Aquarium of the Bay: 20,000 marine animals under the sea!
For 13 years, San Francisco's Aquarium of the Bay struggled to transform itself from a privately-owned attraction into a successful, fully accredited nonprofit marine nature center. The mission is complete, and the public is the prime beneficiary.
The 50,000-square-foot aquarium, now accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, is divided into three distinct sections:
- Discover the Bay. This area features a wide variety of satellite tanks, where you can walk around the exhibits and check out marine life such as moray eels, Bay Pipefish (the father pipefish give birth to their young!), garibaldi (the California state marine fish) and many others. In eight exhibits featuring over 1,000 aquatic animals, you learn about the creatures that make their homes in the Bay.
- Under the Bay. This is the aquarium's largest exhibit - 300 feet (91 m) of crystal clear tunnels featuring thousands of aquatic animals and other sea creatures swimming and floating in 700,000 gallons of filtered bay water. The exhibit is meant to be a close recreation of marine life throughout the San Francisco Bay.
- Touch the Bay. Here you can pet a few kinds of animals including bat rays, skates, leopard sharks, sea stars, sea cucumbers and others. Included in this area is the PG&E Bay Lab, an interactive exhibit featuring local and exotic land animals as nature's ambassadors for protecting their habits against climate change.
The aquarium and its parent, the Bay Institute, have funded and implemented research efforts such as shark tagging and captive breeding programs. Its Sevengill Shark research program was created to help scientists understand how this particular species fits into the Bay's ecosystem and what actions must be taken to ensure its future survival. It also developed www.futuresealevel.org, a climate change website designed to engage the public in community-wide global warming arts projects.
To get a good experience at the aquarium, consider a morning visit, as most large tourism crowds tend to present themselves in the afternoon. Check out the aquarium's web site for specific information on the many special events that tend to occur there weekly.
- by Jim Brown , San Francisco Reporter for HelloMetro
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Jim Brown Jim Brown is a longtime freelance aviation, travel and destination writer and communications professional. A former reporter for Aviation Daily, Air Safety Week and World Airline News, Jim served for more than 15 years as a senior public relations executive for American Airlines, TWA and AirTran Airways.
