Woods Hole Science Aquarium Plans for Fall Repairs. Harbor Seal Bubba Moves to New Home

A beloved aquarium harbor seal is bidding New England goodbye as his home at the Woods Hole Science Aquarium prepares to close this fall.

Bubba, the aquarium's beloved harbor seal and longtime aquarium visitor favorite, is heading to the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo, where a new marine mammal facility and seal companions will greet him when he arrives.

Bubba's relocation is part of a larger project that will require the aquarium to temporarily close beginning this fall for significant foundational repairs. According to a Cape Cod Times report, the repairs will focus on reinforcing the basement beneath the aquarium's exhibit gallery, home to the life-sustaining pumps, systems, and animal quarantine tanks. Since the work is expected to last approximately eight months, the aquarium's water-handling systems need to be shut down and removed from the facility.

Bubba isn't the only creature to be relocated during the aquarium's closure. Teri Frady, research communications chief with NOAA Fisheries Northeast Fisheries Science Center, which oversees the federally operated facility, said, "We've made the difficult but necessary decision to release or re-home the majority of our collection in the lead-up to construction."

Although Bubba is moving on to a new temporary home, several prominent aquarium residents will remain nearby. Some animals — particularly those that are rare, difficult to obtain, or unable to survive a release — will be transferred across the street from the aquarium to the Marine Biological Laboratory, the aquarium's longstanding partner.

Some of the animals located include the following:

Aquarist Sarah Shea said the closure is a rare opportunity to re-establish many of the local marine environments that make the aquarium unique. Since most of the animals are collected from local waters, the exhibits give visitors a view into New England's coastal ecosystems.