Travelers and Hitchhikers: Links from Land to Sea

Travelers and Hitchhikers: Links from Land to Sea is a 5,000 sq. ft. exhibit which will be housed at the New England Aquarium, with two additional 1,200-4,800 sq. ft. modules produced for exhibition at participating consortium and partnering venues. The exhibit will invite visitors to "travel" with sea turtles, frogs, and fish as they tell their stories of journeys through an interconnected mosaic of terrestrial, freshwater, and marine habitats. A fourth module will use aliens, or introduced exotic species, to illustrate the disruption caused when humans make inappropriate connections across habitats. The underlying theme and message for the visitor is the connection between aquatic biodiversity and their own everyday lives. The animals and the four (4) modules have been chosen to emphasize a different aspect of these interconnections among rivers, land, and sea. The traveling version can either stand alone as one (1) module telling one story or be installed with all four (4) in combination. Sea turtles will emphasize land to sea, the frogs from water to land, and the immersive environment of the fish will allow the visitor to experience the physical connections from stream to sea. Finally, the introduced species module will illustrate how ecosystems can become fragile and broken due to human action. It is expected that over 2,000,000 visitors will be informed of aquatic biodiversity through this exhibit. In addition, activity carts and educator resource kits will be produced to further enhance the message of biodiversity conservation to all audiences.