While wet weather is good for ducks, the mix of rain and sunshine and a three-day weekend was good weather for fish.

The Maine State Aquarium had what aquarium manager Aimee Hayden-Roderiques jokingly referred to as an “obnoxiously good weekend.”

“It's a small space, and we had a lot of people come through,” she said. “To have that many people is a definite positive for us. It was a great start to our year.

“Our employees were thrown right into the fire.”

Hayden-Roderiques said more than 1,000 people visited the aquarium on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

“It was no comparison (to years past),” she said. “Usually, Memorial Day Weekend is hit or miss. Windjammer Days is when we start to get busy.”

Hayden-Roderiques said the aquarium's opening, coupled with wet weather, was what drew people to the end of McKown Point Road.

Once they got there, the responses were positive, she said.

“We had a lot of people talking about our new species,” she said. “A lot of people were excited to see the new stuff we have this year.”

Some of that new stuff includes sturgeon from Maryland and clownfish donated from an aquaculture facility in Maine. The seahorse tank, which had been rotated in-and-out is now a permanent fixture. Over the winter the aquarium also picked up juvenile chain catsharks and Atlantic wolffish.

The Maine State Aquarium is open for the season from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Ben Bulkeley can be reached at 207-633-4620 or bbulkeley@boothbayregister.com. Follow him on Twitter: @BBRegisterBen.