May 27, 2013 — It's looking like not one but two different marine education facilities are coming to Hampton Beach this summer.
It hasn't yet been announced, but the Blue Ocean Society is poised to get its wish to put an educational touch-tank in the Hampton Beach Seashell Complex. State Parks officials can't confirm anything, since details of a contract still need to be worked out and approved by the governor's Executive Council next month, but there were only two applicants for the space, and Ellen Goethel — the Blue Ocean Society's challenger — said she wasn't chosen.
But don't count Goethel out, because she's hard at work getting ready for the June 29 opening of the Explore the Ocean World Oceanarium a little farther north at 367 Ocean Blvd. She jumped on the opportunity when a space became available, and the 600-square-foot store in the Oceanside Mall will allow her to fit in two touch-tanks.
"There's going to be a flurry of activity going on very shortly," she said.
Goethel, who is married to commercial fisherman David Goethel, gives talks to pre-school through high-school-aged students in schools all around New England and has been looking for a home base in the Hampton area for nearly 30 years. She visits between 50 and 90 schools a year, she said, and spends four or five days a week this time of year giving talks to students.
She's planning on having two touch-tanks, a refrigerated lobster tank, dried specimens, lots of fishing equipment that kids can try on and videos that explain salt-marsh farming and fishing techniques. And her ties to the local fishing industry mean she has lots of interesting creatures to show off.
Read the full story at the Portsmouth Herald