We can’t let the day go by without noting that today (March 22) is the 21^st annual World Water Day, declared by the United Nations as a day to focus attention on the importance of fresh water and the need for the sustainable management of fresh-water resources.

We hope you didn’t roll your eyes. The global needs and demands for fresh water increase every year – from population gains, droughts, agriculture and other industries. It’s serious enough that, a few years ago, one MIT professor warned that water “is the next oil” – meaning that governments will begin to trade, store and maybe fight over water rights.

According to the U.N., “around 700 million people in 43 countries suffer from a lack of water. By 2025, 1.8 billion people (23 percent of the total expected population) will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world’s population (another 3.4 billion people) could be living under water stressed conditions.”

You may ask:  for “the blue planet” – a planet whose surface is more than 70 percent water – how can this be?  Well, generally, 97 percent of the water on Earth is salt water, which is unusable in that form for most of our needs. (And desalination is costly.) That leaves 3 percent as fresh water. But two-thirds of that is locked up at the poles as inaccessible ice (ice that’s melting, which just sends it into the salty sea, causing a whole set of other issues). This leaves 1 percent of the water on Earth as accessible fresh water.  Accessible; not necessarily clean, of course.

Here’s what the U.N. says on World Water Day:  “The fulfillment of basic human needs, our environment, socio-economic development and poverty reduction are all heavily dependent on water. …  Rapid urbanization, pollution and climate change threaten the resource, while demands for water are increasing in order to satisfy the needs of a growing world population, now at over 7 billion people, for food production, energy, industrial and domestic uses. Water is a shared resource and its management needs to take into account a wide variety of conflicting interests.”

So today we raise a glass … of refreshing tap water … and remind you of some simple ways to preserve and conserve this precious resource:

•  take shorter showers.

•  use less fertilizer and pesticides on your lawn.

•  keep a pitcher of water in your refrigerator, so you don’t have to wait for your tap water to get cold.

•  fix leaky faucets.

•  watch for notices of river cleanups and volunteer your time.

•  go to car washes (where water is recycled) instead of washing your car in the driveway.

•  don’t let the water run while brushing your teeth.

•  set up a rain-water collector, to store water that can be used for gardens and landscaping.

•  and keep in touch with your legislators to encourage them to support clean-water initiatives.

Learn more about World Water Day at www.unwater.org/water-cooperation-2013/home/en/

And get more information about water conservation at www.maritimeaquarium.org/long-island-sound/conservation.

By Dave Sigworth, publicist of The Maritime Aquarium

It’s just after 8 a.m., two hours before The Maritime Aquarium will open its doors to visitors and several school groups on field trips. But much is happening.

Members of the animal-husbandry department already have been in for an hour (or more) to get the Aquarium ready for the day.  Here’s a sampling of the activity:

A bucket of fish, ready for the seals.

8:15 a.m. – Up in the third-floor “fish kitchen,” interns Daniel Delgado and Karen Echeverria are preparing food for the Aquarium’s fish, seals, otters and other marine animals. They have pulled a large container of capelin – a small fish that the Aquarium purchases by the ton – out of the walk-in freezer. They discard any fish that looks bruised or damaged; weigh out good ones for the seals; and filet and chop up others to be fed to many of the Aquarium’s displayed fish.

8:37 a.m.  –  Down the hall, aquarist Mark Wagner is going to feed the sand tiger sharks from the

A sand tiger shark comes partially out of the water while being fed a fish.

room above the Aquarium’s 110,000-gallon “Ocean Beyond the Sound” exhibit. He needs to make sure that each shark gets a meal. One at a time, he attaches a fish to the end of a long pole and offers it to each shark. Some snatch the fish with barely a tug; others snap it off in a violent thrashing.

8:58 a.m. – Aquarist Rachel Stein is in the jellyfish nursery, where the Aquarium’s year-round supply of jellies are cultured. She preps a bucket that looks to be full of a reddish-brown tea. But it’s not tea, it’s a rich concentration of brine shrimp, which the aquarists hatch each day to feed to the smaller, filter-feeding creatures on exhibit. She uses a turkey baster to squirt a sampling of shrimp into all the jelly containers.

Dr. Barbara Mangold and aquarist Mark Wagner perform a health check on a cow-nose ray.

9:02 a.m.  –  Wagner has moved downstairs to the Shark & Ray Touch Pool, where he and staff veterinarian Dr. Barbara Mangold are planning a ray health screening. Wagner is setting up a small isolation tank and puts a “relaxation” agent into the water, which will quiet the rays and make examination easier.

9:17 a.m. – The first ray has been netted and is relaxed. Wagner holds its fins while Mangold collects small samples of skin and gill, which she will examine under a microscope up in the animal-husbandry lab.  Several more will be swabbed over the next 20 minutes.

9:28 a.m. –  Delgado, the intern, and Aquarist Vicki Sawyer are working with the harbor seals. The seals get a breakfast feeding and also practice a new skill: trying to differentiate between square and round shapes.

Aquarist Sandi Schaefer with a red-eyed tree frog.

9:34 a.m. –  Aquarist Sandi Schaefer is in a support room behind the “Watershed” gallery, checking in on some new arrivals: red-eyed tree frogs for the “Frogs!” exhibit. They get a breakfast of crickets.

9:47 a.m. –  Sawyer heads up to the awaken the river otters (who spend the night backstage) and move them into their exhibit. Lou is ready to go. Bell needs a nudge.

9:50 a.m.–  Aquarist Evelia Rivera calls the meerkats into a backstage support room. She now can go into the “Meerkats” exhibit to tidy and restage their environment. (Each day, the aquarists change and move items in the exhibit, to keep the meerkats engaged.)

Aquarist Evelia Rivera readies the "Meerkats" exhibit.

10 a.m. –  The Maritime Aquarium is ready for visitors.  But the animal-husbandry department’s work is not done. Water quality will be monitored, more food will be prepped in the “fish kitchen,” and more animals will be fed throughout the day.

(Learn more about the Aquarium’s operations in a “Behind-the-Scenes Tour” on Sat., April 20 beginning at 8:15 a.m.   Tickets are $25 or $22.50 for Aquarium members.  Advance reservations are strongly recommended; click on “Buy Tickets” at the top of this page or call (203) 852-0700, ext. 2206.)

By Dave Sigworth, publicist of The Maritime Aquarium

When the person who tells you that we need to love and appreciate the natural world is also the person who – a few minutes later – lets a ring-tailed lemur crawl up on his head, you tend to give him credibility and take him seriously.

Of course, Jack Hanna isn’t all seriousness, and that’s his appeal.

Jack Hanna gets some help removing a lemur from his head from a Columbus Zoo staffer.

The celebrated zookeeper thrilled two full crowds in the Aquarium’s IMAX Theater Thursday with his stories, messages, videos and a menagerie of live animals. Hanna’s easy genial manner makes him fun to be around and fun to learn from – sort of the way we hope you feel about The Maritime Aquarium.

Hanna introduced dozens of animals – both common and exotic species – and explained why many are now associated with serious conservation concerns. These included a 15-foot python (turned loose and taken over the Everglades), a big and beautiful Siberian lynx (virtually extinct in the wild now) and that head-climbing lemur (serious loss of habitat in its native Madagascar).

A tamandua (or lesser) anteater.

Other exotics included an echidna (one of only two egg-laying mammals), a lesser anteater, a king vulture, and ridiculously cute young wallabies, fennec foxes and servals.

And though a beaver, alligator, red fox and a six-week old black bear may be common in America, they haven’t been seen – or seen so closely – by most in attendance Thursday.

Now the director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo (where has had more than a 30-year affiliation), Hanna expressed how fortunate he has been to live his life dream, travel the world and connect with so many animals. He cheered the superior exhibits and animal-husbandry of modern zoos and aquariums, and asked audience members to appreciate how lucky they are to have The Maritime Aquarium and Beardsley Zoo.

The Siberian lynx is much bigger than the Canada lynx. But it was one relaxed kitty Thursday.

“And what I’m encouraged about is that more than 176 million people came to zoos and aquariums in this country last year,” he said. “That’s more than NASCAR, NFL and all those things.”

With Hanna, there’s always humor, like his stories about being bitten by a beaver and an anaconda, and also his “blooper reel” of funny moments with animals on his own syndicated TV shows and from his appearances on “Late Night with David Letterman.”

“But if there’s one word I want you to take away from tonight, it’s the word love,” he said. “Love for the animal world, love for the fish world, whatever you want to call it. Because when you love something, you try to save it.”

Two young audience members got to touch the python. Hanna joked that the snake hadn't eaten in two weeks, so the meal-sized kids could only touch the tail end.

Hanna’s appearance was part of The Maritime Aquarium’s “Global Insights” series, which continues with a visit by Jean-Michel Cousteau on May 20.

Some good news for sharks yesterday, as delegates to a global wildlife summit approved protections for five species of sharks and two species of rays.

You may have helped spur their action. And you can still help.

First, here’s what happened yesterday: delegates to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Bangkok voted to require that any country now must prove that their catches of porbeagle sharks, oceanic whitetip sharks and three species of hammerhead sharks are sustainable and legal before allowing the sharks (or their parts, such as fins) to be exported.

Supporters of the trade restrictions have cited published findings showing that as many as 100 million sharks are killed each year in commercial fisheries – either accidentally as by-catch or intentionally. That removes sharks from the environment much faster than sharks can reproduce. Thus, populations of many shark species have plummeted – and removing the top predator from any habitat can throw off the delicate ecological balance.

(In the northwestern Atlantic, for example, overfishing has reduced the porbeagle shark population by nearly 90 percent.)

Up until this week, only great whites, basking sharks and whale sharks were protected under CITES.

Shark Stanley.

Maritime Aquarium visitors may have helped to influence yesterday’s vote. Last month, we joined in the efforts of an organization called Shark Defenders by encouraging our visitors to make or print out a cartoon hammerhead shark named Shark Stanley, take their picture with it and email it to their country’s CITES delegation in support of shark protections.

Armed with nearly 10,000 Shark Stanleys emailed from 135 countries, Shark Defenders has been a presence in Bangkok.

Shark Defenders cheered yesterday’s vote but aren’t resting yet. Before the CITES convention ends, a country can move to reopen the vote and try to overturn the safeguards. Shark Defenders and other groups are asking supporters to send emails to their country’s delegates asking them to stand by their vote.

They make it very easy to do. Go to www.sharkdefenders.com and click on your country’s link. Clicking on the link will open an email message box addressed to your CITES delegate with “Stand By Your Vote – Don’t Reopen CITES Shark Vote” in the subject line. Write a quick message (or not, the subject line is enough) and hit send.

Tell ’em Shark Stanley sent you.

By Dave Sigworth, publicist of The Maritime Aquarium

You would be very concerned – right? – if we were to announce that more than 100 types of alien life forms had invaded our state, with the end result possibly being that Connecticut may end up … well, looking a lot less like Connecticut.

Well, it’s true. And these alien creatures are actively trying to displace the plants and animals that collectively are Connecticut’s natural legacy.

We’re talking, of course, about invasive species. They’re hardly news anymore; certainly not front-page news. They’ve become a mundane daily menace; such a fact of life now that maybe we sometimes have a hard time mustering concern.

A Chinese mitten crab turned up in the Mianus Pond fishway in Greenwich last June. There are no freshwater crabs in Connecticut. If you find one in freshwater, catch the crab and call the CT DEEP at 860-434-6043.

Which is why it’s good to note that this week (March 3-8) is National Invasive Species Awareness Week.

As spring and a new growing (and boating) season approaches, it’s the right time for a reminder of what invasive species are:  they’re plants and animals that aren’t originally from around here, but are introduced – either intentionally or accidentally – and flourish to the point of taking over the native flora and fauna. Invasives find no natural “check” in their new home, so they reproduce quickly and spread rapidly.

Examples in Connecticut and Long Island Sound include the Chinese mitten crab, Asian shore crabs, sea squirts (or the Asian stalked tunicate), zebra mussels, lionfish, Japanese knotweed, garlic mustard, purple loosestrife, oriental bittersweet, Eurasian milfoil, didymo, the emerald ash borer, Japanese barberry, burning bush (Euonymus) and mute swans.

The organization Defenders of Wildlife estimates the cost to control invasive species – and the damages they inflict upon property and natural resources in the U.S. – at $137 billion annually.

Tiny, rapidly reproducing zebra mussels are the bane of the Great Lakes, and have been found in Connecticut's Lake Zoar, Lake Lillinonah and Lake Housatonic.

Clearly, it’s much cheaper and easier if we all work to prevent the spread of invasives, rather than to try to get rid of them after they become established.

So what are some things you can do?

•  Teach yourself to recognize the common invaders and what to do if you find them. (Just pulling a plant and putting it in your compost pile can be the wrong thing.) Start at www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/unitedstates.

•  Join an eradication effort.  Local organizations and municipalities often plan such outings.

•  Start a garden with native plants. Or if you have a garden that includes, say, loosestrife, replace it with a native example.

•  If you are a boater, please clean, drain and dry your boat trailer and gear every time you leave a body of water.

Get more ideas, and learn more, at www.invasive.org, www.nisaw.org or www.bugwood.org.

By Dave Sigworth, publicist of The Maritime Aquarium

Some good news from down on Coney Island was announced this week, when the Wildlife Conservation Society put out the word that the New York Aquarium will partially reopen this spring.

Like most everything down that way, the Aquarium was devastated by Hurricane Sandy on the night of Oct. 29.

A scene inside the New York Aquarium after Hurricane Sandy.

As the WCS said in its statement: “Surge waters from the Atlantic Ocean came over and under the Coney Island Boardwalk, completely or partially flooding all buildings at the 14-acre park. The ocean flood waters destroyed or significantly damaged the facility’s heating, air conditioning, and electrical power and distribution equipment and aquatic life support systems. Flooding damaged the interiors of most exhibit buildings. Losses in the collection were minimal and limited to fish and invertebrates housed in a few tanks. The damage was significant to the infrastructure and the facility has been closed since the night of the storm.”

Estimates put damage to the aquarium at $65 million. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has proposed funds in the city’s capital-improvements budget to repair it. And the WCS has been seeking private donations to help get the aquarium up and running.

Segments that will reopen late this spring – no specific date given – include:  the outdoor Sea Cliffs with sea lions, seals, otters, penguins and walrus; the main hall exhibits; and the sea lion demonstration “Aquatheater.”

This isn’t the first time in recent years that a hurricane has taken out a public aquarium. In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina swamped the Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans (it was closed for nine months) and also washed away the Marine Life Oceanarium in Gulfport, Miss.   (It never reopened. Here’s a great story about how eight dolphins that were swept out to sea from the Oceanarium stayed together off shore, and were visited and fed several times a day by trainers who boated out to them and eventually rescued them: http://goo.gl/Bxz75 )

The Maritime Aquarium’s brush with Sandy was nothing like the New York Aquarium’s. Power was lost briefly, but our two big emergency generators took over. Water did surge up the Norwalk River outside onto our back courtyard, and rose up to – but not over – the top step of our loading dock. Several heroic members of the animal husbandry and maintenance departments spent two nights here, to care for the animals and handle any issues that came up.

We’re thankful to have made it through Sandy unscathed and celebrate the New York Aquarium’s coming return.

By Dave Sigworth, publicist of The Maritime Aquarium

A few years ago, we had the good fortune to be snorkeling over a shallow reef in the Bahamas and came across a scrawled filefish. An adult, about two feet long.

As they tend to do, this filefish hung vertically on the reef, pretending to be coral. It would turn its eyes to look at us, then look away. Look at us, then look away. You could almost hear it saying, “I’m not here. You don’t see me.”

A scrawled filefish, viewed from the side.

We’ve been suckers for filefish ever since.

They’re just a fun-looking fish. Their bodies sport an irregular splash of dark spots but also electric-blue dots and dashes, all against a field of tan, gray or olive, which the fish can lighten or darken as needed for camouflage. Indeed, some snorkelers in our group probably did swim by that filefish without seeing it.

We also love their shape, particularly their oversized broom tail and their long snout, which ends in a toothy puckered mouth. And this is a pretty big fish for coral reefs, growing up to 3 feet long. How can a fish that big escape predators on a reef? Well, of course, they’ll hang vertically amidst the reef in hopes that no one sees them. But their bodies also are – as scientists would say of most reef species – flattened or compressed laterally. In other words, when viewed head-on, filefish are thin. Really thin.

The same filefish, viewed head-on.

So let’s talk about fish shapes for a paragraph. Fish that swim only out in the open water – pelagic fish – are built for speed. They’re streamlined to move through the water as efficiently as possible. Reef fish, however, work in tighter spaces. They’ve adapted to be thin, and that helps them to dart and turn quickly. For them, maneuverability may be more important than straight-line speed.

Also, being really thin lets them hide in cracks and crevices.

Scrawled filefish have another special safety adaptation: the first spine on their dorsal (or top) fin is long and can be made to lock straight up. A smaller spine on its belly can do the same thing. If a filefish is hiding in a crevice, it can use those spines to hold it in place, even if a predator is trying to yank it out.

Scrawled filefish (Aluterus scriptus) are found in tropical waters around much of the globe. They graze on plants (algae, seagrass) and bottom invertebrates (such as hydrozoans, gorgonians and anemones).

They’re not native to Long Island Sound but they may sometimes catch a ride up here in the summer aboard the Gulf Stream current. That’s why The Maritime Aquarium displays a scrawled filefish in our “Tropical Travelers” exhibit.

By Dave Sigworth, publicist of The Maritime Aquarium

Three years ago, when The Maritime Aquarium opened its “African Penguins” exhibit, the world’s African penguin population was considered to be vulnerable.

Today, as we feature a brief encore exhibit of these charismatic little birds, African penguins now are considered endangered.

The special "African Penguins" exhibit will be open at The Maritime Aquarium through April 21.

Why?  Several reasons, all of them occurring at the penguins’ native home: on Africa’s southwestern coast, where they’re found in island colonies between the Namibia border and Algoa Bay, near Port Elizabeth, South Africa. (African penguins are the only species of penguins that breed in Africa. Which leads us to remind you that not all penguins live on Antarctic ice. The native climate of African penguins is more moderate than Connecticut’s.)

Since 1930, the African penguin population has dropped from an estimated 1 million birds down to below 60,000 today. (Their numbers are said to have plunged by more than 50 percent just in the last 30 years.) This frightening trend brought a response in 2010 from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), the organization that issues the most comprehensive list of the conservation status of Earth’s plant and animal species.

The new IUCN listing – endangered – means that African penguins face a very high risk of extinction in the wild unless the circumstances threatening their survival and reproduction improve. (The IUCN has only one stronger “red flag” status: critically endangered. Next is extinct.)

According to the IUCN: “Population declines are largely attributed to food shortages, resulting from large catches of fish by commercial purse-seine fisheries, and environmental fluctuations.” In other words, people are catching the sardines and anchovies that should be – that used to be – food for the penguins. Also, those fish may be dying or moving out of the penguins’ home range because of rising water temperatures, a result of global climate change.

Steps are being taken to help. Scientists, environmental organizations, fisheries and the South African government are working on a plan to slowly restore the African penguin population. And, here in the U.S., African penguins were listed as an endangered species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. That listing helps to put a spotlight on the penguins’ plight, puts money toward research and conservation initiatives, and offers additional oversight of activities that could harm penguins (such as importing them).

It’s an uncertain future for the birds. What The Maritime Aquarium can say for sure is 1) we’re honored to be able to exhibit them again and to bring attention to their troubles, and 2) that the special “African Penguins” exhibit will be open only through April 21. Then the penguins – four males (Moby, Devon, Doobie and Sinbad) – return to the Leo Zoological Conservation Center in Greenwich, a not-for-profit refuge for rare, threatened and endangered animals that places a focus on breeding species at risk. (Learn more at www.leozoo.org.)

By Dave Sigworth, publicist of The Maritime Aquarium

We don’t mean to keep repeating ourselves but we’re back today on the topic of sharks and how the populations of many shark species around the world are perilously low.

Sharks, of course, are among the top (or apex) predators in the oceans. But the oceans lose millions of sharks each year to the by-catch of commercial fishing, shark finning and sport fishing. Habitat loss contributes too. Exact numbers aren’t known but the best estimate is somewhere between 26 and 73 million sharks per year.

This is troubling for two reasons: 1) taking predators out of a habitat throws the natural balance of things out of whack, and 2), at this rate, we’re in danger of some species disappearing altogether.

Work with "Shark Stanley" to send a message that sharks need protections.

Daily through Feb. 24, The Maritime Aquarium is offering you a chance to join us in going “Shark Raving Mad” – mad, because we’re mad (or crazy) about sharks; but also mad because we’re mad about what’s happening to sharks.

Special offerings each day include stations where Aquarium educators will help you to learn more about sharks, shark adaptations and threats to sharks. Kids can make a fun shark hat. At 12:15 & 3:15 p.m. daily, a 40-minute bonus “add-on” programs about sharks will culminate with each participant feeding the animals in the Shark & Ray Touch Pool. (There’s an additional cost for that of $30 in addition to admission. Reservations are suggested.)

There’s one more thing that visitors can do to help sharks – and, if you can’t join us at the Aquarium, you can still do it from home very easily:  create a “Shark Stanley” that will be displayed with thousands of others from around the world in hopes of influencing CITES delegates in Bangkok next month when they meet to consider protections for sharks and rays. (CITES is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.)

Here’s all you need to do:  Click on this link for “Shark Stanley”: http://goo.gl/pE38W

Download it and print it out. Cut out “Shark Stanley” and take a photo of you with it. Then email the photo with your name and nationality to info@sharkdefenders.com.

Simple as that. They’re hoping to collect 5,000 photos from all 176 CITES countries.

This is just one effort being made to help sharks by Shark Defenders. There’s also a big shark symposium at Yale University on Friday (Feb. 15).

Oh and one more thing: on Saturday & Monday (Feb. 16 & 18) as part of our “Shark Raving Mad” offerings, kids at The Maritime Aquarium can gather around for readings of the book, “The Adventures of Shark Stanley & Friends.” Can’t make it?  Download the story and learn more about this effort to save sharks at www.sharkdefenders.com/p/shark-stanley.html.