The Open Sea

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is one of our favorite places to visit. We go at least once a year and if we get the membership it'll be 2-3 times a year.  But for some reason, we didn't go the past two years. I think with me working so much during that time I didn't plan a trip down there. But who can think of  a vacation when you're working 24/7 right?

2004

Today

2006

Today

So this summer, we headed to the Aquarium to check out their new remodeled Outer Bay, renamed the Open Sea, with our vacation friends the H. family. Supposedly MBA replaced the glass to be stronger, more resistant to decay etc.. They had to transport all those living in that tank to other aquariums until the remodel was finished. Unfortunately quite a few of the huge tunas did not survive the transition. Overall, the tank looked the same with less huge fish but the humungous sun fish is still there along with a very large sea turtle.

Also, my husband got me a new camera for my birthday and I tried it out the first time at the aquarium. I still wanted a small point-and-shoot camera (not one of those huge ones like his) but I wanted one that can take really good pictures in low-light. So he got a Canon Powershot SD4000IS for me.

Below are some pictures I took without a flash at the aquarium.

a Moon Jelly

A Sea Nettle Jelly

Sunfish in the Open Sea

Cuttlefish

Leaping blennies that blend right into the rocks and actually 'leap' from rock to rock.

Giant Red Octopus

Mermaid's Purse (aka Skate Ray Eggs)

Leafy Seadragon

Not bad huh? Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the quality of pictures in low-light and no-flash.

Now below are pictures taken by my husband's fancy-shmancy camera..

This sea turtle was quite large and kept swimming across the window.

The sea horse exhibit is one of my favorites. These are potbelly seahorses.

If you look close enough, you can see the tiny dorsal fin fluttering.

Spotted Jellyfish

The Aquarium did add a few 'new' exhibits since I was last there. This one was about recycling. An artist use plastic bottles to carve out intricate kelp and sea plant designs to show how easily other animals (such as the sea turtles) think that they are eating plants but in actuality are eating plastic.


They also had an interactive display where you can click on an environmentally-friendly acts such as riding your bicycle instead of driving or bringing your own bags instead of using the retailers plastic/paper ones, or sending a letter to your government voicing your concerns about non-green living in your city. The computer takes your picture and it's transposed into a little cute video which is displayed on their huge screen and emailed to your computer. How fancy is that? Can you guess which 'act' my husband chose?

After exploring the whole Aquarium, we were famished, so we headed to have tepannyaki at the Wharf. The food was much better here than the time we had it in Florida and the chef was more creative.