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Lithuanian Sea Museum
Smiltynes str. 3, Klaipeda
Tel.: +370 46 490754, 490740
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Dolphinarium | Marine fauna | Sea birds | Sea mammals | The history of navigation | Aquarium-Sea Museum | Veteran vassels | Fishermans farmstead | Museum activities
Collecting the exhibits
The collections of the Lithuanian Sea Museum are collected to the
following topics: the fauna of the world oceans and the Baltic Sea, the
history of Lithuanian Sea navigation and navigation, fishing in the shores
of the Curonian Lagoon and off the Lithuanian coast of the Baltic Sea,
everyday life of fishermen.
The fauna of the world oceans and the Baltic Sea is represented by prepared
animals (sponges and corals, mollusc shells, crustaceans, echinoderms, sea birds
and mammals) and living exhibits (fishes, penguins and sea mammals) which live
in the aquariums and pools. The Museum's biologists collect items for the
collection of prepared samples of marine fauna during expeditions which have
been held since 1975. The scientists have traveled to various seas: the
Caribbean Sea, the South China Sea, the Sea of Japan, the Bering Sea, the
Barents Sea, as well as to the shores of exotic islands of the Indian and the
Pacific oceans: the Seychelles, New Caledonia, Tahiti etc.
Some of the collections have been bough from private persons. A valuable
collection from the shores of Zanzibar was presented to the Museum by the
family of Sergejus and Palmira Mockevicius from Siauliai in 1982. Among
the prepared samples of marine fauna the most precious are the collection
of mollusc shells, the largest collection of its kind in Lithuania, which
now has nearly 19 thousand shells representing about 2200 species. The
collections of Lithuanian sea navigation and navigation consists of
original and copies documents from the archives, iconographic material
(photographs and negatives, postcards, postage stamps, black-and-white
drawings and paintings to the marine subject) and articles of ships'
technology (ships and their models, a valuable collection of anchors,
parts of sailing boats, navigational instruments).
Employees of the Lithuanian Sea Museum
have collected most of the shells and corals
in the collection while diving in various seas and oceans |
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In recent years Lithuanians living abroad have rendered
valuable assistance in collecting historical material on the founders,
ships and seamen of the fleet of the Republic of Lithuania (1918-1940). An
exceptional place in this respect is taken by Captain R.Vileinskas-Vilkas,
the annalist of Lithuanian navigation who lived in the United States. From
1990 up to his death in 1998 his archive one way or another was brought to
the Lithuanian Sea Museum. |
The parcels contained books, newspapers, documents, photographs, letters
and memoirs. The Museum received the last parcel from R.Vilkas' wife Brita
Vilkas in 1999. Exhibits of the post-war and Soviet times were collected
in 1971-1987 with the assistance of fishing organizations, shiprepair
yards and the Lithuanian Shipping Company. |
Animal breeding
A baby grey Baltic seal born at the
Lithuanian Sea
Museum
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The grey Baltic seals (Halichoerus grypus) have
been bred at the Lithuanian Sea Museum since 1987. As many as 35 baby
seals have been grown by this day. For about 20 days the females
themselves look after the newborn seals, then they are separated from
their mothers so that they could get used to eating fish. A newborn seal
weighs about 20 kg, twenty days later his weight reaches about 40 kg. Most
of the grey Baltic seals born at the Lithuanian Sea Museum are set free to
increase the population of those animals along the shores of our country.
Other baby seals have been sent to zoos in the Czech Republic, Germany and
Poland. Also, since 1991 the Lithuanian Sea Museum has been breeding
penguins. As the jackass penguins of the Museum are only females, and the
Magellanic penguins are only males, the chicks that hatch here are
hybrids. The eggs are kept in the incubator for 39 days. A chick penguin,
which has just hatched, weighs about 78 g. For thirty days he is fed with
special pap made up of 12 components. Later on they are trained little by
little to eat fish. At the moment the penguinarium of the Lithuanian Sea
Museum is the home to 10 such hybrid penguins. In September 1998 two
female dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) gave birth to babies in the
dolphinarium for the first time. The deliveries were successful. The
dolphins suckled their babies for nearly a year and only then the baby
dolphins began eating some fish, however, they continued being suckled by
their mothers. |
Feeding a one-week-old penguin chick
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A two-month-old baby dolphin with its mother |
Educational activities and events
A festival of giving names to the seals
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The Museum has prepared several educational programmes on the history
of navigation and marine biology. The programme of the history of
navigation called At the Old Fisherman's is made up of three
classes for primary school pupils; it is an introduction to the daily
work, way of life and means of fishing typical of a seaside fisherman's
family. The programme of marine biology, Sea Birds and Mammals, is a cycle
of four classes on penguins, seals, sea lions and dolphins. The Lithuanian
Sea Museum has a club of the Museum's friends. Topical lectures and
activities are held every Sunday. Club members prepare the food ,feed the
animals and study materials about the animals. Events A traditional event,
The Festival of Giving Names to Seals and Penguins, is held every
spring. Children write letters and suggest names to the newborn penguins
and seals. The jury of the Museum's employees select the most interesting
names. During the festival the authors of the names are awarded prizes and
given presents. In summer the Museum helds concerts at the dophinarium,
folk music festivals and marks calendar holidays at the ethnographic
fisherman's farmstead.
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A festival for the International Day of
Children's Protection at the dolphinarium |
Technological systems
A modern device for
purification of water in the dolphin pools |
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The living exposition of the aquarium and the dolphinarium makes the
Lithuanian Sea Museum distinct among traditional museums. Even more distinct as
compared to traditional museums (those of history, arts or nature) is the
Museum's technical equipment installed to create natural environment for the
animals. In the aquariums and in the pools of sea mammals water of different
salinity, hardness, alkalinity and temperature is used. The total capacity of
the aquariums is 111 m3, that of the central pool is 760 m3, while the capacity
of the outdoor pools makes up 1 500 m3. Tens of large and small pumps work day
and night to pump the water through mechanical and biological filters. Installed
at the tropic sea aquariums are protein skimmers which work continuously; the
ozonation devices for supplying ozone which kills bacteria in the aquarium water
switch on and off automatically according to the set conditions. Oxygen for the
fish is supplied by a water aeration installation. In some aquariums the water
is slightly heated, in some others it is cooled.
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A sophisticated automatic electrolysis device fights bacteria in the
dolpinarium pools which contain 1 800 m3 of water with a salinity of 16-18
per milles and a temperature of 16-20°C. From the technical point of view
the Lithuanian Sea Museum is fully autonomic, the only supply "from
shore" is electricity. The Museum has all other necessary
installations of its own : fresh water wells, equipment for removal of
iron and calcium, pumping stations for the Baltic Sea water, sewage system
and biological purification equipment, heating and refrigerating systems
etc. In charge of maintenance, repairs and development of this complex
technical system is the Museum's technical service. |
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