Funding The Fish

Every now and again it can be fun to play tourist in your own city. Some people think this is a waste of time but one of the reasons it's such a good idea is that people tend to go to a place once and then check it off their to-do list. That feeling is only going to get deeper when you happen to live near the attraction and could go there at any time. There just isn't the sense or urgency you would have if you were only visiting and won't be back in the area for a long period of time. I guess that makes some sense (some places you only need to go once) but at the same time there are plenty of places you should check in with every couple of years because they constantly are changing and you could miss some amazing things happening right under your nose. I was reminded of this the other week when I went to the Science Museum, which had many of the same exhibits but enough new stuff that I was able to spend time looking around and not get bored. If that is what is just out by the Omni Theater, I can only imagine all the new stuff which is on the inside. With that in mind I was excited to go to the New England Aquarium yesterday because it was kind of the same thing. I'm always telling people they should check out the aquarium because it is one of the best in the nation but when I stopped and thought about it I hadn't been there in almost a decade. Obviously a few things would have changed in that time so I was interested to see what those changes would be.

Just like at the Science Museum there are many similar things but enough aspects have changed to let you know the administrators running the place are not content with the status quo. The biggest change to the aquarium has to be what they have done with the center tank. For those of you who have never been to the New England Aquarium, at the center of the building is a four-story tall circular tank which has a large coral reef and many species of tropical fish swimming around it. There is a spiral ramp going up along the outside of it and a lot of windows along the way which you can stop at and watch the fish swim by. Last year the marine biologists discovered that there was a bacteria in the tank, which meant the entire thing had to cleaned and some of the fish relocated. The aquarium took this opportunity to upgrade the entire tank and even though I hadn't seen the tank in a long time you can immediately tell they had made some major improvements. The aquarium added some new, clearer glass and touch-screen computers along the walls which allow you to search for the name of the fish which just floated passed. Also they added many new species and there was a fancy new camera system they can lower into the tank for a fish-eye view of what is happening in there as well as a new platform at the top of the tank that momentarily made me feel like I had stepped onto the set of "Star Trek."

Of course, all these upgrades take money but the good news for places like the New England Aquarium is that they don't have to go to the bank and ask for a loan because there are always people willing to give them money. Not only is a charitable donation such as this one a tax write-off, it can be really good PR for a company looking to ingratiate itself in the community, so it was not a surprise to see many of the biggest businesses in town listed as donors. And as you walked up the ramp around the center tank there were plaques at every window with the name of a donor on it. (Not sure how that worked. Was it a tiered system, such as the more money you gave the closer your window was to the top? Also, the most ironic donor? Legal Seafoods. I wonder if this gives them first dibs when a fish doesn't appear to be moving around quite as well as it was last week.) As if that wasn't enough, once you made it to the top of the tank there was a list of all the companies or individuals which had given money, grouped together under a range of how much they had given. I found that a little tacky, but the stranger part was that there were several listing for 'anonymous'. In fact, 'anonymous' even had their own plaque at one of the viewing windows. Seeing that I couldn't help but feel as though someone in this equation doesn't really understand what the term 'anonymous' means.

Normally I am favor of people who want to do good and not demand credit in return. One of the first Catholic school lessons I learned was "charity done to make yourself look good is not actually charity." So the idea that a person or organization would give at least $50,000 and not ask for anything in return is rather inspiring. I just don't like the way they went about it. If these people really didn't want to be acknowledged than the better course of action would have been to simply put a line at the bottom of the donor list saying something along the lines of, "As well as donations from many other friends of the aquarium who wish to remain anonymous." Instead 'anonymous' was listed several times, with a number beside it to let you know exactly how many people in that donation bracket had wished to remain anonymous. That makes me wonder if the more realistic scenario is that these people did want to get some recognition, they just don't their names out there because they don't want to be every charity's first phone call come donation time. Well, I'm sorry, but you just can't have it both ways. You should either be willing to put your name out there or be silently proud of your generous donation. This half-in tactic just makes everything awkward. The only good thing to come out of it is that it lets just anyone claim to be the anonymous donor, which is what I was doing during my entire visit to the aquarium. Hey, that money had to come from somewhere, so I figure it is up to other people to prove it wasn't me.