The popular Visitor Center at Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport will partially reopen on Saturday, Feb. 17, for the OSU150 Sea Grant Festival, and fully reopen on or around March 24. The facility has been closed since early December for maintenance and construction. “There are six large aquariums or tanks that have been in place since 1997, and the stands they were sitting on needed to be replaced, so we had to shut down for a while,” said Visitor Center manager Maureen Collson. “Visitors will notice a few new exhibits when we reopen, but the biggest changes will be to the tanks themselves. “Some of them have changed location, and others have added rockwork. We also are working to create a ‘habitat’ theme for each large tank by placing animals found in those habitats, and adding exhibits at or near the tank showing research being done in those habitats.” The OSU150 Sea Grant Festival will take place Feb. 12-24 in Newport, Corvallis, Portland, Port Orford, Coos Bay and Astoria. It includes talks, interactive tours, a tasting event, and special screenings of an OSU-produced documentary on coral reefs. More information on the festival is available at: http://communications.oregonstate.edu/sea

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