National Aquarium

People aren't the only ones at risk from eating mercury-contaminated fish, since coal-burning power plants have liberally sprinkled the toxic metal across the earth's waters.  But it appears that captive dolphins have a little less to worry about in that regard than their wild counterparts. A new study by researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the National Aquarium in Baltimore found that the aquarium's captive bottlenose dolphins have lower levels of mercury in their bodies than wild dolphins tested off the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of Florida.

Joe Queenan is nobody's Mr. Nice Guy. But the deliciously cutting columnist has a soft side for, of all things, Baltimore. In fact in the Wall Street Journal, Queenan rides like a white knight to the city's defense after what he sees as slight after slight from Hollywood. Exhibit A: John Cusack movie "The Raven. " "In the new film "The Raven," innocent people - some of them really nice, innocent people - find themselves buried alive, or garroted, or sliced in half by a pendulum, or missing a tongue, with no reason why such misfortune has befallen them," he writes.

The National Aquarium's eight dolphins are no longer a show unto themselves. After two decades of dramatic leaps and crowd-pleasing stunts, aquarium officials are eliminating the 20-minute dolphin shows in favor of a more open-ended exhibit. Beginning Friday, aquarium visitors will be able to visit the dolphin amphitheater throughout the day and interact with trainers. Instead of charging a separate admission price for the dolphin show, the aquarium is raising general admission ticket prices.

Having just spent a very busy weekend with adorable, 4-year-old twin girls who were visiting with my nephew, I was extremely interested in the sight-seeing tips from Jill Smokler, the Baltimore-based Scary Mommy blogger who recently released "Confessions of a Scary Mommy. " Smokler provided the Baltimore Sun with her Top Five best -- and worst -- places to take the kids . I missed all of them over the weekend, instead falling back on the National Aquarium , which I've found to be a very entertaining, if very expensive, spot for kids of all ages.

The National Aquarium in Baltimore 's Inner Harbor is redesigning its dolphin show — and its admission prices. Beginning May 4, the "timed, limited-access and separately priced [dolphin] shows" will be eliminated and replaced by all-day access to the dolphins and their trainers, according to a statement released Thursday by the aquarium. Along with the new dolphin show format, the aquarium is increasing its base admission price to $29.95 for adults and $20.95 for children.

Events for 2012 are starting to pop up in the inbox. This one got our attention. The National Aquarium's ongoing series of Fresh Thoughts dinners resumes on Jan. 24 with Chad Wells, who will be presenting a menu of invasive species from Maryland waters, including crab, blue catfish and snakehead. Wells has honchoed a few of these invasive-species dinners already -- at his own Alewife , at the Creative Alliance and at an all-star October benefit for the Oyster Recovery Partnership at Rockfish in Annapolis Tickets for the Fresh Thoughts dinner with Chad Wells at the National Aquarium are $89. The evening begins with a cocktail reception and cooking demonstration, followed by a four-course dinner featuring a Maryland blue crab appetizer , a "Frankenfish Taco," and a deconstructed paella with smoked Chesapeake gold oyster and seared blue catfish.

Sea-inspired melodies are helping efforts to give terminally ill children, disabled veterans and other special-needs groups glimpses of aquatic life at the National Aquarium in Baltimore . Musician Greg Pierce is donating $5 from every sale of "Sea Notes," his CD with eight instrumental compositions, one of which is the background for the aquarium's popular "Jellies Invasion: Oceans Out of Balance" exhibit. Photographer David Simpson, whose cover shot for the album has been reproduced on a poster, is also donating $5 from every poster sold to a program that helps the aquarium honor requests for a no-charge look at its exhibits.

What an embarrassment to those who seek elected office in Baltimore - a mere 12 percent of eligible citizens voted on Tuesday. With all the hours, all the door-to-door footwork these politicians (and prospective politicians) put into seeking political office, this is a slap in the face. How many city voters didn't realize there was an election going on until after it passed? To the non-voting whiners who pout the first time they have a disagreement with a local politician, I say, you are the epitome of hypocrisy.

Scientists from the National Aquarium and the Johns Hopkins University say they've found low but potentially harmful levels of toxic oil contaminants in the Gulf of Mexico months after the Deepwater Horizon well blowout was capped. Erik Rifkin, interim executive director of the aquarium's conservation center, and Yongseok Hong, a post-doctoral fellow at Hopkins, say that using devices that mimic the way fish absorb contaminants in their environment, they've detected oil-related chemical compounds on the Louisiana coast that traditional water sampling methods mostly missed.

Columbia resident Sarah Thorne , a University of Delaware junior majoring in pre-veterinary medicine and animal biosciences, and agriculture and natural resources, participated two internships this summer. She shadowed veterinarians at the USDA Veterinary Services Research Center, in Beltsville, worked at the National Aquarium in Baltimore in the Australia Exhibit with the aviculturists.