Maine State Aquarium

Positive experience: It's very small and not nearly as hands on or interactive as it used to be. The grandkids (2,4) enjoyed it! I remembered taking their mom and was disappointed. She was too. We were looking forward to the gift shop to take learning back home. It didn't exist. Thankfully there were other attractions in Boothbay that made the trip more memorable. Boothbay is beautiful.

Negative experience: There was a lady outside the building requiring us to pay online on pur phone before entering the building. Cost $7.50 for seniors each . Wslked into a tiny room with a small fish tank with a dozen fisg and an even smaller tank with a few jelly fish. A very small touch tank a few star fish . Very small !!! That was it. A small turtle and a very small 12inch shark in another tank. Definitely not worth $22.00 fee to see.

Negative experience: I'm sorry but this was wholly disappointing. The entire facility is viewable in 15 minutes. It might be a nice attraction if it was free but almost $20 (2 ppl) was outrageous. It was quaint and staff were informative but in no way worth the special trip we made to come out here.

Positive experience: The staff is great, but after visiting a few years ago we were surprised by the facility updates. Our young son got bored quickly with the two tanks.

Positive experience: Few tanks to see small sea life use a search paper to find the sea life and earn your sticker, a touch tank for kids learn about lobsters, stern of boat to play with rubberlobsters to learnto band check out a lobstertrap & a, building to draw and color on paper and see the sea turtle

Negative experience: The entire exhibit consisted of about 15 fish, 3 12 inch sharks, and a turtle. Whooptie do. Very disappointing, and I had to pay for the experience.

Negative experience: This was the biggest waste of money on our whole vacation! I would never recommend anyone going here.

Negative experience: Update: our first back since the renovation. It was a disappointment. Ticket purchase was clunky and very few tanks of sea life to view. We want to support Maine aquarium but won't return.

Fantastic experience: Small but delightful aquarium with very dedicated and helpful staff!

Fantastic experience: Very small but makes up for it in the rarity of petting starfish, seasponges and a large horseshoe crab! As well as other marine life to see and learn about.

Negative experience: Only 4 tanks. Not much to see. Not worth the stop

Negative experience: New exhibit on website was not ready 6/20/25. Full admission was charged and there's nothing to do and very little to see. Handicapped access between the two very small public spaces is horrible. Obviously no thought was given to this or the size and access to the restrooms. What a horrible experience!

Fantastic experience: We had a great time everyone was very educated and everything they were talking about. My grandson and granddaughter bonded with a girl named Emma. She answered all their questions, which were a lot. It was a wonderful morning.

Fantastic experience: It’s a wonderful small aquarium. The staff is informative and excellent. The actual whale skeleton is cool.

Fantastic experience: What a fun and informative place. The staff were all super friendly and knowledgeable. Really a nice layout and display for a small location. We spent about an hour there and really enjoyed it.

Negative experience: I'm sad to report, this is not the experience we were hoping for. Coming here as an adult who experienced this as a kid, it is not the same. You barely get to see any marine life and there were only two or three items in a very small touch tank. The shark discovery area is mostly a coloring space with readable walls/displays that kids under 10 probably can't enjoy. Please fix this, Maine. As a state with huge marine research and access, we should be able to wow visitors and kids. These are the experiences that are supposed to support marine research by inspiring children young.

Negative experience: Update: I am a little confused about your response as you said you will also have a jellyfish touch tank even though you mentioned the stress from people touching them kills them on a regular basis. How does that instill an appreciation for Maine's ecosystems or make you any different than the other touch tanks you were criticizing when we were there? Extremely disappointed! We have been to aquariums all over the United States and I have always raved about how wonderful this one is to everyone. When we went 5 years ago, they had a shark touch tank, a huge additional touch tank with tons of different sea creatures, and enthusiastic, kind staff. When we went this time, they are under construction. They removed the shark touch tank and made the other touch tank area a fraction of the size it was before. They don't even let you touch the sea animals but a portion of each hour so if you show up during the times they aren't allowing people to touch, you can only look at them. All the reasons that I raved about this location before were essentially removed. When I inquired about what happened to the shark touch tanks with the 26 year old lobster, etc. the staff member who couldn't have been more than mid 20's went on a tangent about the culture changing and how it wasn't ethical to touch them because they don't like it. I then inquired about the fact that they are adding a moon jelly touch tank and why they would add that or allow the other sea animals to be touched, wouldn't they also not like being touched? She was extremely condescending and unfriendly once I inquired about that, almost as if I had made her angry for asking the question. Again, all the things that made me rave about how wonderful this place was before has completely changed for the worse. We drove 2 hours one way from where we are staying to end up leaving after less than 15 minutes. Really incredibly sad to see how bad things have gotten here. I truly wish we had not have come back as at least if I hadn't we would have still had the good memories of how great the location was before all these changes.

Fantastic experience: It's a great place if you find yourself nearby. Probably not worth a trip otherwise, unless you love ocean views! Plus the touch tank was pretty cool. It would be super awesome if they opened the research-like areas to view.

Positive experience: Very small! There's not much on display. Outdoors have plenty of space for little ones to roam.

Positive experience: Nice LITTLE display of Maine marine life. It is a single room and has a touch tank. It's very nicely done for what it is. Do NOT expect the usual aquariums of cities but it's nice for a quick stop when visiting the area.

Negative experience: We went there about 5 years ago was looking forward to seeing the upgrades this morning, was disappointed it smaller than it was on our last visit, if your interested in seing a few starfish, 3 lobsters and a bunch of clam shells. Took less than 10 minutes to see everything, good thing it was free admission. What was the millions of dollars spent on?

Negative experience: the remodeling was more of a downgrade than before i would never come back again not worth even a 5 minute drive it is the worst place i’ve ever been too the best part was looking at the water the new remodeling sucks do not go it sucks it has probably a total of 25 fish and now and we can’t touch the shark this place is the worst in history

Fantastic experience: Lovely little aquarium with very knowledgeable staff. Good for a short outing with the kids. Also had picnic tables with stunning views but need to bring your own food.

Positive experience: I had read the reviews beforehand and I found them to be a bit harsh. Yes, parking lot was small but we made it work. Yes, the aquarium is small but seeing the different lobsters that are so incredibly rare was completely worth it. I would have been fine spending $10 each if they weren't waiving the fee currently. Learned things about lobsters I didn't know. Maybe not the best place for small children but definitely school age should enjoy it.

Positive experience: Small but informative displays and enough kid friendly activities that my active 6.5 year old niece had fun. Price of $10/adult seems expensive to me, given the small size...but I guess making science accessible is a worthy cause.

Negative experience: It was free to enter, and I felt ripped off. My daughter said there were more fish in the Hannaford grocery store. Ok, it is under construction so only the first room is open. There is a couple of tanks and a touch tank that was really cool to be able to experience that. It's just a long out of the way drive that I expected to spend 2 to 3 hours at, and we were done in 15 minutes. Hopefully, once it is fully open, we can go back and I can update my review. The workers were friendly and helpful. We also went there early in the week when it was closed, so we drove all the way back for this short adventure. The views of the bay from there are very nice. I think we spent more time out there figuring our next adventure, the Rail Village Museum, than inside the aquarium.

Positive experience: I really wanted to like the new renovations however I would not consider this place as an aquarium but more of an oceanarium. It is definitely a place of education and there are two touch/pet tanks but that's about it. I was hoping it would be like the one from what use to be home (Roundhouse Aquarium in Manhattan Beach, CA) even that aquarium I would still consider it an oceanarium however it had sooooo much more to offer. Despite how crowded this place can get, you can easily do it all in under five minutes. (That's how small it is) If you really want to make the trip I would suggest going on the free days. Also, those baby moon jelly's will soon need a bigger tank!

Positive experience: I'm glad this place reopened. It was free to come in, while they are fixing things up still. While it was cool, it was very very small. We probably won't visit when there is an entrance fee, which is tough, because I'd love to support small local businesses.

Negative experience: Very few exhibits. Tide pool and 2 tanks. It was free that day or it would have been a waste of money Maine should spend a little more money on educational institutions.

Fantastic experience: I have always loved this place. It is tiny but has some cool stuff. They were under renovation when we went there during the last week of August, so admission was free. The presentation on the cotton candy lobster was fascinating! It can be expensive, but it is all for research.

Positive experience: This is a VERY small place that is geared towards young children. Any child over 10 will find this boring. Young children will love it though.

Positive experience: Very small, but fun for the young ones and will take you about an hour to get through if you pace yourself.

Fantastic experience: It's a great place to take kids for a quick outing. The staff are friendly and knowledgeable. Our kids enjoyed the touch tank!

Fantastic experience: Small but fun! Check out the blue lobsters!!

Positive experience: GO ON A FREE DAY. Don't pay for this place, it's not worth it as it's just a single room with 2 large tanks and a few smaller tanks. That said, if it's free it's definitely worth stopping by. The staff are friendly and very knowledgeable about the marine life there. It's nice to walk around the property too.

Negative experience: Unless you are staying within ten minutes of the aquarium I wouldn’t recommend making the trip. Botanical garden was a much better experience

Negative experience: We have been eagerly waiting for the aquarium to open since moving to Maine in 2021 being that we live only 25 minutes away we thought it would be a great place to take our little one on rainy days to get out of the house. It's now 2024 and we went to the aquarium the weekend that it opened and it looked like myself, my husband, and every other family was very confused on the size of the place. Visitors including our family would walk outside onto the deck expecting it to lead to more exhibits to be met with nothing. It took us approximately 10 minutes to walk through the one room with very few tanks. If the touch tanks are closed, which apparently happens frequently, then there really isn't much to do besides look at the lobster and the 3 fish? I'm unsure if they are adding more to the aquarium or if this is it. If that's the case and they will be adding more, they should have made it clear when re opening that it was going to be a small one room exhibit until further notice. If this is going to be all that comes from this aquarium, it was 100% a waste of tax dollars for the amount that was spent on this project. We were overall disappointed that this isn't even worth another 25 minute drive. People in Maine need things to do especially on rainy days or in the winter months. Sadly, although beautiful and new, this wont be one of those things until if/when more is added.

Negative experience: Truly not much to see and heavy handed control by staff, takes the joy out of seeing what few creatures they have available in the touch tank. After being closed for four years, it may as well have stayed closed, because it's not worth the effort of getting there.

Negative experience: Recently visited the aquarium took us almost 2 hours to get there. It was nothing like the website makes it appear its only one relatively small circle room not really much to see or engage in. Overall not worth the 1hr 45min drive for only 10mins to see everything. One plus is it was free admission today vs the $40 it would of been also the staff was very friendly.

Negative experience: Small not impressed traveled 40miles and it was under construction with no heads-up only has 3 small fish exhibits and a few learning tables.

Negative experience: I'm glad there was no charge last Wednesday when we went. The place is tiny with only a few tanks and a touch tank that was closed as soon as we tried to get in line. We took our time expecting another room to realize that was it. And it only took maybe 15 minutes. We allowed the kids to run around outside until the touch tank was opened again to see the line all around the building. We just left. The parking lot was smaller than the aquarium so people parked on both sides of an already small road making it only passable for one car at a time. Making a grid lock when a car was coming at you. It was honestly a nightmare. I didn't expect much but I expected more. If I ever return it will be in winter months when slow.

Fantastic experience: Entry was free. Still under construction but still a fun little place to visit and maybe picnic by the water!

Positive experience: It was cute but very very small. It's undergoing some upgrades. I'm very glad when we went it was free admission, because I would have been really upset to spend $10 per ticket on a very small aquarium

Negative experience: To call this an aquarium is frankly misleading. It's a single room with four tanks with overlapping species, mostly striped bass, flounder, and a yellow and blue lobster that you have to lean over a barrier to see. There are some interactive screens, which are cool, but overall, it was incredibly underwhelming and hardly worth the trip. We were fortunate not to have to pay the day we went; otherwise, this review would be a lot more scathing, and I would caution against paying for a visit.

Fantastic experience: Recommended if you are in the area. This is a small, but very informative aquarium featuring marine life from the Gulf of Maine. The place is under-going some renovations and is quite small, but the aquarium staff is fun and friendly, and they readily shared a wealth of knowledge about the exhibits.

Negative experience: This place was a waste of tax payers dollars. Everyone said it was horrible. They could do sooo much more with this place.

Positive experience: Our first visit to Maine from Texas. The aquarium is small, but informative.

Fantastic experience: A wonderful stop for your family especially if you have children! This place didn’t cost us any money to get into. There is staff all over the place giving what would be over an hour of educational information that’s fun to listen to.

Negative experience: If you’re from a small town you may like it better, but when people say it’s small they’re being generous—this is a one room aquarium that shows two types of fish and three (colorful) lobsters. That’s it. Oh, and a touch tank for kids. In spite of that, it was packed and no parking was available.

Negative experience: I'm shocked that with the 4 year wait and amount of money spent on this project, it was super disappointing. No parking. Very small exhibits. One room.

Negative experience: Not necessarily a bad experience but simply underwhelming. It's one room that I walked through in 5 minutes. I saw more families sitting and playing outside than were actually inside the aquarium (and it was a foggy day). It's currently free, so I hope they add more if they plan to charge for admission.

Negative experience: So calling it an aquarium is a bit of a stretch. It has 3 tanks, a touch tank and very little parking, I’m glad they didn’t charge today because at $10 a head I would of been really upset, that being said it wasn’t a complete disaster it is utterly beautiful out there and the staff is both friendly and knowledgeable. I can’t say I recommend it but if they expand they could be great

Negative experience: Not worth it. Little parking, one room, not very many exhibits. As a tax payer, the state just spent millions on this place, so I'm overly disappointed. A fish store has more exhibits.

Fantastic experience: This is a great little project for kids! Wish it was bigger, but if your down there take the kids to the touch tank and check out a few fish. Estimate only spending 15 minutes there because of the size, but it's got a fishing dock behind it. Friendly, kind staff!

Positive experience: In my opinion not worth my drive. The grandkids were very disappointed. Very small and crowded.

Positive experience: The potential for this little aquarium is huge!The recent renovations look great in the one room aquarium. My 15 month old loved the touch tank and watching the fish swim around. The blue lobster was also very fun to see. The location of this aquarium is a big draw. I hope there are plans for future expansion, maybe boat tours with hands on experiences or a gift shop. Would love to see this little gem continue to grow.

Fantastic experience: We recently visited the Maine State Aquarium in West Boothbay Harbor and had a fantastic experience! Although the aquarium is relatively small (a single room), it is packed with fascinating exhibits and a variety of marine species. My kids were thrilled to see the rare blue lobsters, which we learned are a 1 in 2 million find! The highlight of our visit was definitely the touch tank, where my children enjoyed interacting with sea life from Maine's tidal pools. The aquarium has just reopened and is still working on some exhibits, but that didn't dampen our fun. We had a great time exploring and learning about marine life in Maine. We will definitely be back once the work is completed. Highly recommend for a fun and educational family outing!

Negative experience: What a shame this aquarium is not opened. Why is that? Everything else is up and running. After 17 months (give our take) of Covid, I really think any state that is allowing their employees to basically get paid for hiding behind closed doors should be ashamed of themselves (I'm sure state employees are walking amongst us, side by side, in Home Depot and Hannaford). Time for doors on every state building, through the country, to be unlocked. As an employee of a school district, staff & students went to school for 10 months (only a handful did virtual learning). Guess what? We ALL survived and no one was hospitalized. A handful of students & 3 co-workers came down with very mild cases of Covid-19 in my school building. Let's face it, most of us are out there working and interacting with many people throughout the day. Why is it that state employees have the pleasure of avoiding their job responsibilities, while making state services that should be available to the public very difficult to get.. right down to the motor vehicle department?

Positive experience: I have no opinion on the museum itself, but rather how an employee decided to let my party and I know the aquarium was closed… I may not have minded if the woman yelling out the window at us hadn’t decided to be selective in her yelling at patrons. My group and I were too far away to let them know what we had learned, this girl seemed to not care that a group of 8+ was needlessly walking up to the door. If you’re going to tell people the aquarium is closed all summer for renovations, maybe having someone yell out their car window is a bad way to do it anyway. Signs work, the sidewalk seemed to be big enough for one

Fantastic experience: The Father’s Day weekend when our family stopped by the lobster boat races were in full swing! The aquarium is smaller but at the time of our visit offered educational programs like a squid dissection which made this a must see on the list!

Positive experience: There is a sign that they are closed due to COVID-19. However, if you are already in the area, it is beautiful, peaceful, and plenty of parking.

Fantastic experience: Went to fish off their pier just to try it out. Place looked nice, planning on visit...great parking, kids on pier really enjoyed the fishing and netting thing.

Fantastic experience: Love this place! Small as far as aquariums go. And was very crowded at the busy times. The touch tanks are AMAZING. We spent hours at them. The sharks were so much fun. I could have pet them for days. It was really cool, you could go fishing off the dock. They supplied everything. They had a craft section, and different presentations. Definitely can't wait to go back.

Negative experience: Called before we went, no answer. They were closed during normal business hours. Try an answering machine that states that you are closed. We tried coming several days before Labor Day. No answer on your phone. I guess there’s no money in your budget for an answering machine?

Positive experience: Great for younger kids! Not a whole lot of displays, but they offer a really cool touch tank, and a tank of sturgeons you can pet. They usually have a "lecture" where they teach you about different sea animals. Last time we went it was on Lobsters and Lobstering. You can also go to the peir and fish! We go every year! Also the price of admission is VERY reasonable!

Fantastic experience: The tiniest aquarium I have ever been to. Also one of the most fun. The main feature is two different touch tanks, one with sharks, skates, and lobsters. The other with starfish, sea cucumbers, lobsters, crabs, scallops, and more. My girlfriend and I really loved both of them and spent a good amount of time at them. The attendants at both tanks were super friendly, knowledgable, and fun to talk to. Would go back. It was very reasonably priced.

Positive experience: My 3 year old daughter loved the aquarium, especially the touch tank. This was a fun family experience for us all and the price seems fair.

Fantastic experience: Absolutely loved the Aquarium! We took our two boys ages 2 and 5. It was very reasonably priced at $17 to get in. They had alot more to look at than what was on their website. The boys absolutely loved the two dog sharks they had in the big touch tank. One of the staff members there was able to tell them just about everything there was to k ow about the sharks amd the egg sacks floating in the same tank. They had a huge 14lb Lobster my youngest absolutely loved. He was as big as my 2yo. Out side was many great places to have a picnic with amazing views of the ocean. A dock outside had various traps the kids could pull up with crabs inside. Highly recommend the Maine State Aquarium. I would ignor the website as there is much more to see once your there. Will definitely be returning next year.

Fantastic experience: It's a very small aquarium but my grandsons loved being able to learn about and touch the sea life on exhibit.

Fantastic experience: This was a very fun experience. I imagine it works be enjoyable for children also. There's a touch tank. The place is pretty small and focuses on aquatic life found in the coast of Maine. There was a very informative presentation on lobster fishing.

Positive experience: Kids had fun. Pretty small place but lots to look at

Fantastic experience: This place keeps us entertained for hours. Really cool creatures and friendly sharks! I love this aquarium!

Positive experience: Small place but loved that they had no problem with my service dog and my mother's service dog. Staff was very friendly.

Positive experience: The aquarium is really fun if you're in the area! They have a lot of fun fish and a couple touch pools, as well as an area to fish and pull up lobster traps! You have to have time to find parking, though. There's almost no parking in their lot at any time.

Fantastic experience: Great area to have a sit outside a d take in the beauty of the coast. The aquarium was very good.

Negative experience: Very small place, does have a couple touch tanks (sharks, sea stars, etc.) which were okay, but takes about 10 minutes to go through. Definitely wouldn't make a special trip. A bit shabby all around.

Fantastic experience: Love this place. The sharks come up to you and want you to pet them. A very good place to learn about ocean creatures. Has lots of specimens and the people are very knowledgeable and happy to answer questions.

Positive experience: There is a small room with all the tanks and touch tanks. There is a nice area to walk around near the shore with a couple picnic tables to eat lunch. There are some provided activities such as the fishing poles to try and catch some fish off the fishing dock. You could expect to spend about an hour seeing everything. The biggest issue was the very limited parking.

Positive experience: Much smaller than expected, big building but only small portion for public. What was there, was very cool!

Positive experience: Kids had a great time. Aquarium is small but the touch tanks, shark petting and salt water fishing make it worth it

Fantastic experience: Great place for kids, touch tanks were the most popular, but the lobster tour and pier fishing was good too!

Positive experience: Very small with little parking. Plus side is the marine life is native to ME coatal waters with several unique fish and other organisms that you won't find at other aquariums. Spent maybe 30 min. at aquarium then ate our picnic lunch near the water.

Positive experience: Great fro young children to learn about the ocean. Enjoyed the touch tanks and the classes about lobsters. Would have liked bigger animals for the older children.

Fantastic experience: You're able touch sturgeon, skate, dogfish. There is a touch tank with clams, crabs, horseshoe crabs, scallops, lobster, etc. The staff are knowledgeable and some (not all) are friendly.

Positive experience: Good for littles with the touch tank and activities. The fishing off the dock was also nice.

Fantastic experience: Took my grandkids here yesterday, they loved it! Very educational & hands on! Well worth the small admission. Recommend 100 %

Fantastic experience: Great spot for kids to learn about the water environment. Been wanting to visit thr place foe a while and finally made it down to Boothbay Harbor with the family. 20mins off of Route 1 and a little over an hour from Portland. Take the kids their and they'll enjoy a touch take, arts and crafts, fishing and much more. Off thr beaten path so take a snack and drinks.

Fantastic experience: Great and knowledgeable staff. The touch tank, I ever saw. My 3year old grandson loved it. You can fish too.

Positive experience: Friendly staff , small but interesting place . Catch and release free fishing off of pier . Nice time

Negative experience: Super small for the price compared to most aquariums I've been to. The touch tanks were cool though.

Fantastic experience: Fantastic place to go with the family it's cheap and small but the staff are great and the touch tanks keep the kids entranced for hours

Positive experience: Very interesting and informative. It doesn't have a lot of variety but Bob the guy by the horseshoe crab area answered all of our questions and more. He is a plethora of information. Negative is, there was supposed to be a lobster presentation but didn't happen. We waited for 22 minutes by the deck where they said it was gonna be held but couldn't wait anymore and we left.

Fantastic experience: Had a blast,small but worth the cheap price..

Fantastic experience: Absolutely love this place! Check out the 14lb Lobster Neptune. The views outside are amazing and the Aquarium inside is so much fun to experience. Even for return trips. Didn't do everything available, but it's worth the drive.

Fantastic experience: Great little place for small kids to spend a little time. Great little touch tanks to handle and touch different sea life, pack for a picnic and have lunch there, the views of the harbor are spectacular.

Fantastic experience: Nice little place for family and kids. The touchable sea animals are fun. Very knowledgeable guides.

Fantastic experience: Great place to spend a few hours with the family, the touch tank is a immersive experience my 9 year old loved. Fishing off the pier was just an added bonus.

Positive experience: Nice, small in size and exhibit, but was an enjoyable experience! We learned quite a lot. Everyone was helpful, teachers, encouraged saving our ecology, and keeping our oceans healthy. Hands-on!

Fantastic experience: Great little place, petting tank, great information. Only local animals featured at this aquarium, quite unique. Gift shop is reasonable too! They also have a craft room, Discovery room to explain and learn more. Great way for the kids and adults to learn.

Fantastic experience: Interesting Maine stuff, I liked the area where you can touch the different kinds of fish such as sturgeon and a skate. That was really cool when the skate wags it's tail just like a dog when you touched it. It is not huge but very educational