Macduff Marine Aquarium: north east of scotland, visitor attractions, aquarium, macduff, marine life, living kelp reef, coastal habitats, rocky shore and shallow waters, deep reef and sea floor, sea lab, moray firth, day out, north sea, aberdeenshire council, school outings, education, fun and games

NAME THAT MONSTER LOBSTER!

A snappy new arrival is making a splash here at Macduff - a massive lobster was donated to us recently by a sympathetic fisherman who wanted to save it from the cooking pot!

The lobster is around 75cm long but his claws make up almost 2/3 of his body length. He weighs around 4kg and his claws are so big he has trouble walking.

Fisherman Arthur McKenzie Jnr from Peterhead caught the lobster in a creel off Rattray Head Lighthouse. He said: ‘I was amazed to find this huge lobster in my creel – it’s nearly as long as my leg! I thought it would be much better in the aquarium than on someone’s dinner plate’.

We think the lobster is a star in the making - he's already made himself at home in the kelp reef exhibit and can be seen waving his impressive claws around. We need a good name for him, though, and are asking our visitors to think up names for the lobster in a competition running until the end of July. There will be a prize of an annual family ticket for the aquarium for the person who suggests the winning name – to be chosen by Mr McKenzie.

WORLD OCEANS' DAY - OCEAN HUNTERS: Sunday 6th June 2010

The highlight of the aquarium's calendar - World Oceans' Day - was celebrated at the aquarium again this year with all the usual fun and mayhem. This year's theme was 'Ocean Hunters' and visitors were encouraged to make and bring their own ocean hunter sock puppet on the day to enter in our fab sock puppet competition - to win an exciting wildlife watching trip with our friends at North 58 Sea Adventures! We had some amazing entries and the sock puppet parade was definitely a highlight of the day. The winner was a killer whale sock, and very cool it was too!

Other events in and around the aquarium included a 'Cod Capers' trail to test visitors' instincts for survival and ability to avoid hungry hunters. There was music, food, face painting, games, bouncy castles, dive shows and an appearance by our top predator - Stinger - the Macduff Sea Monster! We were joined by RSPB staff who told us more about those greedy gannets at Troup Head, as well as the Banff and Buchan Rangers who lead a rock pool ramble to discover the mean predators of the rocky shore! Even the famous bottlenose dolphins put in an appearance several times over the day to make sure we didn't forget about them! It was a fantastic day and we can't wait to do it all again next year!

BANFFSHIRE COAST PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION.

Prize Giving Ceremony: Friday 28th May 2010 at 2pm

The Banffshire Coast is a picturesque place and keen photographers from all over the UK entered in a competition for the best photograph to capture the essence of our area. The winners were presented with their prizes in the aquarium's theatre on Friday 28th May. A selection of the best entries for the photo competition are on display in the aquarium's reception area for the whole summer. For more information about the competition and how to enter for next year, check www.banffshirecoast.com

COAST FESTIVAL: 29th - 30th May 2010

We took part in the local visual arts festival this May and enouraged visitors to make Sea Drift Creations! We found that the sea's cast-offs such as driftwood, netting and other beach finds, made the perfect materials to create hanging sculptures and mobiles and we enjoyed a big art attack over the weekend.

GETTING LIFE SORTED!

We were delighted to unveil a new display here at the aquarium in time for the Easter holidays - an interactive wall exhibit all about how we sort living things. Kindly sponsored by Talisman Energy (UK) Limited, the display allows visitors to explore how sea creatures are related to each other through a fun and interactive touch screen game. It explains why living things have scientific names in Latin or Greek and how we classify plants and animals to a single species. Look out for the game on your next visit and test yourself to see how much you know about sorting life out!

A big thank you to Talisman for their support and also to Artech Visual Communication for subsidising their design work.