Monterey Bay Aquarium facts for kids
The aquarium's logo depicts giant kelp
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Main entrance in 2016, featuring the remodeled façade and fiberglass smokestacks of the Hovden Cannery
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| Date opened | October 20, 1984 |
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| Location | Cannery Row, Monterey, California, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 36°37′05″N 121°54′07″W / 36.6181°N 121.9019°W |
| No. of animals | ~35,000 |
| No. of species | 550+ |
| Volume of largest tank | 1.2 million U.S. gallons (4.5 million liters) |
| Total volume of tanks | 2.3 million U.S. gallons (8.7 million liters) |
| Annual visitors | 2 million |
| Memberships | Association of Zoos and Aquariums |
| Major exhibits | Kelp Forest, Sea Otters, Jellies, Open Sea |
The Monterey Bay Aquarium is a super cool place in Monterey, California, where you can learn all about ocean animals! It's a nonprofit aquarium, which means it uses its money to help the ocean.
This aquarium is famous for showing off the amazing sea life found right in Monterey Bay. It was the first place to have a living kelp forest when it opened in October 1984. Scientists here have also become experts at caring for jellyfish. Plus, it was the first aquarium to successfully keep and show a great white shark!
The aquarium also works hard to protect animals like sea otters, different kinds of birds, and tunas. They even created something called Seafood Watch. This guide helps people choose seafood that is caught in a way that doesn't harm the ocean. The aquarium is home to Rosa, the oldest living sea otter, and was where Otter 841 was born.
The idea for the aquarium came from a group of marine biologists in the late 1970s. It was built where an old sardine factory used to be. The building itself has won awards for its design. The aquarium has also won many awards for its awesome exhibits, its work to protect the ocean, and its fun learning programs.
About two million people visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium every year. It helped bring new life to the area called Cannery Row. The aquarium also brings in hundreds of millions of dollars for the local economy. You might have even seen it on TV shows like PBS Nature or in movies!
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Building the Aquarium
In the late 1970s, a group of scientists had an idea to build an aquarium in Monterey. Earlier ideas for an aquarium hadn't worked out. But this time, Nancy Burnett, one of the scientists, told her parents, Lucile and David Packard. David Packard was a co-founder of Hewlett-Packard.
The Packard family's foundation looked into the idea. They thought an aquarium could attract many visitors. So, in 1978, the Packards created the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation. They bought the old sardine factory site for almost $1 million. Julie Packard, another daughter of David and Lucile, also joined the planning group.
David Packard gave $7 million to start building the aquarium. He wanted it to be able to support itself financially after it opened. But the plans grew bigger after visits to aquariums in Japan. The Packards ended up paying $55 million for the whole project.
Designing the Building
The building company, Rudolph and Sletten, thought it would take about two and a half years to build. The architects, Esherick, Homsey, Dodge, and Davis (EHDD), wanted to keep the look of the old sardine factory. They felt it was important to the community.
Some parts of the old factory were kept. The old warehouse became offices. The factory's pump house, which used to bring fish from the bay, was changed into a system that brings seawater for the aquarium's exhibits. The building was even built around the factory's old boiler house, which is now a cool exhibit itself.
Building the aquarium was tricky because nearly half of it is over the bay. They had to install parts of the foundation during low tide, often at night. The ground under the sand was not always the same, which made digging difficult.
The aquarium's design looks a lot like the old factory. It has similar windows, plain cement walls, and many roofs. Even the pipes and ducts on the ceiling look industrial, just like the old factories on Cannery Row. Many people thought it was cool how a fish processing plant became a place to display fish. The California Historical Society even gave the aquarium an award for keeping the historical look.
Opening Day and Awards
The Monterey Bay Aquarium opened on October 20, 1984. It was the biggest public aquarium in the United States at that time. On opening day, 11,000 people visited, and about 30,000 people came to the celebrations. The aquarium announced, "the fish are back!" This was a fun nod to how sardines had disappeared from the bay due to too much fishing, which caused the factories to close.
In its first year, 2.4 million people visited! This showed how much people loved learning about sea life. Within five years, it was one of California's most popular places to visit. By 1994, it was the most visited aquarium in the U.S.
The architects, EHDD, won a big award for their design in 1988. In 2016, the aquarium won the national Twenty-five Year Award. This award called it "a benchmark and role model for aquariums everywhere."
In 2009, the head of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums said the Monterey Bay Aquarium was "a definite leader." They praised how the aquarium balances fun exhibits with serious education and conservation. Julie Packard has been the aquarium's executive director since it opened in 1984.
Amazing Aquarium Exhibits
The aquarium's founders wanted to share the amazing marine life of the region with everyone. They did this through exhibits that show the different ocean homes in Monterey Bay and central California. This idea was inspired by a book about ocean life by ecologist Ed Ricketts. In the early 1980s, this was a new way to design aquariums. Other big aquariums at the time focused on coral reefs or big sharks, but didn't show many local species.
Seawater System
The Monterey Bay Aquarium has about 35,000 animals from over 550 species. They live in 2.3 million gallons of water! Filtered seawater from Monterey Bay is pumped into the exhibits at 2,000 gallons per minute. At night, unfiltered seawater is used for the Kelp Forest exhibit. This helps it look more natural.
Sometimes, the pipes need to be cleaned to remove growing organisms. This is done with special tools called "pigs" that blast through the pipes. Most of the systems that keep the animals healthy are automated. They track water conditions and help avoid human mistakes. Over 10,000 data points control the seawater system.
Kelp Forest Exhibit
The Kelp Forest exhibit is 28 feet tall and 65 feet long. It's the main attraction of the Ocean's Edge wing. This exhibit is almost three stories high! It's known as the first successful attempt to keep a living kelp forest in an artificial setting.
When the aquarium was being planned, many experts doubted that kelp could grow so big in an aquarium. Some also thought people wouldn't be interested in seeing a local kelp forest. But the public loved it!
The success of this exhibit is thanks to direct sunlight, natural seawater from Monterey Bay, and a "surge machine." This machine creates pulsing water currents, just like in the ocean. The 5-foot surge machine plunges every 6 seconds. This helps the kelp grow about 4 inches every day! David Packard himself designed and built this machine. Kelp forests are super important ecosystems, like rainforests of the ocean. The exhibit also has fish from Monterey Bay, like rockfishes and leopard sharks.
Open Sea Wing
In 1996, the aquarium opened a second wing with new exhibits. This wing focuses on animals from the deep ocean, about 60 miles offshore in Monterey Bay. It cost $57 million and took seven years to create. This wing almost doubled the aquarium's public space!
It has three main areas:
- Different kinds of jellyfish and other tiny ocean creatures.
- A huge exhibit with many different ocean animals.
- An "ocean travelers" section with tufted puffins and sea turtles.
When this wing opened, the aquarium was said to have the most jellyfish on display in the world! It won an Exhibit Award in 1997.
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The Open Sea community exhibit is the aquarium's largest tank, holding 1.2 million gallons of water. It's 80 feet long and 35 feet deep. Its biggest viewing window is 54 feet long and 14.5 feet tall. When it was installed in 1996, it was reportedly the largest aquarium window in the world! To keep animals from swimming into the window at night, an air hose creates a "bubble wall."
In 2011, this exhibit had green sea turtles, sardines, pelagic stingrays, scalloped hammerhead sharks, sandbar sharks, mahi-mahi, mackerel, bluefin and yellowfin tunas, and ocean sunfishes. The aquarium was the first in the U.S. to display an ocean sunfish in 1986. It was named Tweedledum and ate one pound of prawns daily! This exhibit also used to have blue sharks, soupfin sharks, and California barracuda.
Between 2004 and 2011, six great white sharks were displayed here. This was a big deal for science and education. Before this, the longest a white shark had lived in an aquarium was only 16 days.
In 2011, the Open Sea wing had a $19 million renovation. Large tunas were damaging the glass tiles, and sea turtles were eating them. So, the exhibit was drained, and all 10,000 animals were carefully moved. New exhibits were added that show art about ocean problems, like overfishing and marine plastic pollution.
Other Permanent Exhibits
When it opened in 1984, the aquarium had 83 tanks in 12 galleries. By 2014, it had over 200 live animal exhibits! Besides the huge Kelp Forest and Open Sea exhibits, there's the Monterey Bay Habitats tank. It's 90 feet long and shaped like a figure eight, holding over 300,000 gallons of water.
This exhibit shows different habitats in Monterey Bay, from wharfs to sandy seabeds and rocky reefs. Many aquariums here have man-made structures that were put in the bay before the aquarium opened to grow living organisms. For example, real pilings from the city's harbor were used for the wharf section. Some artificial rocks even fooled visitors and fish!
Rescued sea otters live in a 55,000-gallon habitat. They are the only marine mammals on exhibit. The aquarium doesn't keep cetaceans (like whales or dolphins) because it wasn't built for them. Instead, visitors can watch the 27 species of marine mammals that live in or travel through Monterey Bay from the decks behind the building.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium was the first public aquarium to be mapped on Google Street View. You can take a virtual tour online!
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A white sturgeon, rockfishes, and plumose anemones in the Monterey Bay Habitats exhibit
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Plumose anemones, a rock scallop, a bat star, sponges, and other cold-water invertebrates native to Monterey Bay
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Pacific coral reef community containing living corals
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African penguins on exhibit
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A circular exhibit at the entrance to the Open Sea wing contains schooling Pacific sardines.
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An exhibit demonstrates the streamlined bodies of Pacific mackerel.
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Pacific sea nettles in a long kreisel tank
Temporary Exhibitions
The Monterey Bay Aquarium started creating temporary exhibitions in the 1980s. These shows display animals found outside Monterey Bay. The first one in 1989 was about the Sea of Cortez. Most temporary shows since then have focused on groups of animals. These include deep-sea animals (1999), sharks (2004), otters (2007), seahorses (2009), cephalopods (2014), and jellyfish.
The "Fishing for Solutions" exhibition in 1997 led to the creation of the Seafood Watch program. In 2010, an exhibition called "Hot Pink Flamingos" was one of the first aquarium shows in the U.S. to talk about how global warming affects habitats and animals. It helped people understand climate change.
At least three exhibitions have been all about jellyfish! In 1989, a show called "Living Treasures of the Pacific" had three jellyfish tanks. This was after a successful display of moon jellies in 1985. In 1992, the first temporary jellyfish show, "Planet of the Jellies," was so popular that it led to a permanent jellyfish gallery in the Open Sea wing in 1996. The aquarium has created two more temporary jellyfish shows since then. The last one opened in 2012 and showed about 16 species of jellyfish from all over the world. Staff say people love jellyfish because they look cool, have simple bodies, and seem to calm visitors.
In 2016, the aquarium showed land animals for the first time! A $3.8 million exhibit about the ecosystems of Baja California included a tarantula, a snake, and a scorpion.
Research and Conservation
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The Monterey Bay Aquarium helped create the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary in 1992. This is one of the largest marine protected areas in the United States. In 2004, the aquarium started a special group to work on ocean policy and laws in the U.S.
Scientists at the aquarium have written many scientific papers about sea otters, great white sharks, and bluefin tunas. These are very important species in the northern Pacific Ocean. They also publish work on animal health, visitor studies, and how to create museum exhibits. The Monterey Bay Aquarium is a leader in scientific research among aquariums.
The aquarium has won awards for its work in breeding animals in captivity. This includes an award for their work with purple-striped jellies in 1992. They also won an award for their Sea Otter Research and Conservation Program. In 2017, the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums gave the aquarium its Conservation Award for its dedication to protecting the ocean and teaching the public.
Marine Life Programs
The Sea Otter Research and Conservation program started in 1984. It helps research and rehabilitate wild southern sea otters. By 2017, over 800 otters had gone through the program. Researchers also collect data on wild sea otter groups using electronic tags.
A special part of the program started in 2001. It's called surrogacy. Adult female sea otters who can't be released back into the wild become foster mothers for stranded sea otter pups. The aquarium was the only place in California to rehabilitate sea otters until 2017. Their work with sea otters was even featured in a PBS Nature episode called "Saving Otter 501."
Shorebirds, like the threatened western snowy plover, are also helped and released. Since 1998, the aquarium has worked with another group to rescue snowy plover eggs. The eggs hatch, and the birds are raised until they can live on their own. In 2012, they released 180 birds, and about 100 in 2013.
The aquarium's endangered African penguins are part of a special program. This program helps identify important birds for breeding to keep the species healthy. By 2014, five chicks had hatched in the penguin colony. Some of these have gone to other aquariums.
Since 2007, the aquarium has a public presentation with a rehabilitated Laysan albatross. This bird has a wingspan of 6 feet! The program teaches visitors about the dangers of marine plastic pollution for animals, especially albatrosses.
Pacific bluefin and yellowfin tunas have been shown in the Open Sea community exhibit. Some of these fish weighed over 300 pounds! In 2011, there were three dozen tunas of these two species on exhibit.
Before the Open Sea wing opened, the aquarium started the Tuna Research and Conservation Center in 1994. This was a partnership with Stanford University. Scientists here have tagged wild Pacific bluefin tunas to study how predators and prey interact. They also study how tunas can keep their bodies warm. In 2016, the aquarium and Stanford hosted a meeting to discuss ways to manage bluefin tuna fishing around the world. Over 200 scientists and managers gathered to find solutions for the declining tuna populations.
Aquarists also breed animals behind the scenes for the exhibits. Since 1985, the aquarium has been very involved in breeding jellyfish. They have created three temporary exhibitions and one permanent gallery just for jellyfish. The aquarium has had the largest jellyfish collections in the world. Their pioneering work led to a trend of jellyfish exhibits across the United States.
In 2016, aquarists successfully bred comb jellies in a lab for the first time. This might help them become a "model organism" for study. Starting in 2012, the aquarium began breeding many species of cephalopods (like octopuses and squid) for a temporary exhibition that opened in 2014. Half of the animals in that show were bred at the aquarium because they have short life cycles. The exhibit showed how aquarists raise different cephalopods, including bigfin reef squid, which only live for about six months. They even displayed deep-sea cephalopods like flapjack octopuses and vampire squid.
Great White Sharks
In 1984, the aquarium tried to display a great white shark for 11 days, but it died because it didn't eat. Later, through a program called Project White Shark, six white sharks were shown between 2004 and 2011 in the Open Sea exhibit.
Researchers say the aquarium succeeded because they used a 4-million-gallon net pen. This gave the sharks time to recover after being caught. A 3,200-gallon portable tank was used to move the sharks. This allowed them to swim continuously, which they need to do to breathe. These efforts led to the first time a white shark ate in an aquarium!
Some groups didn't like the idea of keeping white sharks in captivity. But many independent biologists approved of Project White Shark. They liked its design, educational impact, and scientific discoveries. An Australian white shark researcher said in 2006 that "the fact people can come and see these animals and learn from them is of immeasurable value."
The first captive white shark was on exhibit for over six months in 2004. One million visitors saw it! Another million visitors saw the second or third white sharks. In 198 days, the first white shark grew over 17 inches and gained over 100 pounds before it was released. As of 2016, the Monterey Bay Aquarium is the only public aquarium in the world to have successfully displayed a white shark for longer than 16 days.
The effort to display captive white sharks ended in 2011. It took a lot of resources. Also, the captive white sharks sometimes got hurt or killed other animals in the exhibit because they became aggressive. The last shark died for unknown reasons right after it was released. Even though they no longer display white sharks, aquarium researchers still study them. In 2016, they worked with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute to attach cameras to shark fins. This helps them study white shark behavior when they gather at a place called the White Shark Café.
Seafood Watch Program
The Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program helps people choose seafood that is caught or farmed in a way that doesn't harm the ocean or other wildlife. It started in 1999 after a popular temporary exhibit. Now, it has a website, pocket guides, and mobile apps. These tools let people check how sustainable different seafood choices are.
The program works with businesses, restaurants, and grocery stores. Big companies like Target and Whole Foods Market are partners. Seafood Watch has played a big role in discussions about sustainable seafood. The aquarium says the program works well because it helps both businesses and consumers. It's also supported by the aquarium's science and ocean policy programs.
In the late 2000s, Seafood Watch was probably the most well-known sustainable seafood guide in the world. By 2014, it had printed over 52 million pocket guides. Its mobile apps were downloaded over one million times between 2009 and 2015. The program has won several awards, including a MUSE Award for its website and "Tastemaker of the Year" from Bon Appétit magazine.
In 2016, the United States Agency for International Development announced it was working with the aquarium to improve fishing management in the Asia-Pacific region.
Protecting the Ocean
The Monterey Bay Aquarium is active in politics, helping to create laws about the ocean. They also encourage visitors and online followers to take action. The aquarium was a main supporter of the statewide shark fin ban in 2011. After that, they focused on plastic pollution in the ocean. They supported laws that limited the use of microbeads in personal care products.
The aquarium also supported California Proposition 67 (2016), which banned single-use plastic grocery bags in California. They made ads, web pages, and podcasts to support this ban. The aquarium is a founding member of the Aquarium Conservation Partnership. This group of 20 aquariums works together on conservation efforts. In 2016, they hosted a conference on plastic pollution. In 2017, the aquarium and other partners started removing plastic bags, straws, and bottles from their own facilities.
The aquarium is also a founding partner of the Ocean Project. This group surveys people about aquariums and environmental issues. Along with Stanford University, the aquarium runs the Center for Ocean Solutions, which focuses on ocean science, policy, and law. The aquarium has also participated in international meetings about ocean policy, like the 2017 United Nations Ocean Conference. In 2017, the Monterey Bay Aquarium publicly supported the March for Science. Their penguins even marched in their own miniature demonstration!
Learning Programs
Every year, about 75,000 students, teachers, and chaperones from California can visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium for free. Another 1,500 low-income students, 350 teenagers, and 1,200 teachers take part in special learning programs throughout the year. Between 1984 and 2014, the aquarium hosted over 2 million students.
In 2009, the aquarium helped create "Climate Interpreter," an online resource. Other zoos, government groups, and schools use it to share information about climate change with the public.
A new 13,000-square-foot education center is being built by the aquarium. It's expected to open in 2018 and will allow them to work with twice as many students and teachers each year. The Monterey Bay Aquarium has won a Webby Award for sharing scientific information. It has also won four awards from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums for its education and diversity programs. In 2015, the Silicon Valley Business Journal gave the aquarium a Community Impact Award for helping to create a new generation of ocean conservation leaders.
Community and Economic Impact
In 2015, the Monterey Bay Aquarium had over 500 employees and 1,200 active volunteers. Between 1984 and 2014, 8,500 volunteers gave 3.2 million hours of community service. The aquarium attracts about 2 million visitors each year. By 2016, over 50 million people had visited! In 2015, it was the second most visited aquarium in the U.S., just behind the Georgia Aquarium. It also had 290,000 annual members in 2015.
The aquarium offers free admission programs for residents of Monterey County, California. These include "Shelf to Shore" with the local library system and "Free to Learn" with local nonprofit groups. The aquarium also offers free admission to Monterey County residents for a week in December. This grew from almost 17,000 visitors in 1998 to 50,000 in 2013. In 2014, this program was expanded to include nearby Santa Cruz and San Benito counties.
There's also an annual event called "Día del Niño." It offers presentations in Spanish, activities, and free admission for children under 13. Between 2002 and 2014, over 700,000 people visited for free through these outreach programs.
In 2013, the aquarium's operations and its 2 million visitors brought $263 million to the economy of Monterey County. In 2016, an event at the aquarium raised over $110,000 to help with relief for the Soberanes Fire.
In December 2020, the aquarium loaned a special deep-freeze fridge to Natividad Medical Center in Salinas. This allowed the hospital to store the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at very cold temperatures. The aquarium normally uses the freezer to preserve "biological and veterinary samples." During the COVID-19 pandemic, when the aquarium was closed, 243 staff members were laid off or furloughed between April 2020 and January 2021.
See also
In Spanish: Acuario de la bahía de Monterey para niños
