A recent collaboration between Roger Williams University (RWU) and the Audubon Society of Rhode Island (ASRI) has resulted in a new, state-of-the-art aquarium at the Environmental Education Center in Bristol. Led by a group of marine biology students, faculty and staff from RWU, the aquarium has been transformed with modern renovations and features new exhibits with rare marine animal life.
Since 2000, RWU students and faculty have teamed up with the Bristol Audubon Education Center for internships, community service projects and classroom instruction. In the last five years, however, RWU and ASRI entered a formal partnership so students could get more hands-on experience, resulting in a collaboration to plan, design and implement extensive renovations to the Center’s aquarium space.
According to Anne DiMonti, Director of the Environmental Education Center, both the “front of the house” (exhibits that visitors can see and engage) and the “back of the house” (equipment engineered to maintain water quality and animal care) were in need of desperate help. Andrew Rhyne, associate professor of marine biology in the Feinstein College of Arts and Sciences at RWU, and a group of students spearheaded the project, working for three months to create a new infrastructure for both of these areas. The implementation took three years to complete, but resulted in a new aquarium system that surpasses the standards held to today in the public sphere. ASRI now hosts newly designed aquarium exhibits and has reduced its energy use and utility costs by 30%.
“We used this facility very strategically as a teaching platform for us,” Andrew says. “We identified a plan on how to renovate it and bring it up to today’s standards. ASRI is able to get our expertise to design and build [these exhibits], and we we’re able to use that as a classroom environment, which is a very rare thing for students.”
The two primary systems that received the most renovations were the “Bay and Ocean” and the “Focus on the Bay” exhibits. Returning visitors will recognize the differences in design, with particular focus on mirroring the natural habitats found in local waters. The marine animals now have improved water quality, featuring two very rare blue and orange lobsters (the odds of a naturally occurring orange lobster is one in 30 million, according to Anne.)
“We’re trying to replicate the natural ecosystem as best as possible,” Andrew says. “We want those exhibits to look like a salt marsh or the Bay or a tide pool.”
The Education Center is continuing to work with RWU to add new exhibits and marine life to the aquarium. Future plans are to incorporate a coral reef and add sea horses to the exhibits. Numerous public aquarium professionals have visited the new aquarium to learn about the innovations and progressive designs Andrew and his students have created.
Audubon Environmental Education Center
1401 Hope Street, Bristol
401-245.7500
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