The Caribbean spiny lobster (Panulirus argus) can be found from North Carolina and Bermuda south to Brazil—and also in the Aquarium's Blue Hole exhibit, where they share the space with some impressive goliath groupers.

Spiny lobster—note the absence of the powerful front claws that American lobsters have

While Caribbean spiny lobsters are nocturnal, you can find them scurrying about the dim exhibit or resting in their favorite den. They are about a foot long, though they can grow to be longer than 3 feet and weigh 15 pounds in the wild!

Spiny lobster in the Aquarium's Blue Hole exhibit

Caribbean spiny lobsters are one of approximately 30 different spiny lobster species found in tropical and sub-tropical waters around the world. They can migrate long distances in single file lines called queues. This species can live down to depths of about 1,650 feet and feed on gastropods, bivalves, and carrion (dead things). Moray eels, nurse sharks, groupers, turtles and sometimes octopus are among the animals that prey on these animals.

Spiny lobster queue | Photo: Florida State University Herrnkind Lab

Unlike the American lobster they lack large claws and have spines covering their body for protection. Like their American lobster cousins, Caribbean spiny lobsters have long antennae on the front of their carapaces for defense. Caribbean spiny lobsters also shed their shells in order to grow bigger like other crustaceans.

Caribbean spiny lobster with antennae | Photo: Becky A. Dayhuff via Wikimedia Commons

You can sometimes find an Aquarium educator holding a molt, which was collected after an animal in the Blue Hole exhibit shed its shell. This happens when lobsters split their shell into two pieces and squeeze out, leaving the molt behind. Look out for this biofact because it's a great way to get a feel for those spines that give this lobster its name!

Conservation Notes: Caribbean spiny lobsters are a popular seafood and commercially fished. The fishery is regulated with size, season, egg-bearing and trap limits. The population of the Caribbean spiny lobster is healthy.

Look for other lobsters throughout the Aquarium! Can you find relatives of the Caribbean spiny lobster in the Isle of Shoals, Boulder Reef, Lobster Nursery and Edge of the Sea exhibits? 

— Meghan-Elizabeth Foster, Visitor Educator

In October we were lucky to have the opportunity to acquire another bird for our Shorebird Exhibit, a juvenile common tern. Common terns are smaller and more delicate than their relatives the seagulls. They are graceful fliers and you may have seen them at the beach, hovering in the air before plunging into the ocean to catch small fish. They breed in Canada and the Northern US and migrate to the coast of South America in the winter.

Our common tern in holding

Despite their name, common terns have experienced large declines in their population. They were hunted for their feathers in the late 19th century and were harmed by pesticide use in the 1970’s. Today they continue to be threatened by coastal development.

This tern was discovered emaciated and unable to fly on a beach near Orleans, MA, on Cape Cod in late August. She was brought to Wild Care where the rehabbers discovered that her right wing was injured. She had no fractures that were detectable from radiographs, so the injury was likely due to a torn tendon or ligament. The tern lived in an aviary through September and into October while her care-takers waited to see whether her wing injury would heal so that she could be released to migrate south with other terns in October. It became clear that the bird would not be able to fly well enough to be able to fish or migrate.


New England Aquarium staff picked her up in late October, just in time before some cold weather set in! The tern went into quarantine in an indoor enclosure. We were pleasantly surprised by how calm she was around people. She would squawk loudly in the morning to remind us that it was time to be fed her first fish of the day!

Our new common tern came to us from the same wildlife rehabilitation facility, Wild Care, as our semipalmated sandpiper. The exchange of these birds was mutually beneficial—Wild Care found a good home for two non-releasable birds and the Aquarium now has two great new exhibit animals that will help educate the public about shorebirds and their conservation.

Stay posted for an upcoming blog about the tern’s introduction in the exhibit.

In late October we introduced a new bird into our Shorebirds Exhibit—a semipalmated sandpiper.

A new resident: Semipalmated sandpiper

Semipalmated sandpipers are an abundant species of sandpiper. They spend the summer breeding season in the Arctic and winter along the coasts of South America. You can see them locally when they migrate in the spring and fall.
The name semipalmated refers to the short webbing between the bird’s toes which help it walk on mud or wet sand. Our semipalmated sandpiper shares the exhibit with two semipalmated plovers, which can get confusing when we talk about the birds!

A room with a view!

Most of the shorebirds in the exhibit were injured and could not survive on their own in the wild. The semipalmated sandpiper was found on Mayo Beach in Wellfleet, MA, on September 1 and was unable to fly due to a broken wing. She was brought to Wild Care, a wildlife rehabilitation facility in Eastham, MA. It was determined that the bird was would not be able to survive if she was released because she would not be able to fly well enough to complete her migration to South America.

We picked her up from Cape Wild Care and, after spending a month at our quarantine facility to make sure that she didn’t have any parasites or diseases that could spread to our other birds, she was introduced into the exhibit.

Can you tell the difference?

The semipalmated sandpiper has settled right in and can often be seen resting or foraging by probing in the sand alongside our least sandpiper. The least sandpiper looks very similar to the semipalmated sandpiper but can be distinguished by leg color. The semipalmated’s legs are black whereas the least’s are yellowish.

Come check out the shorebirds exhibit the next time you visit the Aquarium and see if you can spot one of our newest residents!

Different types of fish are known for their coordinated movements that make themselves look like one big, shimmering blur. This behavior, known as schooling, is an effective way of avoiding predators! It’s very difficult for predators to pick out one fish, separate it from the group and chase it down. And while visitors can see this behavior in lots of exhibits, it’s on full display in the Schooling exhibit!

Close-up of the school. How many fish do you see?

Blueback herring, Alosa aestivalis, have been a staple of the Schooling exhibit, showcasing the ability of a fish species to act as one collective unit. After a recent group of herring grew too big for the exhibit, they were moved to a larger exhibit at the Montreal Biodome (where some of our young researchers studied wolffish). This made way for a new school!

In October of 2012, Aquarium staff and volunteers headed to Buzzards Bay to collect some new exhibit animals. After being granted a special permit by the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries, the crew used seine nets to catch close to 2,500 young fish! Having lived and grown behind the scenes for over a year, it was time for them to make their big splash.


How do you move approximately 2,500 fish from one tank to another? With lots of help! Fortunately, the holding tank and exhibit are only a few short steps away from each other, making the process a little easier. Two aquarists would gather small batches of fish inside the holding tank. Once a batch was collected, the fish were transferred in bags to a waiting group of helpful staff and volunteers. With some quick, careful steps the fish were at their final destination.

Ready to move!

Once the humans, and the fish, reached the exhibit, the bags of fish were gently lowered into the water. In position, the bags were opened and the new inhabitants would be off—the fish quickly swimming to join the rest of the school. It was then back to the holding tank to repeat the process many times over!

And they are off!

The new herring getting used to their new home!

There are some incredibly fascinating animals behind the scenes at the Aquarium right now. We're talking mind-bending amazing. An animal that defies the natural order of life and death, packaged in an animal the size of your pinky nail. Meet...the immortal jelly.

The immortal jelly: An impressive name for an animal the size of a pinky nail

Now you won't be able to see these animals when you visit. They are staying behind the scenes under the watchful eyes of our sea jelly aquarists. Right now our jellies exhibits are chock-full of other interesting animals—like the moon jellies, flowerhat jellies and comb jellies. But we think these jellies are so cool that we just had to tell you all about them.

The immortal jellies actually spend most of their time laying about at the bottom of their tank

These guys eat a diet of brine shrimp (note their pinkish-orange insides, that was lunch). They send out their tiny tentacles to snatch a shrimp then pull it toward their mouths. While they're active during feeding time, these specimens actually spend a lot of time just lazing about on the bottom of their tank.

The jellies extend their tiny tentacles around feeding time, when they snack on brine shrimp

But before we answer the question "How did these jellies get their name?" let's quickly review jelly reproduction. "True jellies" from the class Scyphozoa can reproduce asexually by budding, or sexually through a process called strobilation. That's when the fertilized egg becomes a planula larva and lands on a surface and becomes a polyp. The polyp becomes a strobila—almost looking like a stack of coffee filters. Each of these detaches and becomes an ephyra which then transitions into either a male or female medusa to begin the process all over again. (Check out the fancy diagram here for more help understanding this process.)

What makes an immortal jelly (Turritopsis dohrnii) so amazing is that as soon as a sexually mature jelly encounters hardship—environmental threats, old age and the like—it can revert back to its polyp stage and start all over. From what we now know, there's no other animal in the animal kingdom that can similarly age in reverse. Call it the Benjamin Button effect.

Senior Aquarist Chris Doller feeds and cares for the immortal jellies

There's a lot we don't know about immortal jellies. They may have originated in Mediterranean, maybe the Caribbean, but they are now distributed in tropical oceans throughout the world. No single specimen has been observed long-term so scientists don't know how old an individual can be. Also, it's important to note that most of these animals probably succumb to predation or disease before they revert to the polyp stage. That means no jelly invasion, just yet.

These jellies are not on exhibit, but amazing enough that we just had to tell you about 'em!

So. Call them creepy, call them fascinating, you've just met one of our blue planet's more mysterious creatures. Even though you can't see these guys, you can come visit its relatives at the Aquarium.