Last September the NY Aquarium's walrus Ayveq, along with Kulu, brought a new baby Walrus into the world. Sadly, the Brooklyn Paper reports that the nearly one-year-old walrus is now fatherless; at age 14 Ayveq has died (most likely of a bacterial infection)...but at least he left a legacy. Aquarium Director Jon Forrest Dohlin told the paper “We are all still in shock about it. He was an absolute delight. He had a magnetism and......

The cutest mustachioed baby in this town is definitely the new walrus at the New York Aquarium. The baby walrus, who was born on June 12 and weighed in at 115 pounds, is ready for his public, as he made his first appearance yesterday. But he needs a name, and people can vote on the Today Show's website for one of four names: Utvak (Means ice made from snow or ice cube), Ukiivak (Means......

Last week, we mentioned that the Metropolitan Museum of Art confirmed plans to show the Damien Hirst work, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, a.k.a. "the shark floating in formaldehyde" to laymen. The museum sent us this cool image of the piece, so we couldn't help but mention it again. The work is being loaned to the museum by hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen for three years, and while......

We read Nicholas Confessore's NY Times article about three finalists being chosen for the New York Aquarium's redesign in actual paper, but it's much better online with the color renderings of the designs. The designs had to make the aquarium "visually porous, engaging and inviting," because many people find the current structure too remote and walled-up. Oh, and the design had to be a "beacon for Coney Island." The three finalists do seem rather......

Because manatee is a fun word to say and because they are so cute, the NY Times continues to report on the meandering manatee that has been traveling up the Hudson. The manatee seems to be the talk of the towns on the river, and reporter Corey Kilgannon got this exchange:Ian Heller, 15, and Jeff Samalot, 16, said they saw the manatee while in their 17-foot power boat heading from Haverstraw to the Shattemuc Yacht......

It's hot, humid, and I want to go to the beach. What are my options? Well, Gateway National Recreation Area is right in our neck of the woods, extending in three New York City boroughs and into northern New Jersey. It is a good place to start your quest for the perfect patch of sand and cooling waters. Queens: Jacob Riis Park 2 to Flatbush Ave., Q35 Bus to Riis Beach Staten Island: Great Kills......

Tomorrow is Earth Day, and there are a number of events in the city. Many are occuring at Grand Central Terminal, where there are exhibits, demonstrations, and musical perfomances with exhibitors like the Audobon Society, Google Earth and Recycle a Bicycle - check out Earth Day NY 2006. There's an Earth Awareness Festival tomorrow on Waverly Place, the events the Parks Department is organizing, and we are very partial to the events occuring at......

Holy manatee! David Blaine, everyone's favorite magician punchline (think of him as the 21st century Doug Henning), will live in an aquarium for a week outside of Lincoln Center. According to the AP:The "human aquarium" in which Blaine will float is a specially built 8-foot acrylic sphere. He will receive liquid nutrition through a tube and the water will be kept at a balanced temperature to help keep his core temperature close to 98.6 degrees......

Last night, around 6 P.M., a 12-foot-long whale, possibly a sperm whale, washed ashore near 19th Street in Coney Island. The whale was long dead and so was not easy to identify. Parks Department workers quickly removed the mysterious mammal and a necropsy is to be performed today by the Atlantis Marine World Agency in an undisclosed location. The goal of the procedure is to get a look at the whale's jaw bone in order......

Even thought Gothamist would have loved for the beluga whale that accidentally ended up in the Delaware River to somehow find its way to the Hudson, we totally understand that it needs to somehow get back into the ocean. Still, Gothamist giggled when some people speculated that the whale got there because it was following some herring and we think it's funny (and important) that the police are telling people not to approach it. Police......

Kathy, a Beluga whale at the New York Aquarium in Brooklyn, died on Friday at the age of 34. One of the most beloved animals at the NY Aquarium for her expressive face, Kathy outlived many Beluga whales, who live till 30. She was born in Canada and brought to Coney Island in 1974. She had a baby calf in 1981, "Nikki," for NYCI (New York City's First), the first baby beluga born in captivity......