Galway Atlantaquaria, Ireland’s largest native species aquarium, is located in Salthill overlooking Galway Bay along the Wild Atlantic Way. We are caretakers of hundreds of native animals from our rivers, lakes, canals and oceans. We could not do this work without the support of our Directors Liam & Maureen Twomey, our Visitors, Volunteers, Aquarium Members, our Local Council and Community, Local Academic Institutions,and the General Public.

For over 20 years, we have created a unique blend of Culture, History, and Connection to the Sea, that is reflected in our community work. As we reflect on 2024 and look forward to 2025, we have thought a lot about the events and experiences from over the last year, and our visitors and the species that call the aquarium home.

Galway Atlantaquaria is incredibly lucky to have an amazing team, working to inspire and engage with our community and visitors, about the value of marine biodiversity, citizen science, ocean literacy, and threats to our ocean and blue spaces such as marine litter. We were delighted to welcome over 100,000 visitors through our doors again this year, more than 10,000 of which took part in a formal workshop or tour with our education and front of house staff. We continued our role the Marine Institute’s Explorers Education Programme, through which we are contracted to deliver marine modules to primary schools in Co. Galway and Co. Clare and provide services to the programme and work with other Explorers Outreach Centres around Ireland. 2024 was our final year as the current Secretariat of the Irish Ocean Literacy Network, and we are delighted to say the Network is now established as a Company Limited by Guarantee.

Over the course of the year we upgraded a few areas of the aquarium including our nursery for the baby sharks and rays, and built a new exhibit for our Lumpfish which included a new chiller system to keep them at the cold water temperatures that they enjoy. We also moved our Octopus into a new exhibit. This allowed us to use the old Octopus tank as a new home for our Angler Fish which needed a larger space to thrive.

Animal welfare and enrichment is a very important part of the work that the aquarium team does and during 2024 we developed this program further. Enrichment involves using toys or feeding devices that provide an activity for our animals that can last anything from a few minutes to over an hour. This year we developed new activities especially for our Octopus that included puzzles that need to be solved with the prize being a piece of food or toys like a floating ball on a string that the Octopus enjoys interacting with. The aquarium team is constantly adjusting feeding and enrichment activities to ensure our high standards of animal welfare are maintained.

We upgraded a number of items behind the scenes too, in our plant room, where the life support systems are located. While these are not aspects that are visual to the public, they are integral to a healthy environment for our animals, so essential work carried out by Ian and Matt.

In 2024, we also completed with our partners the one-year participatory art project ‘Galway Bay is Calling’ aimed at enhancing the connection of the local community with the ocean through music. We also organised multiple beach cleans and community events, including yoga on the shore and took part in a number of national and international conferences including the UNESCO Ocean Literacy Conference in Venice. We were delighted to continue working with the local Fáilte Ireland team, promoting tourism along the Wild Atlantic Way. Our staff members contributed to book chapters and publications and we were delighted to continue our Small Conservation Grants, supporting a range of Irish Projects, and our Window Displays, highlighting local educational materials.

Garry submitted data to the National Biodiversity Data Centre Explore your Shore Programme! We celebrated World Ocean Day and had a special event for local hospitality staff, members and friends of the aquarium. Petra and Noirin continued delivering our quiet night events, and we held a number of private functions in our classroom and in the aquarium throughout the year. Marmo even made an appearance at Culture Night this year!

Over the course of last winter the aquarium was delighted to work with Mairead Brennan who created a selection of murals in our reception area and around the aquarium. Mairead spent hours drawing and painting a selection of wonderful murals based on our native species. These illustrations also led to us to run a story writing competition for children, and publish a fantastic illustrated book by the winning entry, which was illustrated by Mairead. The Great Sea Adventure by Charlie Gannon can be downloaded here.

Through the year we were busy out and about on the shore, delivering a number of beach events. In January the Big Egg Case Hunt took place, while a number of Clean coast beach cleans took place. Each month a species survey was carried out on Grattan Beach, and over the course of the year, over 100 species of plant and animal were recorded. In April we started to record the Sand Fence Project on Grattan Beach. We took a photo of the development every week over several months. For more information see https://nationalaquarium.ie/sandfences2024/ .

As part of International Space Week and the launch of the Europe Clipper Mission, the Blackrock Observatory in Cork went on a road trip around Ireland with former astronaut Steve Swanson. We were delighted to host their visit to Galway and had a great time with the students from Dominican College, Taylor’s Hill who joined us for this event.

Since its establishment in 2016, the Irish Ocean Literacy Network (IOLN) has brought together individuals and organisations working towards the IOLN vision, achieving an Ocean Literate society across the Island of Ireland. The IOLN aspires to be a central contact and dissemination point to support initiatives and collaboration opportunities between the IOLN members, and to provide a platform for engagement with relevant stakeholders. As the Secretariat, a job that has been carried out by Garry Kendellen, Noirin Burke and Maria Vittoria Marra concurrently over the last five years, the aquarium has played an active role in maintaining the network and helping it to move from an informal structure to a formal Company Limited by Guarantee in 2024. For the last three years, the Secretariat work, carried out by Maria Vittoria, has been funded through the EU Mission Ocean & Waters project PREP4BLUE, of which the aquarium was part of the consortium. During this time we managed communications with members, assisted with the organisation of regional and national meetings, shared members’ news and materials through the IOLN social media accounts and website, and represented the Network at international events, including the UNESCO Ocean Literacy Conference in Venice in June.

The Marine Institute Explorers Education Programme has been an important focus for the educational team at the aquarium since the programme was trialled with 10 primary schools in Co. Galway in 2006. Back then we helped with tanks and provided saltwater and food for the seashore species that the schools looked after in their Explorers Aquariums in the Classroom. In 2008, when the programme officially launched in Galway City and County, we visited over 25 primary school classrooms on behalf of the programme, with Explorers Aquariums, Project Modules and Seashore Safaris. The programme, which is funded and supported by the Marine Institute, Ireland’s state agency for marine research, technology development and innovation in Ireland, has grown considerably since then. Now reaching over 400 classrooms a year, the programme is facilitated by a network of outreach centres and teams, with an outreach officer in each coastal county. Schools can take part in a range of modules, including the original three, plus a workshop module and whole school Ocean Champion project. The range of project themes has also expanded, so that now students can study animals from the deep sea, in The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, examine Fintastic Sharks and Sea Turtles, and explore the topics of Climate Change and the Ocean and coming soon, Renewable Ocean Energy.

The aquarium is currently the Explorers Outreach Centre for Co. Galway and Co. Clare. We have been privileged to meet with schools in Co. Galway since 2008, and Sibeal Regan, the aquarium outreach officer, visited over 60 schools last year, as well as delivering three Ocean Champion projects, two of which went on to be national winners.

Through our role as Education Delivery & Outreach Managers we plan and coordinate events, both face to face and online around the country, deliver teacher and pre-service teacher training, through the Department of Education and Skills Summer Courses Programme, and 3rd level Institutions such as Mary Immaculate College, Marino Institute of Education and St, Pats, DCU. Tara Noonan, who leads our front of house team, and who is a fluent Irish Speaker, delivered the first pre-service teacher training completely As Gaeilge this year, with students from Marino on Bull Island in Co. Dublin.

For a more details of our year at the aquarium see our full review of 2024

On behalf of the team at the aquarium, we wish to thank all our staff, volunteers, work placement students and transition year students, friends, and visitors for supporting the work we do. Without you, the people who visit the aquarium, our members and funders, we would not be able to do this work. We hope you will continue to embark on a voyage of discovery and learning with us in 2025,

Noirin, Matt and Jovita (Aquarium Management Team)