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Monterey Bay Aquarium
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The Monterey Bay Aquarium, which is located on the site of a former sardine cannery on Cannery Row in Monterey, California, is one of the largest aquariums in the world. It has an annual attendance of 1.8 million and holds 35,000 plants and animals representing 623 species.
Among the aquarium's numerous exhibits, two are of particular note. The centerpiece of the Ocean's Edge wing is a 33-foot (10-m) high tank for viewing California coastal marine life.
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The Monterey Bay Aquarium, which is located on the site of a former sardine cannery on Cannery Row in Monterey, California, is one of the largest aquariums in the world. It has an annual attendance of 1.8 million and holds 35,000 plants and animals representing 623 species.
Among the aquarium's numerous exhibits, two are of particular note. The centerpiece of the Ocean's Edge wing is a 33-foot (10-m) high tank for viewing California coastal marine life. In this tank, the aquarium was the first in the world to grow live California Giant Kelp using a wave machine at the top of the tank (water movement is a necessary precondition for keeping Giant Kelp, which absorbs nutrients from surrounding water and requires turbidity), allowing sunlight in through the open tank top, and pumping in raw seawater. The second exhibit of note is a one million gallon tank in the Outer Bay Wing which features one of the world's largest single-paned windows (crafted by a Japanese company, the window is actually four panes seamlessly glued together through a proprietary process).
Sealife on exhibit includes stingrays, jellyfish, sea otters, and numerous other native marine species, which can be viewed above and below the waterline. For displaying jellyfish, the MBA uses an aquarium called a Kreisel tank which creates a circular flow to support and suspend the jellies. Visitors are able to inspect the creatures of the kelp forest at several levels in the building.
History
The aquarium's original building was designed by the architectural firm Esherick Homsey Dodge & Davis and opened on 20 October 1984. The aquarium's mission is "to inspire conservation of the oceans." The aquarium's initial financial backing was provided by David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard. Packard, an avid blacksmith, personally designed and created several exhibit elements for the aquarium at his forge in Big Sur, including the wave machines in the Kelp Forest and aviary. His daughter, the marine biologist Julie Packard, is currently Executive Director of the aquarium.
In January 1996, the aquarium opened the new Outer Bay wing to provide exhibits covering the open-water ecology of Monterey's Outer Bay. Besides the above-mentioned million-gallon tank, another of the new exhibits included a school of 3000 anchovies (a fish that was once the foundation of Monterey's economy), swimming against the endless current of a toroidal tank.
Beginning in September 2004, the Outer Bay exhibit was the home to the first Great White Shark ever successfully kept on exhibit. The shark was at the aquarium for 198 days (the previous record was 16 days). The shark was released on 31 March 2005 after she bit two soupfin sharks in the exhibit, both of which later died. The aquarium staff believe the shark may have been acting to defend territory as she didn't actually eat either of the sharks. On the evening of August 31, 2006 the aquarium introduced a second shark to the Outer bay exhibit. The juvenile male was caught outside Santa Monica Bay on August 17 and was released on January 16, 2007. The shark had grown from an initial length of 5-foot-8 and 103 pounds when it arrived on August 31, 2006 to 6-foot-5 and 171 pounds on release. Data from this second white shark was transmitted back to aquarium staff from a pop-off satellite tag after 90 days. For the third time since 2004, the aquarium had a young white shark in the Outer Bay exhibit in 2007/2008. He arrived on August 28, 2007 and was released on February 5, 2008.
Like the first shark in 2004, he was caught accidentally in commercial fishing gear. Like the second shark in 2006, he is a young male: just 4-feet, 9-inches long and weighing 67 ½ pounds. As with both of the previous young white sharks, he was kept in an ocean holding pen off Malibu in Southern California until he could be observed feeding and navigating well in the confines of the pen.
In March 2008, the aquarium opened a penguin exhibit to complement the already popular sea otter exhibit. The aquarium had hosted 19 penguins from the Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans along with two sea otters after that aquarium was badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
Marine research
The Monterey Bay Aquarium maintains a close relationship with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI). MBARI is located in Moss Landing, California, at the head of the submarine Monterey Canyon. It is renowned worldwide for its research on deep-sea marine life and other programs in marine biology. Monterey Bay is located within the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS) a Federally-protected marine area (the equivalent of a saltwater national park) off California's central coast. Many of the visitors to the aquarium are families who bring their children, particularly on the weekends. The aquarium is also home to Seafood Watch, which publishes consumer guides for responsible seafood purchasing.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium is the only aquarium in the world to keep a great white shark captive for more than 16 days. The aquarium has successfully hosted juvenile white sharks on several occasions, and the staff has developed a method for careful capture, housing and transportation, and release. The white sharks are always tagged and released back into the ocean, either when they begin actively hunting the other animals in the exhibit, or when it becomes necessary to remove them to ensure a successful release. The unique design of the Outer Bay exhibit played a central role in keeping the juvenile white sharks healthy for extended periods of time.
Funding
The Monterey Bay Aquarium was endowed initially by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, which continues to support the aquarium. Operating costs are largely covered by visitor admission, as well as by special events and membership dues. The aquarium is organized into three institutions, Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation, the Support Services, which manages the property, and the Research Institute, which operates three ocean-going research vessels.
Cultural references
The Aquarium appeared in the 1986 film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, where it appeared as the Cetacean Institute in Sausalito. The main aquarium was overlaid with special effects to appear to be the tank home of two humpback whales. The film stirred up controversy when people who had come to see the whales were infuriated to learn there was no such exhibit.
The aquarium sits next to invertebrate marine biologist Ed Ricketts' home and lab, which still stand. Ricketts is famous as the "Doc" of John Steinbeck's Cannery Row. The aquarium itself contains a display of Ricketts items, including some of his personal library. The shop also sells a section of Monterey and Steinbeck books.
Gallery
External links
- from the Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau
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