On June 3rd Magali Grégoire, Executive Director & Founder of the Back to the Sea Society addressed our club on the Society’s vision of a “Back to the Sea Aquarium”.
The Back to the Sea Society is a charity dedicated to sparking curiosity for marine life off the coast of Nova Scotia and inspiring a desire to protect our ocean.
The Society’s goal is to open a seasonal collect-hold-and-release aquarium in Dartmouth that will deliver unique hands-on education focused on local marine life. This concept is modelled after the Ucluelet Aquarium in British Columbia (see: uclueletaquarium.org). The proposed “Back to the Sea Aquarium” will be a vibrant voice for our ocean.
In 2017, the Society opened a miniature marine interpretive centre pilot project, the “Touch Tank Hut”. It was a huge success and welcomed more than 1,800 visitors over the course of just five weekends! Based on this success, they opened for a complete second season on June 2nd, 2018. Operating five days a week, they had over 8,000 visitors that summer.
Thanks to the Society’s continued partnership with Alderney Landing, they are aiming to open the “Touch Tank Hut” once again this summer. Their aim to attract over 5,000 visitors for 2019.
Ultimately the goal is to continue their ocean education mandate to inspire marine conservation and engage even more people in the vision for a future “Back to the Sea Aquarium”.
If you would like to know more about this initiative or become a volunteer or a sponsor please see their website at http://www.