The Monterey Bay Aquarium Marine and Ocean Life Exhibits

The Monterey Bay Aquarium opened in 1984 and is constructed on the site of the old Hovden Cannery which operated during the Monterey fishing boom of the middle 20th century. The cannery closed its doors in 1973, but some of its original buildings are still being utilized by the Aquarium complex.

Over ten thousand people attended the aquarium's opening day in 1984. Two years later, in 1986, the aquarium became the "Sausalito Cetacean Institute" for the film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Several scenes in the movie were filmed in front of the building, in the entrance and in the Marine Mammal Gallery. Industrial Light and Magic even added the San Francisco Skyline behind the aquarium for the outdoor scenes, despite the fact Monterey is over 100 miles from San Francisco.

In 2002, the aquarium was part of the route for the Olympic flame for the torch relay preceding the Winter Games in Salt Lake City. The torch was carried by kayak from Hopkins Marine Station to the aquarium where it was carried by the facility's executive director through the complex itself.

In 2004, the great white shark accidentally became a guest of the aquarium after being caught by commercial fishers. The shark was transported from Malibu to Monterey where it was placed in the Outer Bay exhibit. The same shark became the first great white ever to feed while on exhibit.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium has a fantastic variety of exhibits arranged into a number of categories and displaying dozens of species of marine wildlife which would normally be impossible to see in their natural habitat. The facility's most recent addition is the "Wild About Otters" exhibit which is fast becoming not only the most recent but one of the most popular. Guests of the aquarium have the opportunity to watch as aquarium staff train and feed the sea otters, which populate the kelp forests along the edge of Monterey Bay.

The aquarium has a Kelp Forest exhibit which is a 28 foot tall replica of the same sea vegetation that exists off the shore of the bay. There are numerous ocean species in the exhibit, including sharks, eels and sardines. Sea water is replenished inside the aquarium on a near continuous basis in order to maintain the food supply, consisting mainly of plankton and very small marine creatures for the smaller marine animals and fish.

The aquarium is home to a colony of giant octopi, which can grow to lengths of up to 30 feet and weights of over 100 pounds. There is also the Rocky Shore, which is home to various kinds of creatures common to tide pools and reefs. There are eels, starfish, barnacles and anemones plus varieties of crabs and mollusks which are amphibious creatures that can live both on land and in the water.

Then there is the enormous Outer Bay, a one million gallon natural sea habitat home to just about every kind of fish and marine creature which might be encountered in the huge nearby Monterey Bay deep sea marine canyon. There are sea turtles, sharks, barracuda, and bluefin tuna along with the largest permanent collection of jellyfish in the U.S. Until recently the Outer Bay was home to a nearly 900 pound Mola Mola, or ocean sunfish. It was so large the aquarium needed to use a helicopter to lift it out of the exhibit and return it to the open ocean. It is the largest animal the aquarium had ever had on exhibit. The Outer Bay is visible through quite possibly the largest window in the world: a 78,000 pound acrylic transparent panel 13 inches thick.

These exhibits only begin to describe the variety of exhibits available to guests of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. There is the Splash Zone, home to penguins, tide pools and a number of activities for guests to participate in. There is the Sandy Shore Aviary where visitors can learn about the enormous number of seabirds and crabs on exhibit. A new exhibit also features sand crabs and their habitat, and there is also the opportunity to watch and touch bat rays as they swim past. The Sandy Shore Aviary is meant to emphasize the importance of coastal wetlands to the marine environment and the fact that many of the creatures which inhabit the wetlands are vital to the survival of creatures which might live and feed several miles offshore.

The Aquarium also has an exhibit which features the nearby Monterey Bay itself, home to a spectacular underwater habitat for literally hundreds of different marine mammal, fish and plant species. The Bay hosts whale watching tours on a continuous basis, with the most popular times of year being during the migration of the great gray, blue and humpback whales from the Bering Sea region of Alaska to the waters off Baja California in the winter each year.

No doubt many a marine biologist's career began in the halls surrounding the Aquarium's exhibits. The Monterey Bay Aquarium is a fine institution and a great way to spend a day learning about marine life and its importance to the Earth's environment.