January Exploration Center and Aquarium Theme Explores the Atypical and Unique Fish of Narragansett Bay

NEWPORT, RI  – “Cool and Crazy Fish” is the theme this month at Save The Bay’s Exploration and Aquarium on Easton’s Beach in Newport. Open from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, plus Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on January 18, a full schedule of activities will explore some of the unique fish species that call Narragansett Bay home.

Some of those cool and crazy fish are sea robins, sea ravens, oyster toadfish, skates, dogfish sharks, and the Northern Stargazer, an electrogenic fish that hides in the sandy bottom with only its eyes and mouth above the sand and pointing toward the stars. When a smaller fish swims by, the Northern Stargazer stuns its prey with an electrical current and then uses its mouth to make a lightning fast negative vacuum in the water to swallow its meal whole. “When living in the depths of Rhode Island Sound, meals can sometimes be few and far between, so many fish come up with ingenious adaptations to find a meal, just as the Northern Stargazer has,” said Save The Bay Aquarium Manager Adam Kovarsky.

Every Saturday in January, aquarium guests are invited to take part in  a Northern Stargazer feeding around noon. Kovarsky has also planned a full schedule of cool and crazy fish activities for all open days in January, including “Flossie the Flounder” story time at 11 a.m., cool fish feeding frenzy noon, a scavenger hunt at 1:00 p.m.,  paper plate fish making at 2 p.m., and, weather permitting, a beach walk at 3 p.m.

“This is a great time of the year to visit the aquarium, because the beach is far less crowded than in the summer,” says Kovarsky. The Exploration Center and Aquarium is located in the Easton’s Beach Rotunda at 175 Memorial Blvd. in Newport, R.I.  For more information about the Exploration Center and Aquarium, visit www.savebay.org/aquarium or call 401-324-6020.

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