MINDING NATURE 9.3 From Exhibit to Classroom: Transitioning Aquariums and Zoos for the Twenty- First Century By JEANNE GANG returned to their habitats. And through various media and educational programs, the Aquarium is working to communicate the crucial message that it is we hu- mans and our harmful activities that pose the greatest INTRODUCTION threat to these animals. People young and old are captivated by Calypso, the Green Sea Turtle who lives at the National Aquar- But while the experience of seeing Calypso in the ium. Whether swimming in the crystal-blue waters of Blacktip Reef exhibit at the National Aquarium is de- the Blacktip Reef exhibit, nibbling on romaine lettuce signed to motivate visitors to take personal and po- and the occasional squid, or peeking her head out just litical action toward conservation, studies show that 2 above the glistening surface, the five-hundred-pound, it doesn’t. According to the report “Do Zoos and three-flippered Calypso is a sight to behold. The giant Aquariums Promote Attitude Change in Visitors? A turtle was rescued by the Riverhead Foundation for Critical Evaluation of the American Zoo and Aquar- Marine Research and Preservation in 2000, after be- ium Study,” by Lisa Marino, et al., “there remains coming cold-stunned and stranded in the Long Island no compelling evidence for the claim that zoos and Sound. At the time of her rescue, Calypso weighed aquariums promote attitude change, education, or 3 only six pounds and had a badly infected front flipper interest in conservation in visitors.” How can these that was later amputated. Due to federal regulations well-meaning organizations who do so much for ani- governing the rescue, rehabilitation, and release of en- mal rehabilitation, like saving Calypso, make progress dangered marine life, the Riverhead Foundation could on conservation action? Is it possible these institutions not return Calypso to her habitat. Instead, she came have a business model that is preventing them from to live at the National Aquarium, where she has been succeeding in their missions—and, if it is, how can delighting visitors ever since as one of the Aquarium’s they bring about change and stay financially viable? most popular attractions. TRANSITIONING MODELS: FROM ENTERTAINMENT TOWARD By providing Calypso with a clean habitat, ample EDUCATION food, and medical care, the National Aquarium has likely spared her from the fate of many sea turtles Today’s aquariums and zoos have come a long in the wild who face mounting challenges including way from their early days as aristocratic menageries, poaching, bycatch, disease, and habitat loss.1 In part- those captive collections of “exotic” animals that were nering with organizations like the Riverhead Founda- held by rulers as a show of power and for personal en- 4 tion and the North Carolina Aquarium, the National tertainment, developing into organizations with sci- Aquarium is also helping to rescue, rehabilitate, and ence-based missions by the turn of the nineteenth cen- release a variety of species of sea turtles who can be tury. Having adopting conservation-based missions JEANNE GANG FROM EXHIBIT TO CLASSROOM: TRANSITIONING AQUARIUMS AND ZOOS FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY 25 MINDING NATURE 9.3 toward the end of the twentieth century, today’s aquar- tainment venues.10 iums and zoos—and the people who lead and work for To be sure, aquariums and zoos do share educa- them—have a far more humane attitude toward ani- tional information with their visitors. They do this by mals than any of their predecessors. This evolving eth- accommodating large contingencies of visiting school ic reflects larger social and cultural changes informed groups, providing informational placards and signage by emerging science, policy, and technology. For in- accompanying exhibits, training staff members and stance, scientists’ developing understanding of the volunteers to engage visitors, telling stories on their sentience, intelligence, and consciousness of a range websites, and offering on- and off-site programs for of species (humans included) has led to significant people of all ages. But while these good intentions to changes in the practice and regulation of aquariums educate have built brand awareness about a particu- and zoos.5 These include instituting higher standards lar aquarium or zoo, they are not measurably chang- of care and display, adopting conservation-oriented ing conservation behavior in visitors.11 Perhaps even missions, discontinuing breeding programs and per- more significantly, because entertainment remains a formances, and, most recently, initiating efforts to re- primary concern, crucial public education issues like tire large mammals to sanctuaries.6 climate change and habitat loss as the result of hu- The National Aquarium, for example, has recently man practices—and even the foundational theory of announced that it will no longer hold dolphins in cap- evolution—are either diluted or not communicated tivity, and at all.12 The terms climate change and global warm- Today’s aquariums and zoos have that it plans ing are still noticeably absent from many of today’s outgrown the entertainment model. to establish a aquariums and zoos, especially in conservative areas sanctuary for of the country, while logos for some of the least envi- the eight dolphins currently in its care by 2020.7 The ronmentally friendly corporations are conspicuously Monterrey Bay Aquarium has long enjoyed popularity, present,13 despite scientific consensus that the world prosperity, and support for what others have termed is getting warmer due to human activities. This kind its “captive-free model,” as well as efforts to educate of information—that we humans are not outside of or the public about ocean health, sustainable aquacul- dominant over nature, but rather interconnected and ture, and research and conservation activities within inseparable from all life, and that our actions resonate its community. Even the Georgia Aquarium, an orga- globally—could be communicated to visitors in a way nization that until recently contracted with Russia to that encourages action. It becomes far more difficult, capture beluga whales that they intended to exhibit, however, when visitors are primed to expect enter- has announced that it will “no longer take dolphins or tainment and spectacle in exchange for an often steep whales caught in the wild, a dramatic policy reversal.”8 monetary investment and then encouraged to con- Yet, while we see these organizations continuing to sume. “You don’t want [visitors] walking away saying, evolve, today’s aquariums and zoos have nevertheless ‘I paid to get in, I bought my kid a hot dog, I just want maintained a model in which their viability is depen- to show my kid a fish—and you are making me feel dent upon the entertainment value of displaying ani- bad about climate change,’” said a former AZA official, mals to visitors. speaking to this idea in 2012.14 Instead, many aquari- Many aquariums were in fact established specifi- ums and zoos seek merely to “inspire” visitors—and to cally for this purpose—conceived as economic anchors maintain their financial solvency through the price of that could help attract investment in their cities’ ailing admission, otherwise known as gate revenue. downtowns.9 Building aquariums was about reinvent- It is true that these organizations do foster inter- ing these former waterfronts of industrial production actions between people and animals, often exposing into playgrounds of shopping, leisure, and entertain- children, especially in urban areas, to animals and ment. Zoos were built or significantly renovated for the habitats—to “nature”—they might never see other- same reason; to produce an entertainment destination wise. These experiences can make people feel good or that could be an economic driver. And while many of in awe or inspired, and sometimes they may even mo- these same organizations may have explicit conserva- tivate a child to become more interested in science or tion missions, partner with scientific institutions, and to recycle plastic, although unfortunately this remains consider themselves educational institutions, most, if unverified outside of anecdote. But when a child sees not all, of them continue to brand themselves as enter- an animal that might not have the same backstory as JEANNE GANG FROM EXHIBIT TO CLASSROOM: TRANSITIONING AQUARIUMS AND ZOOS FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY 26 MINDING NATURE 9.3 the rescued three-flippered Calypso, even if she comes better communities and a better world. away from the experience exuberant and in awe, is she With an estimated 97,000 elementary and second- not also being taught to normalize the idea that ani- ary schools across the United States serving nearly 50 mals live in swimming pools and exist to entertain us million students, schools have an outsized influence on and that they are separate and subservient to humans? the education, health, and welfare of youth, their fam- We should be talking about the potential disconnect ilies, and their neighborhoods. And many city schools between implicit and explicit messages and how these are currently grappling with a number of major chal- might be undermining the genuine efforts on the part lenges, including population shifts that affect enroll- of these organizations to educate and motivate their ment; declining budgets; increasing debt and pension visitors obligations; With their stated conservation missions, today’s If zoos and aquariums truly want and the need aquariums and zoos have outgrown the entertainment to be… conservation organizations… to provide so- model, and their reliance on gate admissions is hold- they have to enhance their current cial services ing them back from becoming premier conservation educational focus. beyond their and education organizations. The proliferation of con- core educa- cessions and gift shops that this entertainment mod- tional mission.15 Meanwhile, they continue to prepare el encourages, for example, often promotes the very students to participate in society and a global econ- materials threatening the health and well-being of omy that requires fundamental skills and rewards animals and the environment.