June 5, 2003
Looking for a fun way to spend the day, Eclipse and I made the two-hour drive to Monterey, to visit the world famous Monterey Bay Aquarium. This fit in well with the fact that we’d been watching “Finding Nemo” lately. One of my kiddo’s favorite parts of the film features the jellyfish forest, so our first stop at the aquarium was to visit the special exhibit on jellies – “Jellies: Living Art.” It’s a fantastic exhibit. We went through it several time, and I was pleased with some of the photos I took.
The first jellies in the exhibit are these beautiful Northern Sea Bettles (Chrysaora melanaster). We also learned a lot from a nearby interactive “Basic Jelly Body” diagram that listed body parts, and showed how jellies eat, reproduce, and sense their surroundings.
Next, we found the jellies that would prove to be Eclipse’s favorites – Moon Jellies (Auralia spp). I think the jellies featured in “Finding Nemo” are moon jellies, although the ones in the film had longer tentacles than these did.
We had a lot of fun looking for the smallest jellies that we could find, and calling them “Squishy.” Eclipse absolutely loved the moon jellies, and wanted to come back and see them again and again. So we did!
The Warty Comb Jellies (Mnemiopsis sp) were really beautiful. As they moved, lines of iridescent colors pulse along their bodies. The Upside-down Jellies (Cassiopeia xamachana) were unique . . . the only species we saw laying on the bottom of their tank. Very pretty! I also love how so many of the jellies have gorgeous Latin names. My favorites were these Spotted Jellies (Mastiglas papua), mostly because my pictures came out so fabulous!
After several times through, we finally left the jelly exhibit only to find . . . MORE JELLIES! These are part of the permanent “Drifters” collection. Purple-striped Jellies (Chrysaora colorata) are found in local waters, and are really beautiful! More great pictures. Finally, we found something that wasn’t a jelly. This Hammerhead Shark was found in the huge Outer Bay tank.
After lunch, we went outside where we found this cool Tide Pool exhibit, complete with crashing waves. I noticed a cormorant fly by with white patches on the lower body behind the wings. I was pretty sure that I’d never seen a cormorant like this in California before. So I popped into the bookstore to peek at the National Geographic guide, and sure enough, it was a new species for me: Pelagic Cormorant. Later, I saw several more out in the bay just behind the aquarium, and while trying to take some photos of them, I saw another bird I was sure I hadn’t seen before: guillemots, but with big white patches on the wings and back. When I first saw one in flight I thought it had a red tail, but I soon realized that it was just the bird’s red feet hanging behind. Pigeon Guillemot are very pretty birds, and so much fun to see a guillemot here, as I’ve only ever seen them in Scotland before. Fantastic! I also enjoyed seeing Pacific Harbor Seal hauled out on the rocks.
At the Touch Pool, we got to pet some starfish, and watch an abalone have a kelp snack. Eclipse pet an interesting crab, and then gave a fabulous talk on the anatomy of a jellyfish, pointing out all the body parts on the new toy jellyfish I’d bought for him. The docent was impressed, and commented that they’ll probably be a scientist someday!
The Monterey Bay Habitats tank is gigantic and gorgeous. Some of the fish were really BIG! The cuttlefish wasn’t in the big tank, but in a tank of its own nearby.
This is the two-story Kelp Forest tank . . . really beautiful with light filtering through the water.
The Coral Reef area was also pretty cool, including a tropical tank, and crawl-through tunnels where we found clownfish.
After the coral reef, we discovered the Splash Zone, a kids’ play place. The “tide pools” had plastic anemones and starfish, and water jets with which to experiment. Great fun!
We’d seen nearly everything by now, and this seahorse and leafy sea dragon were two of the last discoveries of the day. We also found the penguin pool – this one little guy was very playful and friendly.
Species List
Pigeon Guillemot (Cepphus columba eureka), Pelagic Cormorant (Urile pelagicus resplendens), Pacific Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina richardii)
Let me know what you think!