Visiting the Monterrey Bay Aquarium

Monterey_Aquarium Editor's Note: this post introduces our newest contributing author and photographer, Nate Bernardo. All images in this post are © Nate Bernardo, 2009.

It was a beautiful Wednesday morning when I decided to head out to Monterey. I packed my bag with water, food, and a book to read on the bus and left my house with my SLR camera.

It took about an hour to get to the famed city, and once there I proceeded to bike towards the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I took some snapshots along the way with my Cannon Rebel XSi every now and then, just to record how it looked that day. When I got to the Aquarium I secured my bike and went to purchase the “student” discounted ticket and went to go into the main aquarium.

I first went to the Kelp Forest exhibit where I was lucky enough to find a presentation in progress with a diver inside the tank. A docent gave us some interesting information and a few kids asked some questions before the end of the presentation. I then went ahead and looked at all the exhibits in the vicinity of the Kelp Forest, and took some more snapshots of the various coldwater anemones, fish, coral, and flora.

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After some contemplation, I next decided to go to the Splash Zone area, which contains all of the tropical reef exhibits. The first stop I made was at the 500 gallon reef tank.: it seemed to be very healthy with many large colonies of soft and hard coral. The tank was very clean and had a varied spectrum of lighting. Of the many corals I saw, I was most impressed with was the immense blue staghorn, because the tips had a beautiful neon blue coloring. I then moved on to see the rest of the Splash Zone, which contained a few fish only as well as invertebrate species exhibits. Shortly after going though this section of the aquarium I decided to take a break and get a bite to eat before the Bay Café closed.

While I was on the way to the café I overheard some women talking about a great white Shark being introduced to the Outer Bay exhibit. When I was finished eating I rushed to the Outer Bay exhibit, and when I got there, a large crowd had formed in front of the glass viewing pane., that prevented me from getting a good picture. An announcer came on and told people who had just arrived what was happening and as she said that I got my first glimpse of the great white as it slowly meandered across the front of the viewing pane. I took some snapshots and waited a good while longer to see the majestic fish a few more times before I decided to check out the jellyfish exhibits that were just outside the Outer Bay. The Jellyfish exhibits were beautiful and healthy and after a few more shots I proceeded toward the new Secret Lives of Seahorses exhibit.

Once at the exhibit, I first saw two large tanks full of docile fish, coral, invertebrates and seahorses. There were graceful sea dragons living along with vivid soft coral and beautiful Tridacna clams. Again, I took some photos and moved on to the next part of the exhibit. This part of the exhibit houses the myriad of infant seahorses, some being less than a quarter of an inch in size. Some of the grow-out tanks were actually full of live baby brine shrimp that the babies were hunting. A few more shots and about ten feet later I got to the main area of the exhibit, which contained a varied assortment of seahorses and sea dragons. The specimens ranged from the miniature dwarf seahorse to the sizable yellow seahorse. Living along with these fragile animals were many types of marine flora and invertebrates such as various sea grasses, lobsters, and crabs. Shortly after finishing up my walk through the Secret Life of Seahorses, I realized the aquarium was about to close, so I headed back to the entrance to end my day at the aquarium.