Bonne Bay Aquarium & Research Station

Bonne Bay Aquarium & Research Station is a public aquarium inside Memorial University's research and teaching station on the Norris Point waterfront. It brings the local bay ecosystem into view through tanks of marine plants and animals, from seaweeds to cod and wolffish; the aquarium has no marine mammals. If Gros Morne's mountains and coastline have you curious about what lives under Bonne Bay, this is a useful change of scale. Come for a close, hands-on look at local marine life and a clearer sense of how a fjord works, not for a marine-mammal exhibit.

The touch tank is the easiest place to linger. The public aquarium invites adults and children to get close to common tidepool life, including sea stars, lobsters and flounders. Take a slow look at how much variety fits into a small stretch of shore; a student interpreter can connect the tank life to Bonne Bay's biology and ecology. You'll leave with a better idea of what the bay contains than you'd get from another scenic overlook.

The station's Discovery Tour goes by boat onto central Bonne Bay to collect plankton before returning to the aquarium for a tour. It links the visible animals in the tanks with the open water they come from. The sampled plankton are tiny, drifting life that is easy to miss from shore; sampling them makes that hidden part of the bay a visitor experience. Eagles, whales or tuna are possible sightings on the water, but they are luck, not the reason to count on the trip.

Bonne Bay's East Arm is a deep fjord that has been isolated from the Gulf of St. Lawrence since the last ice age. A shallow sill near the station helps preserve relict Arctic marine life beside species associated with Gulf waters, which gives the aquarium a real local story. Look for the large anchor displayed near the entrance; it was raised from 40 metres of water just off the Norris Point wharf. Archaeologists also found Groswater Pre-Inuit stone tools and flakes at the site before the station was built, and some are shown in the aquarium. The place ties current marine research to human history on the same shore.

The station is on Norris Point's waterfront, inside the park. The aquarium is seasonal and has student interpreters during its visiting season, so check current visitor dates before making it a special trip. It's the public-facing part of a larger university research and teaching station; don't assume its laboratories, library or accommodations are open to casual visitors. Treat the tanks and interpreter tour as the main visit, and add the boat-and-plankton trip if you want longer out on the bay.