More than two years after debuting its Living Gallery of Aquariums in March 2020, the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum & Aquarium lost about 80% of its marine life and everything but the ground level’s 11 structural aquarium tanks to Hurricane Ian. On March 4, along with the SanCap Chamber, it celebrated the complete restoration of the aquariums and the Museum Store with a ribbon-cutting. The museum’s second level is expected to reopen later this spring.

Executive Director Sam Ankerson and two staffers were able to reach the museum on Oct. 2, 2022, four days after Ian hit. They released surviving indigenous mollusks and handed off exotic species to staff from Tampa’s Florida Aquarium to harbor during the museum’s down time. 

 The aquariums will hold basically the same mollusk populations as before—60 different species and 350 animals—including headliners like the two-spot octopus, junonia, giant clam, seahorses, and flamboyant cuttlefish. The giant Pacific octopus will return at a later date. Exhibit space has expanded to provide more info about the biology of the animals and how the museum cares for them, plus nine new informational videos. 

The museum temporarily opened its second-level Great Hall of Shells and exhibit space between Feb. 1 and April 30 last year. It will take the opportunity now to institute a redesign that was in the plans before the storm.