Making Waves and Introductions

Welcome to the new Macduff Marine Aquarium blog! We are a native aquarium in the North-East of Scotland and showcase the marine species and habitats of the Moray Firth, Scotland’s largest bay; from tiny beadlet anemones, to metre long catsharks, and from the rocky shore to the deep-sea floor! I’m Hannah, the team supervisor here at the aquarium, and you’ll be hearing from me and some of my colleagues on this blog.

Now usually I wouldn’t need a blog to tell you all these facts about the aquarium, because you could come for a visit and have a chat with me or one of our other marine masters. However, we are currently closed to the public for a rather exciting refurbishment! The refurbishment is happening thanks to funding from the UK government’s Levelling Up Fund. Aberdeenshire Council successfully bid for the Levelling Up fund (LUF), for development of cultural and heritage opportunities in Macduff and Peterhead. The “Cultural Tides: North Sea Connections in Aberdeenshire” project will focus on the renovation and extension of Macduff Marine Aquarium (see Banner image) and the development of a cultural quarter in Peterhead centred around the vacant Arbuthnot House.

As part of the refurbishment, the exhibits will be upgraded and include new features and interpretation. Education and conservation are at the heart of the aquarium’s operations and the expansion will provide space for a dedicated learning room and a lobster hatchery!

The new learning space will allow for a wide range of opportunities to engage with learners of all kinds across the community; from providing space for school groups and social clubs, to hosting workshops and conferences.

The lobster hatchery will see lobster larvae being grown on and released to the sea to boost wild populations. This new area will be a focus of interest for research and local community links as well as supporting the lobster fishery in years to come.

With this blog we aim to keep people up to date in a slightly more in-depth format than our social media posts, and more frequently than our newsletters. You can expect to hear about a range of subjects, like project updates, building progress, animal check-ins, and organised activities, from various team members who work here at the aquarium.

We expect the extension works to take around one year to complete and we’re very excited to take you all along for the journey!