As part of a family trip to Monterey trip my hubby Scott and I had the pleasure of introducing our friend Cat to the Monterey Bay Aquarium for the first time! I’m happy to report that she is hooked 
Since we had 2 day passes, we went back the next day as well! And even cooler, we got to do the most awesome behind the scenes tour – Feeding Frenzy. It’s 2 hours long at starts almost 2 hours before the aquarium opens which meant that after the 500 Girl Scouts who got to spend the night in the Open Sea Exhibit left, it was just the 12 of us on the tour, our two tour guides and the aquarium staff! Oh my gods. Best way to see the aquarium, seriously!
See map online for more details
Sea Otters (without the crowds)
The “Feeding Frenzy” tour started at the Sea Otter tank and included not just our guides but one of the members of the Husbandry staff who work with the Otters full time. We had his undivided attention of a good 10-15 minutes. The girls, because all the current resident otters at the MBA are female, also got one of their food based enrichments while we watched: blocks of ice with shrimp inside. And yes, they banged the blocks on everything including the exhibit windows. The otter each of the otters have distinct personalities. Some are very good as Foster Moms for the pups the MBA rescues. Some not so much. And the old matriarch of the bunch, Rose is apparently as likely to let her blocks of ice melt as to bang them on things. I was having so much fun listening to the Sea Otter guy that I didn’t take many pictures so these are from day two when we went to see them right after the doors open and before the crowds showed up for their feeding. On our second day I discovered the third floor outdoor over look from which you can see the back side of the Sea Otter exhibit, among others things!
Bat Ray feeding
Our next stop was the Bat Rays and we got to FEED THEM!!! They get three courses: fish which is the most nutritious for them and their 3rd favorite hence the getting them first 
Then Squid and finally “dessert” of shrimp. To feed them you put a piece of the food between two fingers, with a bit sticking out from your palm, and then put your hand in the water against their tank’s wall. They swim up to you, nose along your hand/the wall until they find the food and Hoover it up! it feels wet/soft and just like if you’ve ever put your hand over the suction end of a vacuum. Then you get to pet them and pet them and pet them and its awesome. They feel like suede or silk velvet over muscle and of course wet. It was awesome. Did I mention it was awesome?
Of course we visited them again on our second trip. Anyone who’s been to an aquarium with rays you can touch, probably knows that there is always a point in the day when the rays are DONE with humans. The exhibit at MBA is set up so they have an area they can retreat to when that happens. By about 1:30, when we were making a final visit to say good by, most of the rays were hiding out in the back corner – so very different from the morning when they knew food was coming and they weren’t sick of humans yet!
Feeding the anchovies in the Kelp Forest!!
How to know you’re a marine biology & aquarium management nerd… even though getting to feed the anchovies was neat – the real awesomeness, for me, was getting to go up to the third level to the Kelp Forest overlook, which I didn’t even know existed! WTF? and then go *through* the magic gate to the staff side! We got to stand right up at the edge of the Kelp Forest and look at all the gear, the wave machine, and the wires that keep the birds out of the tank!!! I’ll pause here to say that way back in college I did a year of Marine Bio that included a side track of Aquarium Management in which I helped build and maintain a 50 gal cold, salt water, tank for hermit crabs we collected off the long island sound. I have been deeply in love with aquariums all my life and that just sealed the deal. Its why I always want to see how they work. So this? WAS AMAZING. Also not long enough or deep enough into all the goodies, but still awesome. For the feeding we each got a handful of krill. At the appropriate moment, we all threw our handful into the tank then hurried down to the second level to watch the anchovies feed – which was way cool!.
After the Kelp Forest the tour headed into the deep ocean. We got to see the sardine roundabout both from the audience’s side and behind the scenes. If you haven’t seen it, the round about is what it sounds like – a doughnut shaped tank which houses ALOT of anchovies all going around and around – against the current it turns out, so they can feed as they swim. At the MBA the round-about is above the viewer, so you have to look up to see them swimming. Its very cool. The backstage view is a teeny room above the tank that has an open section which allows the staff to take water samples, feed the anchovies, and generally keep an eye on how things are going. We didn’t get to feed them ourselves but we got to watch one of our tour leaders toss in a scoopful of pellets, then watch the anchovy roil about as they gobbled up breakfast.
Jellies!
Our final stop on our tour was the Jellies! Specifically one of the labs where they raise jellies (not jellyfish, because they aren’t actually fish) for the exhibits. We got to see teeny tiny baby Moon Jellies and bigger moon jellies as well as a tank of Purple Stripe jellies (though I was distracted and only took a photo of their tanks label).
And then! We got to feed the Moon Jellies!!! Which is actually kind of hilarious because they don’t have brains so you cant just dump food in and expect them to know what to do about it. You have to use a turkey baster and squirt their food right into their bell so it gets into their tentacles. Moon Jellies have very short tentacles and a lower toxin level in their stingers so the risk of anyone getting sick from feeding them / putting their hand and arm in their tank is pretty low. Just in case, though, there is a vinegar spray that they have everyone use to neutralize anything that does get on people. We wash our arms and hands off once we got done with the jellies).
And yes, the woman who has all the allergies stuck her hand into a tank of jelly fish not once but twice and only caught the absurdity of that fact After she did it. And all was well. – not that I’m testing that in the wild!
A great thing about the Monterey Bay Aquarium is their mandate to showcase the life of the bay itself. I’ve know that all along, but this trip was the first time I had been out on the bay one day and in the aquarium the next. On the boat I saw, and was able to photograph, both Purple Stripe Jellies and Sea Nettles. And of course, both these species and the Moon Jellies are at the aquarium – so now I can do side by side photos!
Open Sea
(AKA the 1.2 million gallon tank formerly know as The Outer Bay and changed because people apparently thought the Aquarium had built a window IN THE OCEAN to let them see into the deep water. ??? The new name is better but apparently still not ideal – as some, though fewer, people are still confused – per our tour guide Tall Cat (who was 6’3″).)
Normally I am not a big fan of joining with the crowds for tank feedings but having never seen the Open Sea at feeding time this was too cool to miss. They fed the Sea Turtles but we mostly heard about that and saw what that looked like on big screens. I suspect the timing of their feeding was about getting the turtles out of the way of the main feeding – the Pacific Sardines!
“Visitors often ask: how do you tell the difference between anchovies and sardines on exhibit? Sardines have distinctive black spots, for one thing. Sardine schools also tend to move in darting motions, while anchovy schools form a vertical funnel or “swirl.” Anchovies tend to swim with their mouths wide open, gathering food.”
I still cant tell the difference. They both look cool when they school. The staff person narrating the feeding told us that there is Low perdation in the exhibits not No perdation – right before some of the big fish started swimming through the school of sardines looking for a snack.
Then of course there is the tidal splash zone spot where you can stand under a crashing wave! I got three different views of the wave in action. One – from the top where it starts, one from about eye view as its coming down, and one from the overlook above it looking down as it happens!
It also turned into the Take pictures of Kate and Cat moment 🙂
