00 p. m. The aquarium 

 was frequently crowded on holidays, especially when bad 

 weather kept the tourists from the beaches. The visitors were 

 invited to register and write their impressions. Spot checks 

 conducted at various times of the day showed that in the morning 

 and late afternoon hours the ratio of those who signed their names 

 and those who disregarded the request was 1 to 10. During 

 other hours it varied from 1 to 3 to 1 to 5. From these and other 

 checks it was possible to estimate that the number of visitors 

 exceeded 1, 000 per day on rainy days and holidays. In 1945-50 

 the average number of aquarium visitors for the entire 90-day 

 period it was open was about 250 per day. 



With the organization of the School of Science for the boys 

 and girls of the parents doing research work at Woods Hole, 

 arrangements were made for the children to have their own tanks 

 for keeping and watching the animals they collected in the sea. 

 The old hatchery provided plenty of room for this purpose. By 

 this policy many acts of juvenile delinquency were prevented 

 since the participants of the "aquarium projects" acted as voluntary 

 guards. 



It was my practice to mingle with the crowd and learn 

 directly their reactions to our display. It was a surprise to find 

 out how many college instructors in biology had never seen live 

 dogfish, squid, or other common animals. Some of them admired 

 the graceful movements of the fish, the continuous color change 

 of the squid, the sliding motion of starfish, and the brilliance of 

 our common red sponge. Their previous acquaintance with these 



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