Aquarium finds crowds on other side of troubled waters

Maritime Aquarium’s Dave Sigworth offhandedly expresses surprise that I would “make us the focus” of a column about Connecticut tourism rallying back.

There are so many reasons this makes me laugh. First of all, because Sigworth is associate director of communications at the Norwalk attraction. Or, as he translates, “My job is to get people to come here.” So fishing for ink and pixels from the media is part of the gig.

Mostly, though, I’m laughing at the serendipity of this interview. Last Sunday, my son awoke and revealed details of his (thus our) plan to take the train from Danbury to South Norwalk to visit the aquarium, one of the region’s largest tourism attractions, and the SoNo Switch Tower Museum, one of its smallest (though a hidden treasure).

The rail museum next to the SoNo Railroad Bridge turned out to be closed. I’ve run into this frequently in the wake of COVID, as smaller operations have not updated their websites (the rail museum is open Saturday afternoons and expects to revive Sunday hours Aug. 8).

So we walked to the aquarium, which we cautiously visited a couple times after it reopened in summer 2020. We were comforted on those visits through the indoor facility that the turnout was reliably modest.

Not on this day.

The Kid and I were greeted at the entrance by the longest line I’ve ever seen there. Thankfully, a mom behind me was wise enough to leave the queue to ask if members could go straight in. It felt a little like cutting, and not in a bad way.

After surfing through the crowd in search of calming nooks (the reliable jellyfish room), I made a note in my phone to contact Sigworth about the turnout. Remarkably (we don’t really know each other), an email simultaneously arrived from him about my column last week on Bruce Springsteen (yeah, the aquarium guy takes the “waves” side in the “Thunder Road” standoff).

Sigworth crunched the numbers Monday. Typically, a good turnout on a summer day would be 3,000. There were 4,400 that Sunday.

“And that’s how it’s pretty much been since July 1 when the CT Kids in Free program began,” Sigworth emailed, adding that 7,000 visitors on July 3 was among the “Top 5” draws in the aquarium’s 33-year history.

It’s not just the Connecticut Summer at the Museum program, which lets children 18-and-under plus one adult Connecticut resident enter participating museums at no cost. A lot of parents at the Maritime didn’t even know they’d get in for free. Sigworth pointed out that on the (cool, soggy) Saturday of Memorial Day weekend they drew 4,800 paying customers.

The state program, which runs through Sept. 6, is an investment of recovery funds by Gov. Ned Lamont. It also happens to come at a time when Wallethub.com lists Connecticut as the second safest state to visit in a travel survey (we’re coming for you, Vermont), citing vaccination rates and keeping the pandemic in check.

While that makes Connecticut a draw, Lamont is simultaneously pondering whether to revive restrictions for out-of-staters with high positive test rates. We’re looking at you, Arkansas (8.8 percent), Missouri (14.2 percent) and Florida (11.2 percent. OK, we’re always wary of Florida).

Without the ability to “get people to come here,” while the aquarium was closed to the public in spring 2020, Sigworth was furloughed.

“If they can’t come, what am I doing here?” he jokes. “My lawn never looked better.”

The fish, though, had nowhere else to go. The aquarium’s education team pivoted to virtual programming during a traditional time for class trips. But a couple of iPads hosted the sea life on voyages of their own, to students in 40 states and several countries, including Turkey and Indonesia.

The three-month closure took a financial toll. With 85 percent of the aquarium’s $11 million budget coming from gate receipts, it took a $3 million hit (Maritime recently received a $3.2 million American Rescue Plan Act grant). And while Sigworth generously promotes other state tourism spots during our chat, he also acknowledges that the aquarium faced a different crisis than typical museums.

“Unlike an art museum, we can’t close the doors and turn off the lights and dust the paintings once in a while,” he says.

Some 7,000 resident animals needed to be fed and tended to, along with maintaining proper balances in the water. Maritime has a staff member (Erik Holmberg) with the job title “life support manager,” and assignment “to make sure alien conditions are maintained.” All of which sounds like he’s training for space duty with Bezos.

The Maritime’s recent resurgence is a confluence of the free tickets, a madly popular new harbor seals exhibit and, Sigworth says, “people busting to get out.”

Still, museum officials recognize we still lurk in troubled waters. Masks are strongly encouraged, even for the vaccinated. The noise and masks have compromised communication between guests and volunteers (“no one can read lips anymore,” Sigworth notes).

A common query from visitors is whether the animals took note when faces temporarily vanished on the other side of the glass.

Sigworth likes to think many did, such as the ever-engaged otters. In at least one case, though, he makes an observation that suggests some Maritime residents prefer social distancing.

“The seals ignore everyone.”