Coming up at the Mystic Aquarium

buy tickets membership  volunteer  donate  Breakfast with Santa Enjoy a delicious breakfast buffet provided by Ocean Blue Catering on Dec. 10. Discover the wonder of the Aquarium before it opens and tell Santa your wishes for the holiday season. Festival of Lights Over 6,000 luminaries plus music, decor, Santa & more light up this Olde Mistick Village tradition Dec. 9. Winterfest Spend vacation week with us Dec. 26 to Jan. 1. See favorite toys come to life, ice carving, Santa and more! Marine Biology Mentor Series Designed to help future Marine Biologists, this series begins Dec. 30. Special Invites from our Friends at Save the Bay and Ocean Blue Catering Westerly Seal Watch & Nature Cruise Join Save the Bay for the final cruise featuring Mystic Aquarium's very own stranding coordinator on Dec. 3. Float down the Pawcatuck River and into Little Narragansett Bay to learn about native seals and natural history. New Year's Eve Bash: Casino Royale Ring in the New Year with panoramic views at Mystic Yachting Center Dec. 31. Savor catering by Ocean Blue Catering, five complimentary cocktails and a champagne toast a midnight. This 21+ event sells fast! Holiday Happenings at Mystic Aquarium! Visits with Santa, special holiday events, unique gift ideas and more. Click here to find out what is happening this holiday season at Mystic Aquarium! Animal Spotlight: Giant Pacific Octopus  The Giant Pacific octopus is the largest octopus species known, reaching a weight of 150 pounds or more! This boneless invertebrate can move its body to open jars and even navigate any openings it can fit its beak through. With a highly developed brain and excellent vision, the octopus can use its body to solve puzzles and has been known to escape from sticky situations, so to speak! Check out this master of camouflage in our Main Gallery and be sure to turn your camera flash off when snapping a photo! Choose a green holiday! When deciding on a tree to decorate, consider purchasing a live tree which you can plant at the end of the holiday season. If each of the 10 million trees that end up in landfills at the end of the season were planted, over 480 million pounds of carbon dioxide would be removed from the atmosphere every year. Membership: Sea Change Unlimited visits are great. Free 4-D is quite a perk. Clean oceans are life-giving. The benefits of a Mystic Aquarium membership are far-reaching.  We seek change through conservation, education and research. You sea change with your membership. Click here to join now!  Mystic Aquarium's Corporate Sponsors  The mission of Mystic Aquarium is to inspire people to care for and protect our ocean planet through conservation, education and research. www.MysticAquarium.org Mystic Aquarium  | 55 Coogan Boulevard  | 860.572.5955 TAIL US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

What Trump Could Learn from Alexander Hamilton

America's first treasury secretary was no liberal, but he almost sounds like one today.

By Jill Richardson

By now you’ve probably heard that Vice President-elect Mike Pence was booed by fellow theater-goers at a performance of the musical Hamilton, an unlikely hip-hop sensation that tells the story of Alexander Hamilton and other founding fathers.

Then, at the end of the show, the cast respectfully addressed Pence and asked him to protect the rights of all Americans — in all their diversity.

Donald Trump immediately demanded that the cast of Hamilton apologize to Pence. Twitter responded with the hashtag #NameAPenceMusical, offering up suggestions such as “Oklahomophobia!” and “Rent: But Not to Those People.”

To be fair, the latter belongs less to Pence than to Trump and his father, who faced numerous accusations of racial bias in their real estate business.

Saturday, E-Waste collection in Charlestown

You can now bring cathode ray (tube) TVs and computer monitors for disposal at no charge.

It CAN happen here

The deportation force in our own backyard

By Claire Pimentel in Rhode Island’s Future

The Bristol County Sheriff’s Office announced that the Department had been accepted into Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) 287(g) program, beginning an era where local law enforcement will be permitted to engage in immigration law enforcement.

The program has long been praised by Trump’s transition team, including Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. Kobach helped several states draft laws designed to target undocumented immigrants and force them to self-deport. 

He was instrumental in drafting Arizona’s SB 1070, as well as a city ordinance that banned undocumented immigrants from rental housing.

Kobach has been advocating for the expansion of the 287(g) program to several more cities before Trump’s inauguration.