Lobster makes special appearance on the menu at Aquarium’s Harbor View Café and Dockside Beer Garden this April

BOSTON, MASS. (April 13, 2026) – This April, the New England Aquarium will be serving up locally-caught lobster items at its Harbor View Café and Dockside Beer Garden as part of a first-ever pop-up experience featuring lobster that was fished off Cohasset, Mass., with on-demand fishing gear–an environmentally responsible method that protects critically endangered North Atlantic right whales, sea turtles, and other marine animals from accidental entanglements.

The pop-up is happening during April school vacation week in Massachusetts, from April 18 to 26. The Harbor View Café inside the Aquarium will have lobster mac and cheese on the menu. Dockside Beer Garden on the Aquarium’s front plaza opens for the season on April 18 and will have lobster rolls available through April 26, weather permitting. (Following school vacation week, the beer garden will operate weekends only until June.)

The Aquarium’s BalanceBlue Lab, an advising arm that helps ensure the ocean economy can grow responsibly while protecting the ecosystems and communities that rely on it, is working with local lobster fishers using on-demand gear. The gear eliminates persistent buoy lines in the water column that pose entanglement risks to North Atlantic right whales as well as other marine mammals, sharks, and sea turtle species. Instead, on-demand gear uses several variations including pop-up buoys, inflatable lift bags, and buoyant spools. Because this gear is safer for whales and turtles, fishers can be on the water during a time when traditional lobster trap fishing is closed off of Massachusetts from February 1 until early May.

“The fishers that are testing and regularly using this gear have been critical in getting on-demand fishing gear to the point where it can be used for active fishing. We hear about the benefits directly from them, as they have told us, ‘It works!’ and that it allows them to keep making a living fishing during a time when they’re otherwise closed out. Fishing with this gear also greatly reduces the chance of entangling any marine animals, something no one wants, including the fishers,” said Michelle Cho, Director of the Aquarium’s BalanceBlue Lab. The Aquarium was at the forefront of developing this gear, as the first organization to apply for and obtain an experimental fishing permit to use this gear in the Northeast U.S. This work highlights the Lab’s mission to balance human uses of the ocean while also conserving marine ecosystems by working directly with industry to drive innovative solutions.

With fewer than 380 North Atlantic right whales remaining in the population, protecting this vulnerable species is critical for its survival. North Atlantic right whales have been sighted in large numbers in Massachusetts waters for decades. Cape Cod Bay serves as an important feeding habitat for a high percentage of the species in the winter and spring. Over the last few years, scientists have sighted higher numbers of right whales in southern New England waters, with 115 right whales–a quarter of the population–recently seen south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.

The Aquarium sourced the lobster for the pop-up experience from Mike Lane, one of several local lobstermen using on-demand gear on Cape Cod Bay. Having fishers use and test on-demand gear helps refine the equipment and encourages broader adoption across the industry. There are also multiple gear lending facilities in the U.S. and Canada. More information on the lending libraries can be found here.

MEDIA CONTACT: Pam Bechtold Snyder—psnyder@neaq.org