MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM
A former brewery and sardine cannery now a marine life haven, Monterey Bay Aquarium is located in Cannery Row, Monterey, California. With 35,000 marine plants and animals representing around 623 species, it is one of the largest of its kind in the world. The aquarium attracts about 1.8 million visitors per year and has over a thousand employees and volunteers.
Monterey Bay Aquarium, which opened on October 20, 1984, is anchored by its goal “to inspire conservation of the oceans.” The aquarium experienced its realization through the invaluable support of the late David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard. Aside from providing the initial financial backing, Packard, an avid blacksmith, even personally created several exhibits for the aquarium right at his own forge in Big Sur, California. His works include the gears and pulleys used in a simulated tide machine. His passing away did not end the family’s contribution towards the development of the aquarium, as his daughter, marine biologist Julie Packard, is the current CEO of Monterey Bay Aquarium.
January 1996 saw the aquarium opening the new Outer Bay Wing to exhibit the open water ecology of Monterey’s Outer Bay. The exhibit included a school of 3,000 anchovies swimming against the endless current of a toroidal tank.
Monterey Bay Aquarium has different kinds of features and exhibits, including:
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Drifter’s Gallery – the largest permanent collection of jellyfishes in the United States. For displaying these jellyfishes, a circular aquarium called Kreisel Tank is used.
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The Kelp Forest – situated inside a 33ft. high tank, the exhibit was the first to use simulated tidal currents on a large scale, enabling it to support the California Giant Kelp and its inhabitants (constant water movement is necessary for the kelps to absorb nutrients from the surrounding water). Visitors are able to view the creatures of the kelp forest from different levels of the building.
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Sea Otters – See the otters above or below the water. Feeding time is a special treat for the visitors.
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Outer Bay - 1 million gallon tank featuring the world’s largest single paned window (in reality, it is a 4 paned window seamlessly glued together by a Japanese company). It gives a glimpse of marine life in the open sea. In September 2004, it became the home to the first Great White Shark kept alive in captivity for a prolonged period of time. The shark was eventually released on March 31, 2005 after killing two other sharks in the exhibit.
- Sharks: Myth and Mystery – Includes a shark petting pool and a collection of various marine creatures such as round stingrays, pajama catsharks, and the Galapagos shark.
Summer is the most favorable time to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium due to favorable weather conditions. However, expect that it would be somewhat crowded, as it is the busiest season of the year for the aquarium.
Exhibiting the wonders of the sea is not just the essence of Monterey Bay Aquarium. Once the location of a marine slaughterhouse, it is now a center of ocean life caring, conservation, and protection.
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Monterey Bay Aquarium, 886 Cannery Row, Monterey, CA 93940 Tel: (831) 648-4800