The Shaw Institute’s Environmental Education Center now includes a Seahorse aquarium! But the seahorses are only half the story. The 70-gallon tank features synthetic eelgrass, a replica of the real thing due to it being endangered. In the wild, it’s a ribbon-like flowering plant that forms one of the most productive and most threatened habitats along Maine’s coastline. The exhibit is designed to be a window into a living eelgrass meadow, the kind of sheltered, swaying habitat where seahorses anchor themselves with their tails and ambush tiny prey. Listen below, as Dr. Rolsky gives WERU’s Amy Browne all the details.
Photo: Oliver Boit