Visitors gather outside the Maine State Aquarium in West Boothbay Harbor on July 3. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

BOOTHBAY HARBOR — Aquatic fanatics across the country are making the newly reopened Maine State Aquarium a top destination on their treks across Vacationland.

The 31-year-old program reopened to the public June 27 and, so far, attendance has been fantastic, chaotic and loads of fun according to aquarium staff. The aquarium’s open days run Wednesday to Sunday, and with school out for summer, there is almost always a long line of people waiting for the doors to open.

The most commanding sight when entering the large, one-room space is the full skeleton of a minke whale suspended from the ceiling. Beneath the behemoth’s bones are two 1,300-gallon tanks that contain live species native to the Gulf of Maine, most notably lumpfish, colorful anemones, starfish, horseshoe crabs and a trifecta of rare-color lobsters: blue, yellow and “cotton candy.”

The famed Maine State Aquarium touch tank has returned as a 300-gallon hands-on experience modeled after the tide pools of Burnt Island off the coast of Boothbay Harbor. Among the sea life kids and adults can touch with the help of museum staff are starfish, horseshoe crabs, hermit crabs, sea snails and sea cucumbers.

The aquarium also boasts activity stations for young and old. Kids can learn to band lobster claws and haul lobster traps by hand on the model fishing vessel “Lawbstah,” a fan favorite, say aquarium staff.

Boothbay native Rachel Abrahams returned to Maine from Memphis, Tennessee, with children Wesley, 2, and Reagan, 4, to visit family. Last week, she said she was pleasantly surprised that her visit coincided with the first few weeks of the aquarium’s reopening.

“We were thrilled to hear the aquarium was back open,” Abrahams said, adding that Wesley and Reagan were particularly fond of banding lobsters and gawking at Elvis, the blue lobster. “And anything they can put their hands on.”

“I just liked doing all the lobster stuff,” Reagan said before heading off to the next thing.

Staff member Emma McCaffrey holds an Atlantic horseshoe crab for children to touch July 3 at the Maine State Aquarium in West Boothbay Harbor. McCaffrey, a sophomore at the University of Maine at Orono, is interning at the aquarium for the summer. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

Though the exhibits are all fresh and new, the newest addition in concept is the Research Spotlight area, a series of interactive touchscreens that showcase all the Gulf of Maine’s species and most of the Maine Department of Marine Resources’ research. The Maine DMR runs the museum.

The updated, rejuvenated museum has been so popular, staff on the busiest days have been forced to turn people away as early as 10:30 a.m., according to Dottie Yunger, the DMR’s education director. It’s an awesome problem to have, she said.

Yunger started her position in late September 2021 when all expectations were to open by the summer of 2022. However, Yunger and others at the DMR were surprised to discover the level of renovations the decades-old building needed and the pandemic-related delays in getting the work done.

Maine’s only aquarium reopened June 26 in West Boothbay Harbor. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

“It needed new floors, it needed new walls, it needed new electrical wiring. . . . There were supply chain issues. We were trying to get acrylic for tanks at the same time everybody was still getting acrylic and Plexiglas to make cough shields. . . . Trying to do all of that as we were coming out of a pandemic — nobody was expecting to need to do those renovations, let alone the extent of them.”

Yunger said the project took about a year and ate up most of the aquarium’s budget. Then, in 2023, an additional $850,000 was secured to add new exhibits. She said it allowed staff to expand the museum’s scope, but it also took more planning, which made a 2023 opening date impossible.

“It has been a big relief to be able to open this year because we know how popular the aquarium is,” Yunger said.

The aquarium’s popularity is not hyperbole, either. Yunger, who moved from Maryland to take on the job of reopening and running the aquarium, had some interesting introductions to people in the community. After cutting her finger while working on an exhibit, Yunger found herself down the road in a St. Andrews Urgent Care exam room with a nurse fussing over her wound. When Yunger mentioned her new job during small talk, the health care visit turned into a light-hearted interrogation.

“They spent most of the time while they were stitching up my thumb asking me why we weren’t open yet,” Yunger laughed. “When I went to the dentist and they found out I work at the Maine State Aquarium, they spent most of my checkup asking me when we were going to open. So, it is a relief to people.”

Maverick Morin, 2, of Malvern, Pennsylvania, keeps an eye on two striped bass July 3 at the Maine State Aquarium in West Boothbay Harbor. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

While the aquarium building was not expanded as part of the refresh, the breadth of its offerings was with DMR’s research now available for people to peruse. Yunger said the ability to view this research has informed many who count on the ocean for their livelihood as much as it has piqued the curiosity of those who come to enjoy the rest of the exhibits.

“When I started, we did listening sessions in the community to find out how people had used the aquarium in the past and what they were looking for in the future. They wanted access to our facilities, they wanted access to our research and they wanted access to our researchers. So, that’s when we got the idea to have a whole section in the aquarium that highlights our researchers specifically, and lets them describe the research they do, why they do it and what they are learning.”

In addition to all the upgrades in the museum building, the former Discovery Center, now called the Learning Lab, is also undergoing renovations. The lab, which is considered a critical component of the DMR’s educational programming, is in another building on the campus. Once renovations are completed, it will be available to classes as a marine science classroom.

Yunger said the space will have rotating exhibits and that the inaugural exhibit will feature sharks native to the Gulf of Maine. The exhibit will be interactive and DMR’s shark biologist will lead participating classrooms through the research staff are doing on sharks in the gulf that have been tagged.

“In a year or two or more, (the exhibit) could be, say, tuna, right? It could be anything,” Yunger said. “It’s exciting and it’s mostly interactive, so it can be constantly updated.”

The aquarium currently has a great resource in its four aquarium aides, who are either current university students or graduates, Yunger said. Two of them — Ella Wiegman of Wisconsin and Ella Sharp of Pennsylvania, both 23 — are referred to as “the Ellas.” The Ellas started their jobs in early June, just as the last of the heavy lifting for the museum upgrade was wrapping up.

People check out exhibits underneath a skeleton of a minke whale at the Maine State Aquarium, which reopened in June after being closed for four years. The aquarium in Boothbay Harbor was closed during the COVID-19 pandemic and then underwent renovations. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

While Wiegman is studying moon jellyfish and is the aquarium’s lead aide caring for them, Sharp played a big role in catching them right off a local dock. The jellyfish were transferred to a small touch tank exhibit where Wiegman guides aquarium visitors and observes the jellyfish for her research. The two also helped find lions mane jellyfish for an exhibit — but not for a touch tank, since they can sting.

“I love the moon jellies because I’m doing my master’s degree right now and I have a lot of knowledge on jellies,” Wiegman said. Her research focuses much on the effect the gulf’s 2-degree increase in temperature is having on them.

“The Gulf of Maine is one of the fastest-warming bodies of water,” Wiegman said, adding that the Research Spotlight interactive panels allow people to explore 100 years of data tracking the increases in the gulf’s temperature and acidification. “I think it’s a really great . . . indicator and . . . a reality check for a lot of people.”

Sharp said she discovered the aquarium when she started searching for universities. And when she heard the aquarium was opening back up, she wanted to be a part of it.

“I kind of kept this place on my radar. When we came to Maine, my mom said, ‘Maybe it’ll be open and we can go to the Maine State Aquarium. I’ve never been there before.’ Now it’s working well and going according to plan. . . . My favorites? I do like the jellyfish. They’re like my babies. I captured all of them.”

During a visit last week, the Ellas showed off the aquarium’s two new 1,300-gallon tanks and explained that the tanks’ contents are recreations of different habitats in the Gulf of Maine. Planners lucked out when they found two hyperlocal examples in Southport and Ocean’s Point in Boothbay, Wiegman said.

Yunger said staff visited both areas and took photos for the aquarium fabricator, who was able to reproduce the same rocks and ocean floor seen in the photos taken at those locations.

Dylan Huot and his father, Tom Huot, of Falmouth check out one of the tanks that contain sea life July 3 at the Maine State Aquarium in West Boothbay Harbor. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

Elvis, the blue lobster, occupies one of the tanks and can often be found gently and politely moving horseshoe crabs out of her way as she explores the tank, Wiegman said.

The point of pride for DMR’s science bureau is the ability to share synthesized data through its Research Spotlight, Yunger said. For every group of kids that comes through the doors excited about the touch tank and other displays, there are many young adults and adults who now can enjoy and benefit from the important facts about Maine’s aquatic life and habitats contained within the DMR research data. Until now, people who came to the aquarium never had access to the benefits the new exhibit offers, she said.

“The interactive climate wheel shows the water temperature in the harbor, which has been collected at this site since 1905. Through that interactive, people now have access to all that data and then a description of how the warming waters in the gulf are affecting specific species like sea urchins and jellyfish and tuna. That information sort of puts . . . into context how DMR is managing marine resources during a time when waters are warming here faster than 99% of waters anywhere else,” Yunger said.

“I moved here from Maryland and that (fact) was just being reported on the news — I would have gotten that wrong on ‘Jeopardy,'” Yunger said. “So, there’s a lot of work by researchers trying to understand how that’s going to affect (marine resource) management, particularly, of lobsters. And (the museum’s new data offerings are) a whole new angle that’s available to people who’ve been coming here for years.”

Children visiting from a home day care in Auburn practice putting bands on rubber lobsters July 3 at the Maine State Aquarium in West Boothbay Harbor. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal