Big and Small Ways We Protect the Blue Planet

… in fish rearing

Some of the Aquarium’s most distinctive sustainability efforts happen behind the scenes, at the Animal Care Center in Quincy. Since 2008, in partnership with Roger Williams University, the Aquarium has run a sustainable aquaculture program dedicated to raising fish in-house—from eggs to adults—to reduce pressure on wild populations and improve animal well-being. Today, more than 60% of the fish in the Giant Ocean Tank exhibit, the Aquarium’s largest exhibit, were hatched and raised this way.

To date, the program has successfully raised 15 species, five of which had never been cultivated in an aquaculture setting before.

The Aquarium’s team has also created a Marine Fish Egg Catalog, with photos and key information on more than 100 species of fish eggs, and shares it with public aquariums across the country. Through a partnership with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, both the fish and the protocols for raising them now travel well beyond Boston, helping more institutions rear their own fish and, one tiny egg at a time, make aquarium exhibits more sustainable.

… as part of the Aquarium’s culture

Sustainability efforts at the Aquarium are something our team is building from the inside out. In March 2024, employees from across the institution came together to form the Aquarium’s Sustainability Committee, a group dedicated to weaving sustainable practices into the everyday rhythms of working here.

The committee leads and supports a range of efforts, including clothing swaps, beach cleanups, textile recycling drives, and even pumpkin composting after Halloween. They’ve set up “SeaCycle” free sites around the building, where staff can drop off items for colleagues to take rather than send them to the landfill. A dedicated “techno trash” bin now makes it easy to dispose of small electronics properly. To date, the committee’s efforts have kept more than 400 pounds of textiles out of the waste stream.

The time commitment alone demonstrates our staff’s genuine care for the planet: in 2025, committee members collectively invested more than 600 hours in sustainability planning meetings and events.