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Senior Aquarist Chris Van Damme gingerly holds one end of a herring when feeding Elliott and the other Pacific spiny dogfish at the Aquarium. Dogfish—who are just as enthusiastic about meals as their furry namesakes—can chomp through their food with astonishing speed and force. As Chris shares in our interview, it’s just one of the many reasons these creatures inspire awe and affection from their caretakers.

It’s fair to say that Senior Aquarist Alan Tomita knows more about porcupinefish than most people. An expert on tropical fish, he’s worked at the Seattle Aquarium for more than three decades. In this Q&A, Alan shares insights from his years spent caring for porcupinefish.

We recently shared an amazing array of fascinating facts about sea otters (here’s a fave: they have up to 10 times more hairs in a square inch of fur than you have on your entire head!). Now we’re going to take a deep dive with our own Sekiu and her “roomie,” Mishka. Our own Caroline Hempstead, lead animal care specialist for sea otters, gave us some great, insider-only details about this dynamic duo—as well as what it took for her to land her dream job as their caretaker.

En una nueva campaña desarrollada y producida por la organización sin fines de lucro Sachamama, el Acuario de Seattle participa junto a otros importantes vecinos de Seattle involucrados en esfuerzos para afrentar las amenazas a la salud de Puget Sound, y el impacto que esas amenazas podrían tener en la vitalidad y economía de nuestras comunidades.

Through a new campaign developed and produced by the nonprofit Sachamama, the Seattle Aquarium is featured alongside other prominent locals engaged in efforts to address threats to the health of Puget Sound—and the impact those threats could have on the vitality of our communities and economy.

With their bulbous bodies, large eyes and beak-like teeth, porcupinefish stand out from the crowd. But there’s more to these quirky fish than meets the eye. Test your ability to parse porcupinefish fact from “fishin.’”

Stand in our Underwater Dome for a few minutes, and you might catch a glimpse of the Pacific spiny dogfish living there. How much do you know about this nimble, fierce and yet understated fish? Sink your teeth into our quiz to find out.

How many hairs do you have on your head? Most humans have about 100,000, give or take a few. But sea otters have anywhere between 500,000 and 1,000,000 hairs per square inch of skin—meaning that one inch of a sea otter’s fur has between five and 10 times the number of hairs you have on your entire head!

The Clean Seas Research Program at the Seattle Aquarium is thrilled to announce the start of environmental testing and our role as scientists and one of two testing sites for The TOM FORD Plastic Innovation Prize powered by Lonely Whale.

Kids of all ages love visiting the Aquarium to see the animals—but did you know some of them also support the Aquarium’s mission on their own time? Teens in our Youth Ocean Advocates (YOA) program, open to students in grades 9–12, volunteer for a variety of marine conservation and advocacy activities during the school year or over the summer. 

From youth engagement to ocean policy advocacy, the Seattle Aquarium is working to advance climate solutions to avert further ocean acidification and ocean warming and build the resilience of marine ecosystems and coastal communities. Climate change is a multifaceted challenge, with impacts at local, state, national and global scales.

Here, Interpretation Coordinator Nicole Killebrew and Senior Ocean Policy Manager Nora Nickum discuss the challenges of climate change, potential policy solutions and opportunities for hope. 

In a recent series of blog posts, we described what it’s like to care for the 12,000+ animals that live at the Aquarium and how we aim to provide the best lives possible for them. This post is devoted to the final stage: end-of life care and, when necessary, euthanasia—which means producing a humane death that is rapid, avoids pain and minimizes any distress. While many of the animals in our care die of natural causes, euthanasia is a critical and compassionate element of the care we provide. No animal can live forever, and we want the animals in our care to pass as peacefully as possible when it’s time.