Maine State Aquarium — Attraction in Boothbay Harbor

Update: I am a little confused about your response as you said you will also have a jellyfish touch tank even though you mentioned the stress from people touching them kills them on a regular basis. How does that instill an appreciation for Maine's ecosystems or make you any different than the other touch tanks you were criticizing when we were there?

Extremely disappointed! We have been to aquariums all over the United States and I have always raved about how wonderful this one is to everyone. When we went 5 years ago, they had a shark touch tank, a huge additional touch tank with tons of different sea creatures, and enthusiastic, kind staff. When we went this time, they are under construction. They removed the shark touch tank and made the other touch tank area a fraction of the size it was before. They don't even let you touch the sea animals but a portion of each hour so if you show up during the times they aren't allowing people to touch, you can only look at them. All the reasons that I raved about this location before were essentially removed. When I inquired about what happened to the shark touch tanks with the 26 year old lobster, etc. the staff member who couldn't have been more than mid 20's went on a tangent about the culture changing and how it wasn't ethical to touch them because they don't like it. I then inquired about the fact that they are adding a moon jelly touch tank and why they would add that or allow the other sea animals to be touched, wouldn't they also not like being touched? She was extremely condescending and unfriendly once I inquired about that, almost as if I had made her angry for asking the question. Again, all the things that made me rave about how wonderful this place was before has completely changed for the worse. We drove 2 hours one way from where we are staying to end up leaving after less than 15 minutes. Really incredibly sad to see how bad things have gotten here. I truly wish we had not have come back as at least if I hadn't we would have still had the good memories of how great the location was before all...

A fun day trip for a family with kids. It's a smallish aquarium with a lot of tanks filled with local marine animals...one of which I dubbed the "All American Tank" which had a red, white, and blue lobster in it. Who knew lobsters come in so many colors! They also have a small lobster hatchery (an egg carton with a baby lobster in each egg spot) which I found out later they have to keep lobsters separated because lobsters are cannibals which I learned along with a lot of other interesting facts about lobsters and lobstering in a presentation they had in a separate building. I highly recommend you attend this. Kids will love it...lots of hands on. They also have two touch tanks in the main building. One with sharks and the craziest lobster I have ever seen...multi-colored! I asked the girl working there where it came from and she said from right here and pointed out the window.(bar harbor) btw this is a beautiful location. There is also a second touch tank that takes up the entire side of the room chock full of all sorts of sea creatures from scallops, clams, mussels, and more! Even sea cucumbers. There are guides there to answer all the questions the kids or you might have. I especially liked this and am not ashamed to say I had a few. Great Staff! It's a little out of the way but if you like a scenic drive like I do, this is the place for you. Btw I went with 5 ppl and admission...

We have been eagerly waiting for the aquarium to open since moving to Maine in 2021 being that we live only 25 minutes away we thought it would be a great place to take our little one on rainy days to get out of the house. It's now 2024 and we went to the aquarium the weekend that it opened and it looked like myself, my husband, and every other family was very confused on the size of the place. Visitors including our family would walk outside onto the deck expecting it to lead to more exhibits to be met with nothing. It took us approximately 10 minutes to walk through the one room with very few tanks. If the touch tanks are closed, which apparently happens frequently, then there really isn't much to do besides look at the lobster and the 3 fish? I'm unsure if they are adding more to the aquarium or if this is it. If that's the case and they will be adding more, they should have made it clear when re opening that it was going to be a small one room exhibit until further notice. If this is going to be all that comes from this aquarium, it was 100% a waste of tax dollars for the amount that was spent on this project. We were overall disappointed that this isn't even worth another 25 minute drive. People in Maine need things to do especially on rainy days or in the winter months. Sadly, although beautiful and new, this wont be one of those things until if/when...