The Zoo Review: Zoo Review: Monterey Bay Aquarium, Part I

Perhaps rivaled only by the Georgia Aquarium for the title of America's most famous aquarium, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, like many aquariums, was established in part to revitalize the sinking fortunes of a coastal town in distress. David and Lucile Packard spent $55 million dollars to create one of the world's greatest aquariums. Monterey, California, once famed for its fish canneries (immortalized by John Steinbeck in Cannery Row), had hit hard times following the collapse of the fisheries that sustained it. It's ironic, then, that today the town best known for canning fish is today best known for displaying them and educating the public about their conservation. One of the signature programs of Monterey Bay Aquarium is Seafood Watch, a program which helps visitors make educated decisions about which seafood is the most environmentally sustainable, varying region from region. It's a rare aquarium that doesn't have a stack of Seafood Watch cards, or an informative kiosk, somewhere on its grounds.

One of the things I loved the most about Monterey Bay Aquarium was how different it felt from so many other aquariums. Many of them are built along the lines of art galleries, with darkened halls and (increasingly in the COVID era) one-way traffic. Monterey is light and airy, in contrast, and the moment that you entire its central hall, you are surrounded by options of where to go and what to see. The building resembles the old canning factories that once lined the waterfront (because that's what it was), with lots of display space immediately inside dedicated to sharing the story of the canneries, their workers, and the ecosystem that supported them... for as long as it could. How the building manages to look historic and sleek/modern at the same time is something I still try to puzzle out, exactly. Replicas of marine animals, such as an orca, hang from the ceiling.

Most visitors will immediately be drawn to one of the two most popular exhibits in the aquarium, both multi-layer habitats first visible from the lobby. One of these is the sea otter exhibit. The otters have a two-story habitat with an open top, allowing sunlight in. The tank is deep enough to allow the otters to swim down several meters, with rocky shorelines on the second level for them to haul out on; the second-story viewing puts visitors right at the surface of the water, allowing them to watch the giant water weasels as they dip above and below the surface. Besides exhibited non-releasable sea otters, Monterey Bay houses a rehab facility for orphaned or injured animals (complete with surrogate parents), where animals can either be rehabilitated for release or stabilized before being sent on to a permanent home elsewhere.

Immediately besides the ground-level, underwater viewing is a door that leads outside to a beautiful overview of the Bay. Immediately off of this walkway is a demonstration area built around a tidal pool, which fills and drains with the natural ocean movements. The sea otters inside might be the only mammals on display in the aquarium, but from here it is sometimes possible to observe wild sea otters, as well as seals, sea lions, dolphins, and whales. An outdoor tidal pool exhibit can also be viewed before turning back inside.

The second of the two most popular exhibits is Monterey Bay's signature habitat - the Kelp Forest. Three stories tall, this exhibit - one of the aquarium's original habitats - was the first to feature live kelp, the strands of which tower over the heads of visitors. From a variety of vantage points on different sides and different levels, visitors can spot sheephead, garibaldi, and leopard sharks, as well as shoals of anchovies, weaving in and out of the drifting strands. Except for Ocean Voyager at Georgia Aquarium, this is probably the most spectacular aquarium exhibit I've ever seen, and while Ocean Voyager owes its appeal to both its size and the species seldom seen anywhere else -whale shark, giant manta - Kelp Forest is incredible while featuring mostly common aquarium species in a tank of fairly reasonable proportions.

Several smaller tanks nearby feature a wide variety of Monterey Bay's other wildlife, including a giant Pacific octopus is what is probably the best habitat I've ever seen for the species. I might be biased because the animal happened to be active when I was walking by, in the way that octopuses seldom are, and it was an enormous and very beautiful individual. Another popular feature of the aquarium is the nearby walk-through shorebird aviary, home to a variety of birds seldom seen in aquariums, such as phalathropes and godwits. I could have happily spent an hour just watching the birds. The backdrop of the aviary is a window overlooking the shore outside, providing a beautiful backdrop.