The aquarium exhibits are a living extension of Monterey Bay, the heart of the largest national marine sanctuary with 250,000 sea creates and 700 species of plants and animals.
To sustain life in the exhibits and galleries seawater is pumped into the aquarium at a rate of 2,000 gallons per minute. The habitats feature a three-story kelp forest with sharks and schooling fishes. Other attractions include a two-story sea otter exhibit, a walk-through aviary, a million-gallon indoor ocean and nearly 200 smaller exhibits and galleries devoted to various sea creates and residents of the deep.
One of the most intriguing long-term special exhibits features deep-sea animals from the mile-deep submarine canyon in Monterey Bay that highlights over 40 species.
Don't miss the kelp forest feeding shows where a diver talks with the audience through a two-way communications mask. 'Jellies: Living Art' exhibit where visitors are treated to rarely seen jellies like the flower hat and the blue jelly.
The unusual museum walls are crowded with art pieces from well-known artists like David Hockney, Dale Chihuly and Rick Satava. Poetry lines the walls with the likes of Pablo Neruda, Jim Hendrix, and Rachel Carson.
Two new conservation exhibits that opened in 2001 encompass 'Vanishing Wildlife: Saving Tunas, Turtles, and Sharks,' that displays a view into the aquarium's million-gallon Outer Bay presentation and details why these animals need our protection and what individuals can do to help. The second exhibit is 'Saving Seahorses' and introduces visitors to six varieties of these graceful sea creatures including the potbelly, cape, tiger tail, longsnout, Pacific, and dwarf. The exhibit document what people are doing to protect these rare and unusual seahorses.
If you love all things aquatic and get good vibes from sharks, tunas, barracudas, sea turtles, pilotfish, and dolphins then you're in the right place at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. In fact, consider yourself home. Sure you don't have fins and gills instead of lungs.
Enough seeing eye-to-eye with fish? Take a break and step outside onto the waterfront deck where you'll find telescopes for a better view of Monterey Bay or sit yourself down in the Portola Café for a little refreshment and an impressive ocean view.
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