From Atlantic To Pacific To The Monterey Bay Aquarium
Written: Feb 15 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: This amazing place is not only educational, it's peaceful.
Cons: For me I live too far away.
The Bottom Line: I strongly suggest anyone in the area to visit this fabulously beautiful place.
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| Lark729_89's Full Review: Monterey Bay Aquarium |
Monterey Bay is located on the coast of northern California on the very end of historic Cannery Row off of highway 1 south. This gorgeous bay supports an abundance of marine communities. Kelp forests, coastal wetlands, sandy sea bottoms and deep sea canyons (almost as large as the Grand Canyon) making home to a vast array of sea life. The bay is part of a federally protected national marine sanctuary.
In 1984 Monterey Bay Aquarium was completed and became a welcomed attraction to many natives and tourists. This 3.3 acre building is home to more than 300,000 plants, fish, mammals, reptiles, birds and other marine creatures, some of which we would never be able to personally see up close if it weren't for this aquarium.
Through public educational programs, scientific research and extensive marine life exhibits, this non-profit bay aquarium is able to remain opened and has even been expanded to continue its mission of promoting sea life as well as plants that provide much of the oxygen necessary for life on earth. Many people don't realize that our ocean life is in jeopardy from years of pollution and some forms of sea life are already extinct.
On a visit to my husband's Aunt Aggie in Sacramento, California a few years ago, we drove the 200 mile trip to visit Monterey Bay and the aquarium. Parking is available in the Cannery Row parking garage. Admission to the aquarium was $7.95 for Aunt Aggie's great-grandchild and $18.95 for us adults. I believe Aggie paid less for her admission for using their ATM machine. A suggestion we should have taken is to order tickets beforehand in the summer to avoid long lines. All proceeds go towards the aquarium in their continued research and upkeep and to school groups expanding to offer the public to take awareness of how precious ocean life is.
Outside of the building we saw the cutest otters and seals eating their food in and near the bay. There were sea otter pups riding on their mother's belly which Aunt Aggie happened to capture on film. Inside of the aquarium we saw captive otters in exhibits that look much like their natural environment grazing the kelps in search of food.
The shimmering 28-foot Kelp Forest is an undersea community of California coastline giant kelp. Sardines and small sharks weaved among the fronds of kelp. A hidden water jet maintains the water motion this plant requires to absorb nutrients from 335,000 gallons of sea water.
The Touch-Pools that house stingrays are shallow pools where visitors can pet a ray and touch a starfish. Though we didn't get to do that, we did get to feed the rays. We were allowed to have a handful of bits of fish and hold our hands under water to feed them as they glided by. It was gross but exciting feeling a ray actually suck the food out of our hands.
I am not going to mention all of the exhibits we saw, only the ones that most interested us. The Outer Bay Wing to The Mysteries Of The Deep contained forty different species of jellyfish of the most irredescent colors created by glowing tanks. These jellyfish are known as the "graceful drifters of the open sea." These were delicate creatures swaying back and forth with the currents. I really didn't want to leave this exhibit as it actually felt like we were amongst them in a sea of tranquility. The haunting background music added to this effect. Positively breathtaking!
In the Outer Bay Wing also is a 3-story, 35-foot tall million gallon indoor ocean, the tallest in the world and taking 7 years of research in capturing and training the animals. I guess one would call it an oceanarium, at least some people, including myself did. This massive tank is amazing... it extends from 60 to 100 miles out where the bay meets the ocean dropping into a canyon more than 2 miles deep.
It is home to humongous jellyfish the size of cows, sunfish that weigh about 3,000 pounds, Barricudas and giant turtles that live for hundreds of years. There are schools of tuna and other fast-swimming fish amongst these "monsters" to provide food for them. This exhibit is very fascinating with rarely seen marine life as close to nature as one can get. We were told of the sharks that once swam here and how very difficult it is to keep a shark in captivity. They'd often ram themselves against the display glass or tiled ocean floor as they had no insight for boundaries.
There's a marine biologist inside some of the aquariums talking through a tube speaker informing the public exactly what they were feeding the animals and the history of their origin. They had a summer tour called Hands-On-Touch where you can pet some of the sea creatures. Each tour is different and very interesting. The sea lions were one of the animals that day and we thought how much these cute creatures resembled the seals. If you happen to be there at feeding time, you'll see the tuna swim twice as fast as the other fish to get to the food. The tourist guide explained how tuna can swim at 40 miles per hour. After throwing the food in for the tuna, she fed the sluggish sunfish by hand to make sure they got their share.
The Splash Zone is the museum's newest exhibit. It is geared towards children and adults will certainly enjoy it also. A unique bubble window actually puts you inside of the exhibit to observe the penguins, sea dragons, eels, giant clams and many others up close. The penguins are quite the characters, they walk upright and waddle looking like little people dressed in tuxedos appearing very clumsy. However, place them in water and they are transformed into graceful swimmers using their wings as flippers. We got to pet them and feed them Squid.
For children also is the Flippers Flukem and Fun which is a hands-on learning adventure about dolphins, whales, sea lions and seals. You also get to ride on giant turtles. There's also an area with granite rocks and water. This creates an outlet for children to make their own waves in different patterns. For toddlers, there's a crawl-on bed, crawl-through tunnel and soft foam baby pond and many more special fun things to stimulate children's imaginations.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium has a nice restaurant named Portola. It's also a self-service cafe. We sat at tables overlooking the bay with seals and otters in the distance. We were given a pair of binoculars so we could each take a turn watching these sea creatures while we waited for our food. I was looking forward to a dinner of sea scallops.(those fat juicy scallops that New England restaurants serve) I feel I must tell you that this restaurant does not serve sea scallops, American lobster or swordfish. For seafood lovers this is nice to know beforehand and also important to know the story behind it.
We were told that there are too many of these sea creatures being caught by fisherman and the children of the future may never get the chance to taste these delicacies as they could become extinct. Instead I settled for Broiled filet of Salmon with roasted garlic tomato sauce served with japonica rice and carrots.($12.95) Aunt Aggie and my companion had crab bay scallops with roasted garlic and red bell pepper sauce.($10.95) Aggie's great-grandchild had fish and chips for $5.95 and all dinners had a 7.25% sales tax.
I almost forgot to mention the outdoor decks of the aquarium. There you can breathe in the salt air and just meditate remembering all that you have seen and learned in the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Looking out at the bay and knowing that gigantic sea creatures are under there in the cold depths of the ocean is enough to double-spark your interest in sea life. Leaving to go back to Sacramento and then back to New England, we knew that we had learned so much about our oceans and made a memory that will stay with us for a long time.
Recommended:
Yes
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Lark729_89
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Location: Down By The Seashore In New England
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