Watermarks

Winter 2024

Welcome to Watermarks

In the latest issue of Watermarks, our digital magazine for National Aquarium members, you can shadow the Aquarium's veterinary team as they peek inside a mouth or two to keep our animals healthy and thriving. Listen in as Director of Dive Programs Holly Bourbon talks about her recent trip to Antarctica. Press rewind to see how waterways big and small led to the founding of Baltimore—and learn about how we can better care for these waterways today. Finally, peer over a student's shoulder as they discover what lives in the Inner Harbor.

In This Issue

Stay close to home with stories and videos about Baltimore's Inner Harbor and how we care for Aquarium animals' teeth, beaks and bills—and then follow us to the literal end of the Earth, to Antarctica. Keep reading for more!

Director of Dive Programs Holly Bourbon in Antarctica

In this story series, National Aquarium experts typically take us to local places to teach us about the animals and plants found there, but for this edition, we've followed one of our own a bit further afield.

Learn More

The Tooth About Animal Dental Care

Replenishing What We've Depleted

Shaping the Next Generation

Inside Way, Way Out

National Aquarium Director of Dive Programs Holly Bourbon's passion for animals, travel and adventure led her nearly 10,000 miles from home to one of the most unexplored and potentially inhospitable climates on Earth. See and hear about the biodiversity Holly experienced—underwater and on land—during her recent trip to Antarctica.

Open Wide

Healthy teeth, beaks and bills allow animals to snap up, chew, crunch and tear into all sorts of tasty morsels. The Aquarium's veterinary and animal care teams serve as dentists and hygienists for sea urchins, sharks, bearded dragons and more.


"That's When I Fell in Love With Jellies"

Did you know that the Aquarium team cultures—or grows—almost all the jellyfish that you see on exhibit in Jellies Invasion and Living Seashore? Hear from Aquarist Allissa Lucas about the spotted lagoon jellies in Jellies Invasion—and watch as she pulls back the curtain on the Aquarium's Culture Lab. In the lab, Allissa raises "jelly babies" as they develop from polyps to ephyra to adults.

A City Shaped by Water

The Baltimore Harbor subwatershed is centrally located in the heart of downtown, horseshoeing east to west along the city's southernmost points. Join us as we explore the neighborhoods, waterways and green spaces located within this area—and look at how they're connected to the rest of the Patapsco and Back River Basin, the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean beyond.


Give them clownfish, corals and more ...

... And a whole year to explore! National Aquarium membership is an experiential gift that keeps giving, with unlimited free visits, monthly members-only events, valuable discounts and more. We also offer gift tickets, Aquarium apparel and an honorary donation option. Give great gifts and support the National Aquarium!

Senior VP & Chief Philanthropy Officer Scott Douglas Melton

"Construction is now underway on the National Aquarium Harbor Wetland, presented by CFG Bank—with additional support from many philanthropic partners. When it opens in 2024, this free, outdoor exhibit will re-create salt marsh habitat that used to exist here. Everyone will be welcome, and we can't wait for you to be part of the experience."

Student Teachers

The What Lives in the Harbor program serves every sixth grader in Baltimore City Public Schools—but its educational impact extends far beyond middle school. Since 2017, more than 100 interns from several local colleges and universities have helped facilitate the program.


More from Past Watermarks

Multimedia Our Beautiful Bay

Multimedia Sounding Off

Multimedia Director of Community Partnership Strategy Jenny Hamilton at Fairwood Forest

Support the National Aquarium Together, we can change the way humanity cares for our ocean planet.