The National Aquarium has big plans, old bones and dolphins to move

First a power outage last September sent thousands of gallons of salt water rushing into a room full of delicate equipment.

By the time National Aquarium staff were able to stop the flow, the water had risen 2 feet in a pump room, flooding the electrical breakers and conduits that power the movement of water through the tanks of exotic creatures.

Then another crisis arrived within weeks.

A gasket failed in a different portion of the aquarium, flooding a high-voltage electrical duct system. The deluge knocked out power in much of the building, including the complex systems that maintain precise levels of salinity and oxygen in the tanks.

This summer marks 45 years since Mayor William Donald Schaefer, wearing an old-timey swimsuit and boater hat, clambered into a seal pool to celebrate the opening of the National Aquarium. Since then, the aquarium, which has a 100-year lease with the city for its property, has drawn tens of millions of visitors to the Inner Harbor, becoming one of the city’s top tourist destinations and one of the country’s most renowned aquariums.

But, like many things in their mid-40s, the aquarium is beginning to show its age. The autumn maintenance crises forced the Inner Harbor institution, which normally closes only on Thanksgiving and Christmas, to shut its doors for five days for repairs, triggering an estimated $400,000 in lost revenue.

The challenges come at a pivotal time for the aquarium, which draws 1.1 million visitors to the Inner Harbor annually, even as Harborplace lies largely empty while awaiting a $900 million renovation. The aquarium brings $430 million in economic impact to the city each year and supports 3,400 jobs, according to the nonprofit.

Longtime aquarium CEO John Racanelli announced his retirement late last fall, and a new CEO is expected to be named this summer. Staff members are working on plans to relocate the resident dolphins to a sanctuary, although they have provided few details about their plans.

Meanwhile, aquarium leaders and board members are embarking on a $500 million planned renovation, much like Chicago’s famed Shedd Aquarium is doing, to position the cultural institution for the future.

“We are actively working now on trying to figure out what that looks like,” said Jennifer Driban, the aquarium’s interim CEO. “We want to involve our staff, our volunteers, our amazing community here in Baltimore City and get them excited about the future of the aquarium as well.”

‘Life Support’ at risk

Transfixed by massive Australian whiprays gliding through the Blacktip Reef exhibit or bug-eyed sand tiger sharks speeding through moody Shark Alley, visitors are unlikely to think about the complicated system that keeps one million gallons of water flowing through the exhibits.

A porthole in the aquarium’s thick concrete walls allows visitors to peer at the “Life Support Filtration Room.” That’s where Baltimore tap water is purified and mixed with salt, oxygen, nutrients and microorganisms to recreate each habitat’s unique composition.

After the failures last fall, water levels plummeted in several exhibits. While maintenance workers focused on getting the pumps working again, other aquarium employees manually tested the water, adding oxygen and making other adjustments to ensure the health of the creatures inside.

“Our amazing team worked around the clock to make sure that the animals were incredibly well cared for,” said Driban, adding that no animals died as a result of either incident.

Aquarium officials reported the details of infrastructure failures to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, an accrediting organization with 254 member institutions worldwide.

“They responded to those events exactly as we would expect from a member institution,” said Dan Ashe, president and CEO of the AZA. “They’re required to drill for events like that — power failures, flooding, animal escapes. A big part of our accreditation process is live-action drills."

Baltimore’s aquarium is among the best in the country, on par with institutions in Chicago, Atlanta and Monterey Bay, California, he said.

But he acknowledged the many physical challenges that Baltimore’s aquarium must address.

“Anytime you have infrastructure around water, it’s a challenge,” said Ashe. “Concrete that cracks or fails. Pipes that leak or break. Electrical systems that fail.”

The Maryland General Assembly approved $5 million in this year’s budget for the aquarium to make lasting repairs to the areas damaged by the fall flooding, as well as other improvements. The city has also awarded the aquarium $287,000 over the past two years for infrastructure work.

But more problems could be lurking under the water.

Beneath the surface

A 2022 study of the Inner Harbor promenade— the brick walkway surrounding the water and the structures supporting it— found significant problems with Pier 3, the home of the aquarium’s main campus.

“The underwater structure at Pier 3 has reduced load carrying capacity due to the deterioration which has occurred over its lifespan,” the report’s authors wrote.

The report concluded that there did not appear to be an immediate hazard to the public.

Wooden piles supporting Pier 3 and retaining walls also need significant repairs or replacement, according to the report.

Waterfront Partnership president Dan Taylor said in an interview that P. David Bramble, the developer leading the redevelopment of Harborplace, had commissioned his own study of the promenade, which also showed structural defects along Pier 3.

While the problems aren’t “mission-critical,” Taylor said, the pier— along with many other portions of the promenade— will require significant repairs or replacement in the coming years.

“We can’t just leave things the way they are for the next 10, 15, 20 years,” said Taylor. “It will start to fall apart.”

Looking ahead

When Racanelli announced his retirement from the aquarium late last year, he said he planned to create a sanctuary for captive dolphins from around the country.

The aquarium has been planning to relocate its dolphins for years, but with little apparent progress. The aquarium stopped having dolphins perform in the mid-2010s, but allows visitors to watch the marine mammals swim, play and eat.

Aquarium spokeswoman Kristin Zissel said in an email that staff had been “consistently and continuously working towards the goal of relocating our pod of six Atlantic bottlenose dolphins to a naturalistic outdoor ocean water setting, exploring options throughout Florida and the Caribbean as well as seeking philanthropic investments to help fund this endeavor.”

Zissel said the planned relocation would take into account ”advances in animal care and welfare as well as practical considerations around what is feasible,” adding that the dolphins are being trained to ease the adjustment toward living in an ocean sanctuary.

Racanelli said in an email that he was “pleased” with progress on the dolphin sanctuary and hoped “to be able to discuss the project in greater detail within a month or so.”

Meanwhile, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is pressuring the aquarium to take action on the dolphins. The animal advocacy group is asking for the return of $10,000 it donated to the aquarium if there is not “measurable progress” toward the creation of a sanctuary, according to a letter from PETA Senior Vice President Colleen O’Brien.

Former state delegate Maggie McIntosh, a member of the aquarium’s board of directors, said that the aquarium would likely name a new CEO this summer. Once that happens, work on plans to modernize the aquarium would begin in earnest, she said.

The aquarium asked the state legislature to earmark $15 million over the next three years for “planning, designing and engineering.” The aquarium plans to launch a capital campaign leading up to its 50th anniversary in 2031, Driban wrote in a January letter to General Assembly leaders.

McIntosh stressed the importance of the aquarium continuing to lure visitors to the Inner Harbor for years to come.

“I’ve always maintained that the aquarium is the centerpiece of the Inner Harbor,” she said. The influx of restaurants and shops that should arrive with Harborplace’s redevelopment will give those visitors more opportunities after they leave the aquarium, she said.

Mayor Brandon Scott, who accompanied his toddler son, Charm, on a field trip to the aquarium in October shortly after the infrastructure incidents, described it as “more than an institution in Baltimore, it’s in the blood of Baltimoreans.”

“We all have our memories of our first field trips and experiencing the bubble tanks for the first time,” Scott said in an emailed statement. “I fell in love all over again experiencing it with Charm on his field trip.”

Driban, who grew up visiting the aquarium with her parents, said she hoped the planned renovations would ensure the attraction would continue to delight and educate generations of visitors.

“This is the beginning stage of a really great process,” said Driban. “We have this really exciting opportunity to get it right again.”

Baltimore Banner reporter Sara Ruberg contributed to this article.