Aquarium General

Is there a place to store my belongings?

There are lockers for personal use located on Hovden Way, just past the Member’s Entrance. Each locker costs 50 cents and will only accept quarters.

Is wireless Internet available at the Aquarium?

Wireless internet is now available at the Aquarium free of charge. You can browse the internet with your Wi-Fi enabled cell phones, PDAs or MP3 players. For more information, please stop by our information desk.

What are your hours of operation?

We're open every day of the year except December 25.
Regular hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
Summer and holidays: 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m.
Summer weekends: 9:30 a.m.-8 p.m.
For more information call (831) 648-4800.

Where can I buy film, batteries, stamps, aspirin etc.?

These items are available in our Gift & Bookstore, as well as a full selection of merchandise including natural history books, Aquarium logo clothing, educational toys and much more. We do not currently have an online store or merchandise catalog, but you can reach our merchandising staff by phone (877-665-2665 toll-free in U.S.) or email.

Where can we eat our picnic lunch?

The Aquarium provides an on-site picnic area for guests, located behind the Education Building. Individual guests may also use the Aquarium’s outside amphitheatre at the Great Tide Pool. Please note that no food or drink may be consumed inside the Aquarium, and seating in the Portola Restaurant ad Café is reserved for restaurant patrons. There are a number of great picnic sites within walking distance from the Aquarium as well, including Lover’s Point, Washington Park, and San Carlos Beach.

Exhibits

Are those real rocks in your exhibits?

No, most of the big ones are artificial rocks, known as "rockwork." Most of our artificial rocks are about 1-2 inches (2.5-5 cm) thick. They are fiberglass-reinforced concrete (FRC) applied with a "gun" that mixes concrete with fiberglass fibers and sprays the mixture onto a foundation made of fiberglass screen.

Sculptors made the rocks in the exhibits from fiberglass-reinforced concrete (they even made some from molds of real rocks).

How are animals and plants collected and brought to the Aquarium?

Divers catch some of our animals using hand nets or plastic bags. For other species, we may use hook and line, special trawl nets or traps. Commerical fishermen bring us some of our fishes, octopuses and other animals.

See what it takes to make a living kelp forest in “Creating a Kelp Forest Exhibit" video (High-Speed Connection Recommended)

How do you clean your exhibits?

All of our tanks use filters of one kind or another to help keep the water clean. Fish feces and other detritus

are removed daily by siphon.

How do you clean your sea water pipes?

The plankton we pump in with our sea water feed exhibit animals and introduce new ones: tiny, young animals—like clams and mussels—settle out on exhibit walls and grow into adults. These animals also settle and grow inside our pipes—and eventually clog them. To keep water flowing to our exhibits, we clean the pipes every few months.

The first step in cleaning marine life out of a pipe is to shut off the water for at least a week. (Without a supply of sea water and the oxygen it carries, the marine life dies and rots.) Then, we force a foam and plastic “pig” through the pipe with a blast of water. Water swirling around the pig scours away the marine life and carries it out the pipe’s other end.

Tune In

"Pigs in the Aquarium" video

(High-Speed Connection Recommended)

Encrusted water pipe before clean out

Inserting the pig into the pipe

How do you display your jellies?

Our jellies exhibit tanks are kreisels, a design developed in Germany about a decade ago. They're circular tanks with no corners, especially good homes for delicate creatures that might injure themselves in a tank with corners. We didn't invent the kreisel tank, but over the years, we've made improvements to the design.

How many different species of animals and plants do you have on display?

We exhibit approximately 550 different species. You can find out more about many of them in our online field guide

How much sea water do you use?

We pump 2,000 gallons (7,570 liters) per minute, day and night, through more than 100 exhibit tanks. During the day, we filter the water so it's easy to see through. At night, raw sea water is pumped through many exhibits. Raw sea water is full of plankton

, which is food for filter-feeders like our mussels,

barnacles

and sea pens

. The raw sea water also brings the spores of seaweed and the tiny larvae of invertebrates, like anemones and cup corals

. We're glad to see these tiny plants and animals settle and grow on our rockwork. (When they settle on the acrylic panels, our volunteer divers have to clean them off so the view stays crystal-clear.)
Tanks without plankton-eating animals get filtered sea water both day and night. This makes it easier to keep their acrylic windows clean.

How much water is in the Kelp Forest exhibit?

Our Kelp Forest exhibit holds approximately one-third of a million gallons or 1,268,109 liters. We were the first aquarium in the world to exhibit a living kelp forest.

How much water is in the Outer Bay Waters exhibit?

The Outer Bay exhibit holds 1.2 million gallons (4,542,494 liters) of sea water. When it was built, the main view into this exhibit was the world's largest window, 56 feet long and 17 feet high (about 17 m long and 5 m high). It was welded together seamlessly from five pieces of acrylic 13 inches (33 cm) thick.

How thick are the exhibit windows?

They range from three to 13 inches thick (eight to 30 cm). They're made of acrylic, a tough plastic.

What does the word "kreisel" mean?

"Kreisel" means "child's spinning top" in German.

What is the temperature of the water?

The temperature of the water in most of our exhibits is about 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius)—comfortable for our Monterey Bay plants and animals.

Our Outer Bay exhibit of one million gallons (3,785,400 liters) is warmed to 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius), the right temperature for open-ocean species like our sharks, barracuda and yellowfin tuna.

What types of foods do you feed the animals at the Aquarium?

The Aquarium exhibits animals with eating habits as diverse as jellies, otters

, sharks and tuna. It's a tall order to keep them well fed and healthy, but our husbandry staff is up to the task. It starts with our sea water system. Because we constantly pump in fresh water from the bay, we can offer a more natural diet without worrying about leftover food clouding the exhibit water.

How much do they eat? On average, 305 pounds a day—nearly 56 tons a year! The Outer Bay animals take the most food, roughly 200 pounds of squid, four times a week. Our South African blackfooted penguins

eat smelts—15 pounds of them, twice a day. Our hungry sea otters gobble up 13 pounds of food a day. The sevengill sharks

favor salmon steaks.

Invertebrates slurp 50 pounds of krill shakes a week. Krill are shrimplike crustaceans, invertebrate animals with a hard shell and many jointed legs. You can watch mealtime in the Outer Bay, Sea Otter, Penguin and Kelp Forest exhibits when you visit or on our live web cams.

“Krill Shake: A Filter Feeding Favorite" video (High-Speed Connection Recommended)

To feed our sea turtles, we sometimes wrap a juicy squid or herring in a large lettuce leaf to make a "turtle's taco"!

What's the water chemistry of your exhibit water?

The salinity of sea water in Monterey Bay is usually around 34 to 35 parts per thousand. The pH ranges from 7.9 to 8.2. It usually hovers around 8.1. Nitrates are in the range of 0.1 to 2.5 parts per million. They're usually lower than 2.0.

Where does the water in the displays come from?

We pump the water in from Monterey Bay. Sea water is filtered during the day so that the displays will be clear enough to see into. At night, we pump in raw sea water. It contains food for many animals in the exhibits.

Who constructs your rockwork?

We build much of it ourselves in our fiberglass shop. For big exhibits, we sometimes contract out the work to specialized companies that build rockwork for aquariums, zoos and movie sets.

Why doesn't the Aquarium have live whales and dolphins?

We choose not to exhibit whales, dolphins and sea lions for several reasons. The most important is that Monterey Bay is the best "exhibit" for viewing the marine mammals that live here and pass through the area.

From time to time, dolphins can be seen from the deck of the Aquarium, with orcas being a rarer occurrence. Gray whales pass by mid-November through March and humpbacks spring through fall; both can often be viewed from the Aquarium's decks. Blue whales are found outside of the bay August through October. Harbor seals and sea lions can be seen daily from the Aquarium's decks as well.

History and Facts

Do you accept bequests and how do I make a donation?

Yes. Making a gift or donation to the Aquarium provides important support for our new exhibits, research and conservation efforts and our education programs. You can donate online and find out more information in our Members and Donors section.

We encourage individuals who wish to make a gift through their will or living trust to designate an estate gift to the Aquarium's permanent endowment fund. Your gift to the Aquarium and the world's oceans will last in perpetuity if you use appropriate language. Please visit our Members and Donors section to contact our Development Office for more information.

Does the Aquarium conduct marine science research?

The Aquarium has an active research program. We have groups working on sea otter conservation and tuna conservation biology. Our sister institution, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), conducts deep-sea research in the vast Monterey submarine canyon.

To learn more, visit our Conservation and Research section.

Does the Aquarium donate tickets to nonprofit organizations for fundraising events?

Because the Aquarium is itself a nonprofit organization, our Board of Trustees has established the following ticket donation guidelines:

1. Your organization must be a nonprofit and must be using the Aquarium tickets as fundraising items.

2. Your organization must be located in Monterey County.

3. You must submit your request online using your organization’s letterhead. The letter must include:
A. Your nonprofit tax ID number
B. A description and date of the event
C. An explanation of how the proceeds from the fundraiser will be used

4. We need to receive all this information at least one month prior to the event in order to consider your request.

5. We donate tickets once per year per organization.

6. If your organization meets the above criteria please send your documents to:

Monterey Bay Aquarium
Attention: Ticket Donations
886 Cannery Row
Monterey, CA. 93940

How long did it take to convert Hovden Cannery into the Aquarium?

It took seven years to plan and build the main wing of the Aquarium. You can see photos and video of the construction in our interactive Aquarium timeline.

How many employees does the Aquarium have? How many volunteers?

Currently, the Aquarium has 420 employees and almost 900 volunteers. Our volunteers do everything from guiding school children through our exhibits to feeding the animals in our Kelp Forest. Visit Volunteer and Job Opportunities to find out more!

How many people visit the Aquarium?

About 1.8 million people visit us each year.

What is the legal name of the Monterey Bay Aquarium?

For legal and estate planning purposes, our official name is The Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation.

When did the Aquarium open?

The Aquarium opened October 20, 1984. In 1996, we almost doubled our exhibit space with the opening of the Outer Bay Wing, devoted to the open ocean and deep sea. The main feature is the Outer Bay Waters exhibit, the one-million-gallon tank containing tuna, sharks and sea turtles.

When did the Hovden Cannery close down, and why?

The cannery closed in 1972. The sardine fishery

had collapsed, and the market for canned squid was insufficient to support continued operation of the cannery.

Where can I find more information about the Aquarium?

For more about the Aquarium, please see our Online Press Kit.

Who designed the Aquarium?

The Aquarium was designed by the architectural firm of Esherick Homsey Dodge and Davis of San Francisco. Charles Davis was the chief architect. They designed our beautiful building in the style of the Hovden Cannery building that once occupied the site.

Who financed the Aquarium's construction?

The Aquarium was a gift to the community by David and Lucile Packard. The original cost of the Aquarium was approximately $55 million.

A dream fulfilled: Founders Lucile and David Packard flank Executive Director Julie Packard on opening day, October 20, 1984.

Who had the idea for an Aquarium devoted to Monterey Bay habitats?

The Aquarium project was initiated in 1977 by a group of four marine biologists at Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove. From the beginning, we planned our permanent exhibits as a walk through Monterey Bay's beautiful natural communities.

Tune In

"Building the Aquarium" video

(High-Speed Connection Recommended)

Explore our History

Who owns the Aquarium?

The Aquarium is owned by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation, a public non-profit organization established by David and Lucile Packard.

Who pays for the operation of the Aquarium? Does it receive government support?

The Aquarium is a non-profit organization. In order to meet our annual budget, we rely on income from admission fees, memberships, contributions from individuals and businesses, foundation grants, special events and our gift and bookstores. No government money is involved (except an occasional research grant).

Visit Related

Best times to avoid crowds

Our less-visited times are in the fall and winter months other than during holidays. At other times of the year, you’ll find fewer visitors between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. During the peak summer months, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are the best days to visit.

Disability access

Wheelchairs are available free for use during an Aquarium visit; ask at the information desk inside the main entrance. The Aquarium is fully accessible to the disabled, and limited parking for the disabled is offered on-site, on a first-come, first-served basis. Call (831) 648-4840 for disabled parking information.

Most of our exhibit videos are captioned, and assisted-listening devices for the hard of hearing are available at the information desk. Special tours can be arranged with two weeks advance notice. You can arrange a special tour by calling the reservation center at (831) 647-6886.

Do you offer any discounts?

We do not usually offer any discounts through the Aquarium. Local hotels and the American Automobile Association sometimes offer tickets at a discounted rate. Additionally, companies and military bases sometimes provide discounted tickets to their employees. These special rates are not available through the Aquarium itself, but must be purchased directly from these institutions.

How long does it take to see the Aquarium?

An average visit to the Aquarium lasts 2 to 3 hours, but you can easily spend the whole day here and still have more to see! Be sure to check our Aquarium Exhibits section before you come to preview some of the highlights.

International visitors

Visitor information cards are available at the information desk in French, Spanish, German, Italian, Chinese and Japanese. Many staff and volunteers speak other languages. Look for special nametags that indicate what languages they speak.

Is there a place to store my belongings?

There are lockers for personal use located on Hovden Way, just past the Member’s Entrance. Each locker costs 50 cents and will only accept quarters.

Pet policy & boarding information

Only working dogs (guide dogs for the blind, service dogs for people with disabilities) or working dogs in training are permitted at the Aquarium. Pet-sitting services are available within walking distance of the Aquarium. Call the Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau at (831)657-6400 for recommendations.

Photography & Video

During your visit, you're welcome to take photos and video for your personal use only. Commercial photography is allowed only with prior written permission from our Public Relations department. For your safety and the safety of other visitors, we prohibit the use of tripods and monopods in the Aquarium.

Flash photography can hurt some animals—like sea dragons, octopuses and others. Before you click the shutter, please look for signs asking you not to flash the animals. You'll find professional photo postcards of many of our animals in our gift and bookstores. Learn more.

Smoking Policy

For the health and safety of our guests and animals, smoking is prohibited anywhere on Aquarium property, including outdoor areas.

Strollers

Strollers are permitted throughout the Aquarium, except in our aviary and on the mezzanine of our Sea otter exhibit. We ask that you be considerate of other visitors as they're navigating dark galleries to see the exhibits.

Weather

The coastal areas of Monterey County usually enjoy temperatures averaging 57°F year-round. It is a good idea to dress in layers as temperature and wind conditions may vary throughout the day and it can get cool, even during the summer.

What if I already have tickets?

If you have prepaid or complimentary tickets, use the Main Entrance PDF

Where can I buy film, batteries, stamps, aspirin etc.?

Where can we eat our picnic lunch?

Wireless Internet

Coral Reef

Are corals plants or animals?

Corals

look like plants, but they are actually animals that use their tentacles

to catch tiny sea creatures to eat. They usually live together in large groups, called colonies. Over thousands of years the skeletons of dead corals build up on top of one another to form a coral reef

.

Corals are related to sea anemones

and jellies. The individual coral animal, called a coral polyp

, has a soft body topped by a ring of stinging tentacles for catching food. Some kinds of coral polyps secrete a hard underlying skeleton made of limestone. Coral polyps often retreat into cuplike depressions in the skeleton for protection. It builds the skeleton by combining carbon dioxide (CO2) and calcium (Ca) in the water to make calcium carbonate (CaCO3), also known as limestone. When corals die, other corals build on top until a great reef is formed.

Each coral animal looks like a tiny, flowerlike anemone. Thousands and thousands live together in groups, called colonies, which build the coral reefs.

There are over 500 different species of coral. Some look like brains

, some like lettuce leaves, and some like antlers

, but they are all made up of tiny coral polyps.

How do coral reefs form?

Hard coral colonies, like brain

and staghorn coral

, secrete and deposit a solid skeleton of calcium carbonate, also known as limestone. Layer on layer, generation on generation, these protective skeletons can grow to become massive stony reefs that stretch for thousands of miles and last for millions of years. The Great Barrier Reef in Australia is over 1,200 miles long, the largest in the world. Soft corals don't form massive limestone skeletons, and usually live among the hard corals on a reef.

The beautiful colors we see in reefs are those of the living coral on top.

What do corals eat?

Corals can capture prey (usually plankton

) by stinging them with their tentacles

and bringing the plankton inside to dine on. In addition, corals rely on the photosynthetic products of algae

for their food.

Inside coral tissue lives a one-celled alga called zooxanthellae

. Nutrients

from the algae feed the corals, allowing them to grow and reproduce. Safe inside the corals, the plantlike algae flourish in the tropical sun. The algae, like all plants, need sunshine for photosynthesis

, which is why coral reefs grow so near the surface of the water, where it is sunniest.

Some corals can grow as much as nine inches each year. The energy used in this growth is much greater than the eating of plankton would allow. This explains why zooxanthellaeare so important to the lives of the corals.

Like corals, giant clams

live in partnership with tiny plantlike algae that live inside the clams' tissues. The shell of the giant clam can reach a length of four feet and may weigh as much as 440 pounds. That's big!

Where can I get more information about corals?

Our Splash Zone Rock and Reef Homes section has more information on corals and coral reefs.

Where do corals live?

Corals live in oceans around the world. But only in clear, shallow, warm tropical seas do colonies of reef-building corals find the conditions they need to thrive. Clear, shallow water is vital for adequate light exposure to the single-celled algae

called zooxanthellae

in their tissue, which produces food for the coral.

You can find coral reefs in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea, Pacific Ocean, Caribbean Sea and the Florida Keys.

Who lives in the reef?

Coral reefs provide room and board for countless other creatures both large and small. You can learn more about coral reef animals like the squarespot

, zebra moray eel

, parrotfish, yellow-headed jawfish

, and giant clam

in our online field guide.

On the reef, anemonefish

snuggle safely in their anemones

. Protected from predators by the anemone's stinging cells, the fish may pay their way by providing scraps of food for the anemone.

Why are coral reefs important?

Coral reefs provide homes to thousands of amazing animals. But they are being destroyed at an alarming rate. Already 10 percent are lost and scientists say 70 percent of all corals on Earth will be killed off in 20 to 40 years unless people stop the destruction caused by pollution, sewage, erosion, cyanide fishing, bad tourism practices, and global warming. They need your help and protection.

The number of fishes living among coral reefs represents 30 percent of all the fish species that live in the oceans of the world. Wow!

	If you have an aquarium, buy fish raised in captivity, not wild fish taken from their natural homes.
	When you visit a coral reef or the seashore, treat these ocean habitats gently.
	Leave animals where you found them, and don't disturb their homes.
	Join a group that's working to protect coral reefs from harm.

Penguin

Are penguins birds or mammals?

Penguins are birds. They have feathers, beaks and wings, and they lay eggs. Late-breaking research indicates albatrosses are their closest living relatives. Other close relatives are also fish-eating seabirds: the petrels and shearwaters.

Are penguins related to seals?

No. Penguins look a bit like seals when they swoop swiftly through the water. Both seals and penguins have streamlined bodies adapted for swimming and diving. And both seals and penguins breathe air. But penguins are seabirds, while seals are marine mammals.

Do penguins have teeth?

No, but penguins have soft, flexible bristles on their tongues and on the roof of their mouths, which keep slippery fish from wiggling away.

Do penguins make good pets?

No. They need to be kept in groups, and they don't do well unless they're kept in large enclosures with filtered air, controlled temperatures, fresh saltwater and dry surfaces to stand on. They also require lots of fresh fish to eat. It's better to enjoy penguins at your local aquarium or zoo.

How do penguins keep cool in hot places or keep warm in cold places?

Penguins that nest on hot, sandy beaches often need to cool off. They'll stand in the shade or open their mouths to pant like a dog. Some species have special skin patches that help them cool off. Bare skin around a blackfooted penguin's eyes and feet turns pink as the penguin pumps extra blood there to lose heat.

All penguins use their black and white colors to adjust their body temperature on land. If they're hot, they turn toward the sun, using their white feathers to reflect its heat. If they're cold, they turn away from the sun, using their black feathers to soak up its warmth.

How fast can penguins swim?

It varies from species to species—generally, larger species swim faster than small ones. Blackfooted penguins and gentoo penguins have been measured swimming at about 15 miles an hour (24 km/hr). That's four times faster than the fastest human swimmer!

How fast can penguins walk?

Their normal waddle is pretty slow, about two miles an hour (3.2 km/hr). But when penguins are afraid or angry, they can put their heads down and run with surprising speed. They can often outrun a penguin scientist who is trying to catch them!

How long do penguins live?

In the wild, penguins might live 15 to 20 years. Protected in captivity, they can live much longer.

How long does it take a penguin to grow up?

It can take a year to two years, depending on the species. You can guess a young penguin's age from its feathers. All penguins hatch covered in fluffy down. Soon, the down is replaced by a warmer, woolly juvenile plumage. It may be a year or more before the juvenile plumage falls out to be replaced by sleek, black and white adult feathers.

Where can I get more information about penguins?

Our Splash Zone penguin section has more information on penguins and what you can do to help them survive.

Where did the name "penguin" come from?

It's not clear where the name "penguin" came from. It might be from the Latin word "pingua," meaning "fat." Penguins certainly are fat birds—their thick layer of blubber

was well known to hungry sailors who hunted penguins in past centuries.

We do know that European sailors first applied the name "penguin" to plump seabirds of the Northern Hemisphere—birds known today as puffins and auks. These birds are not closely related to true penguins.

Where do penguins sleep?

When they're on land to breed or molt their feathers, penguins sleep at their nesting territories. But penguins also spend much of the year feeding—and sleeping—on the open ocean, without touching land for months.

Which animals eat penguins?

In the water, penguins have to watch out for orcas, sharks and leopard seals. On land, birds called skuas will grab penguin eggs and chicks. In many places, penguins are also threatened by introduced predators: cats, foxes or other animals brought into the penguin's habitat by humans.

Why do penguins walk funny?

A penguin's legs are set far back on its body. On land, this makes penguins walk with that cute waddle. But in the water, these far-out feet become rudders that help the penguin steer.

Sea Otter

Do sea otters ever come ashore?

Sometimes, but they spend most of their lives in the ocean. Sea otters eat, sleep, mate and have their pups in the water. Occasionally, females come ashore to rest after mating, and any otter may beach itself if it's ill or injured. Remember, if you see an otter on land, leave it alone and ask other people not to disturb it.

How to report a stranded otter

Do sea otters groom themselves a lot?

An sea otter's fur keeps it alive in the icy water, so each sea otter spends a couple of hours a day grooming to keep its coat in good shape. You'll often see otters rolling in the water and rubbing themselves—they're cleaning their fur and rubbing insulating air into the hairs. They're extremely limber, and their skeletons are very loosely jointed, so otters can groom every inch of their bodies—even the middle of their backs.

Do sea otters live alone or in groups?

Sea otters live in loose-knit groups called rafts. Rafts typically consist of two or more resting otters. Otters in rafts often sleep side-by-side, wrapped up in strands of kelp, so that they don't drift far from each other.

Males and females usually live in separate groups. Females have small home territories; they and their pups may gather in large groups. Mature males protect large territories, encompassing the territories of several females. Males and females form breeding pairs for only a short time, usually only three to five days. After this, the male moves on to look for other receptive females and the female raises the pup on her own. On the outskirts of the range are rafts of bachelor males, too young or too old to hold their own territories.

Do sea otters mate for life?

Sea otters don't mate for life. At the time of mating, the male and female form a pair bond that lasts three to five days. Females sometimes mate with the same male in subsequent years, although not always.

Do sea otters use tools?

A sea otter may use rocks to crack open hard-shelled prey at the surface, either setting a rock on its stomach while floating on its back, or holding rocks with its forepaws to pound its prey. Otters may also use rocks to pry up abalone and sea urchins. Around the Monterey wharf, some otters use discarded glass bottles in the same way!

Does the father help to raise the sea otter pup?

No, the father leaves the mother soon after mating, and he's not involved in any way with raising the pup.

How deep do sea otters dive?

Southern sea otters probably have the ability to dive as deep as 300 feet (100 m), but their typical feeding dives last just a minute or two in 30 to 60 feet (9-18 m) of coastal water.

How do sea otters keep warm?

They have the world's densest fur—up to a million hairs per square inch! (You have 100,000 hairs or less on your whole head). A sea otter's normal body temperature is about 100° F (38° C), while the ocean is a chilly 35° to 60° F (2-16° C). Sea otters carefully groom their fur to trap a layer of insulating air bubbles between their warm skin and the icy water. But even that fur can't stop the loss of body heat. Otters need to keep that fur in good condition to stay alive in the cold water. That's why oil spills and even oil runoff from streets is bad for the otters—oil degrades the otters' fur and they get cold.

How many kinds of sea otters are there?

There are three subspecies: the Russian, Alaskan and California sea otters. The California subspecies is also called the southern sea otter . They're all sea otters (Enhydra lutris), but each subspecies differs slightly in size and body shape.

California sea otter: Enhydra lutris nereis Alaskan sea otter: Enhydra lutris kenyoni Russian sea otter: Enhydra lutris lutris

How many pups do sea otters have?

Females usually give birth to one pup a year, although twin births occur occasionally. If twins are born, the mother may have to abandon one because raising just one pup requires so much energy, or because one pup dies, when it's significantly weaker than the other one.

How many sea otters lived in California before fur hunting?

As many as 16,000-20,000 sea otters may have lived along the California coast.

How many southern sea otters are there now?

About 2,500 southern sea otters, a three-year average, live along the central California coast.

By 1900, the Southern sea otter was thought to be extinct. But in 1915, biologists discovered a group of about 50 otters that had survived in a remote Big Sur cove. To protect these last survivors, the biologists kept them a secret until 1938, when many people saw the otters as Highway 1 was built along the coast. All of today's California sea otters descend from the tiny Big Sur colony.

Sea otters have been protected by law since 1911 and are protected as a threatened species under the 1972 Endangered Species Act.

How much do sea otters eat?

Without blubber

, sea otters lose a lot of heat to the water. To stay warm in cold water, a sea otter burns calories at nearly eight times the rate you do. An otter fuels its fast metabolism by eating up to a quarter of its weight in food a day. (A 160-pound (73 kg) person would have to eat about 40 pounds (18 kg) of food a day to match that!)

How much do sea otters weigh when they're born?

Sea otter pups weigh three to five pounds (1.4-2.2 kg) when they're born.

How well can sea otters see, hear, smell and touch?

Sea otters have unusual eyeballs, adapted to see both above and below the water. But they use their sense of touch at least as much as their eyes. Their long whiskers help them detect vibrations in murky waters, and they use their sensitive paws to locate and capture prey under water. They seem to have an acute sense of smell and taste, but we don't really know how well they hear. They seem to be most sensitive to high-pitched sounds.

What do sea otters eat?

Sea otters eat many kinds of invertebrates, including clams, snails, sea stars, sea urchins, crabs, squid, octopuses and abalone. Alaskan sea otters also eat fish, but California otters seem to prefer invertebrates.

Aquarium researchers have discovered that each otter has its favorite foods—wild otters often hunt for only two to four of the more than 40 food animals on their menu. Mothers teach their pups to forage, and pups learn to hunt the same prey as their mothers. Some scientists think this may let more otters share the same habitat, because different otter families are hunting different types of prey.

What habitats do sea otters prefer?

Sea otters find prey along rocky shores, on sandy seafloors and in coastal wetlands. In California, sea otters are closely associated with the kelp forest. Many kinds of prey live on and among the kelp, and the otters often wrap themselves in kelp strands to stay close to their favorite feeding grounds when resting.

Sea otters actually help the kelp forest to thrive by eating sea urchins. In southern California, where sea otters have not made a comeback, sea urchins can get so numerous that they nibble the kelp forest down to stubs. In northern California, sea urchins and other invertebrates, such as limpets and snails, which consume kelp, are all kept in check by the otters.

What's the gestation period for sea otters?

The gestation period for a sea otter is about six months. The female otter is able to delay implantation of the fertile egg for several weeks. Some scientists suggest that this may help ensure that the pups are born when food is plentiful. The exact mechanism that controls implantation is not known.

Where can I get more information about sea otters?

Our Sea Otters exhibit section and Sea Otters Research and Conservation (SORAC) section have more information on sea otters and what you can do to help them survive.

Where do sea otters live?

Sea otters once ranged along the rim of the Northern Pacific, from Japan across the Arctic and down to Baja California. The population numbered between 150,000 to 300,000 animals. But fur traders seeking their lush pelts hunted the otters nearly to extinction in the 1700s and 1800s.

Today, there are small populations of sea otters along the coasts of Russia, Alaska and central California.

Seafood Watch Program

General

Are there seafood guides available in other languages and other countries?

The Seafood Watch program currently has pocket guides for Hawaii, West Coast, Midwest, Southeast and Northeast regions of the U.S. These guides reflect those items most commonly found in the marketplace both at a regional and national scale. The West Coast pocket guide is also available in Spanish. Download a Seafood Watch Pocket Guide.

Seafood Watch is part of the Seafood Choices Alliance where we work collaboratively with other seafood campaigns both in the U.S. and abroad. For more information on other sustainable seafood initiatives, visit our Seafood Resources web page.

Do you work with the restaurant and retail community directly?

Seafood Watch has developed an educational program for restaurants and retailers. Visit our Restaurants and Retailers section for more information.

How can I get involved with my local restaurants and retailers? What can I do?

Get involved by spreading the word about sustainable seafood choices. Use our online order form to sign up for an electronic Seafood Watch newsletter to stay up-to-date on our seafood recommendations and to request Seafood Watch pocket guides to distribute to friends, family and local businesses. You can also refer businesses to our Restaurants and Retailers section for information on how they can get involved.

How do I know where my seafood is coming from?

As a consumer, it's often difficult to know where seafood is coming from when you are faced with all the options at your local supermarket or local restaurant. That’s why it’s important to use the seafood guides as you make your purchasing decision. As of April 4, 2004, supermarkets are required to label unprocessed seafood as to where it is from and whether it is farm-raised or wild-caught. If such information is not available in a store or on a restaurant menu, we recommend that you ask the following questions:

Do you know where this seafood comes from?
Do you know if it’s farmed or wild caught?
If it’s wild, how was it caught?

If they’re not sure, we recommend you choose something else. You might also consider explaining that this information is important to you as a consumer. Your opinion matters to these businesses because you’re their bottom line.

How often do you update the seafood guides?

Our printed pocket guides are updated twice per year, once in the winter and again in the summer. The seafood recommendations on the web site are updated continuously as new information becomes available.

What do green, yellow and red mean?

After looking at the different issues, Seafood Watch researchers assess the fishery or fish farming operation by running the information we have collected through our criteria for sustainability. Each seafood item then receives a recommendation, either green, yellow or red.

Green means Best Choice
These are your best seafood choices. These fish are abundant, well managed and fished or farmed in environmentally friendly ways.

Yellow means Good Alternative
These are good alternatives to the best choices column. However, there are some concerns with how they're fished or farmed—or with the health of their habitats due to other human impacts.

Red means Avoid
Avoid these products, at least for now. These fish come from sources that are overfished and/or fished or farmed in ways that harm other marine life or the environment.

What’s "sustainable seafood?"

Sustainable seafood is from sources, either fished or farmed, that can maintain or increase production into the long-term without jeopardizing the affected ecosystems.

Some of the key issues that help us to evaluate whether a fishery is sustainable include:
1. Inherent vulnerability of the species to fishing pressure
2. Status of the species population
3. Nature and extent of bycatch
4. Effect of fishing practices on habitats and ecosystems
5. Effectiveness of the fishery management

Some of the key issues used to evaluate fish farming include:
1. Use of marine resources in fish feed
2. Risk and impacts of escaped farmed fish to wild fish
3. Risk and impacts of disease and parasite transfer to wild fish
4. Risk and impacts of pollution and other impacts on habitats and ecosystems
5. Effectiveness of the fishery management

Visit our About Us section to download the process by which we evaluate seafood and our full criteria for fisheries and aquaculture (fish farming).

Where can I get more information about sustainable seafood and Seafood Watch?

Our Seafood Watch web site has more information on how to make sustainable seafood choices that are good for you and the oceans.

Why are some farmed fish okay and others are not?

Some of the most popular types of seafood can be farm-raised in addition to being caught in the wild, including salmon and shrimp. Other seafood items are almost exclusively farmed, such as tilapia and catfish. Some types of fish farming, also referred to as aquaculture, have more impact on the environment than others. This depends in part on what type of fish is being farmed, what type of farming method is being used and where the farm is located.

Visit our About Us section to download the criteria by which we evaluate farmed seafood. To learn more about fish farming, visit our Issues section. For a more descriptive explanation of each farming method, please visit our How Fish are Caught or Farmed page.

Why do seafood choices matter?

The choices we make as consumers drive the seafood marketplace. Your purchasing power can make a difference by supporting those fisheries and fish farms that are better for the environment, while at the same time relieving pressure on others that are not doing as well. With more than 75% of the world's fisheries either fully fished or overfished, these issues are more important than ever. By using the seafood guide for your region you’re making choices based on the best available information and supporting environmentally friendly fisheries and aquaculture operations.

Health

Do you include information about health benefits or toxins in seafood?

The human health effects of consuming seafood is a very important issue; however, we do not feel qualified to make medical recommendations beyond what is advised by the federal government. Currently on our pocket guides, we include a red asterisk next to those species listed in a federal advisory from the United States Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency. The guides also include health consumption information from Environmental Defense Fund.

There are several agencies and organizations at the tribal, state and federal level that also provide consumption advisories, health risk assessments and information about environmental sources for these contaminants. For a list of further resources, please see our Seafood and Public Health resources section.

Salmon

Where can I find sustainable sources for salmon?

The Alaskan salmon fishery is faring better than any other state salmon fisheries—they have fewer salmon runs listed as at risk for extinction. There’s less human impact in Alaska from dams and pollution, and fishery managers also make rapid in-season adjustments to fishing quotas by capping the number of boats allowed to participate in the fishery and regulating fishing gear and methods. All of these factors contribute to the Marine Stewardship Council's sustainable certification of the Alaskan wild salmon fishery and the Seafood Watch Program's listing it as a best choice.

Salmon fisheries in Oregon, Washington and California are also well managed and rely on a number of different rivers. Some of these salmon populations are considered healthy, but due to human impacts such as damming, pollution and development of their native river habitats, many are not. Though current management for salmon is flexible and effective, these factors impact their ability to thrive in the wild.

Since there is no way to know if the salmon you’re about to purchase was caught from a healthy run or an endangered run, Seafood Watch ranks wild-caught salmon from Oregon, Washington, and California as yellow, a good alternative. If you’re purchasing canned salmon, be sure to check the label carefully. All Alaskan salmon is wild, so it's a best choice. Salmon from British Columbia (Canada) and Washington state may be farmed. Wild Alaskan salmon is available all year long, while Oregon, Washington and California salmon is available fresh predominately May through September.

For information about where to find wild-caught salmon in the marketplace, please visit our Sustainable Seafood Sources section.

Why is farmed salmon on the "Avoid" list?

Currently, farmed salmon are raised in coastal net pens, where they’re in direct contact with the surrounding marine environment. This open access results in at least five distinct problems when farming salmon, that often aren’t native to the area:

When farmed salmon escape from ocean pens, they threaten wild salmon and other fish by competing with them for food and spawning grounds.
Waste from most salmon farms is released directly into the ocean.
Parasites and diseases from farmed salmon can spread to wild fish swimming near the farms.
Salmon farmers may use pesticides and antibiotics to control outbreaks of disease among the fish. When consumers eat this fish, the residues from the chemicals may affect their health or interfere with medicines they’re taking.
It takes three pounds of wild fish to grow one pound of farmed salmon. As a result, farming salmon actually uses more fish than it produces, which puts more pressure on wild populations.

Shrimp

Where can I find sustainable sources for shrimp?

Like most seafood, shrimp are fished using several different kinds of gear. Trap-caught shrimp are your best choice since this fishing gear has low bycatch of other marine life. This fishery is seasonal, making it difficult to rely on this source year-round. Nearly half of the shrimp we consume are caught using bottom trawl nets, a fishing method that on average catches four to five pounds of other marine life for every pound of shrimp caught. A bycatch reduction device called the Nordmore grate is used by fishermen in the U.S. and Europe to allow larger fish to rise up out of the net through an open panel. In warmer waters of the U.S., where fishermen frequently interact with endangered sea turtles, Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) are required. The use of TEDs is also required for shrimp that’s imported into the U.S. However, it’s difficult to monitor and enforce the use of TEDs by other nations.

A lot of the shrimp available in the market is also farmed and imported from developing nations. Farms that occur along the coast in many tropical nations have adverse impacts on the environment, including the destruction of mangrove forests, salt marshes and flatlands. Many farms also release their untreated wastewater into the coastal environment, leading to pollution and disease. Included in these effluent waters are high concentrations of antibiotics and other chemicals used to raise the shrimp. The impact of these chemicals is largely unknown, although pollution of the fresh water supply has resulted in many farms being abandoned and moved to new sites to start the process anew. Shrimp ponds are most common in developing countries where enforcement of water quality or mangrove protection regulations (if present) is loose. In the U.S., water quality is better monitored and shrimp farmers are developing methods to reduce the need for chemicals.

Seafood Watch recommends consumers avoid imported farmed and trawl-caught shrimp. Trap-caught shrimp is a best choice while farmed or trawl-caught shrimp from the United States are good alternatives.

For information about where to find sustainable shrimp in the marketplace, please visit our Sustainable Seafood Sources section.

Tuna

What about "Dolphin Safe" tuna?

Large, mature yellowfin in the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean school together with dolphin pods. In the 1950s, fishermen discovered they could catch these yellowfin by setting their nets around the pods of dolphins. In the 1980s, when this became more widely publicized, fishermen changed their practices due to consumer pressure and began using large pieces of wood or other devices shaped like dolphins to lure tunas into their nets. Because there is still so much bycatch using these devices, many conservationists and fishermen feel this method of fishing for tuna is not the solution.

In 1990, the Dolphin Protection Consumer Information Act (DPCIA) prohibited labeling tuna cans "dolphin safe" if the tuna is harvested using methods harmful to dolphins. In a separate agreement called the Panama Declaration several Latin American nations agreed to hold the total annual dolphin mortality below 5,000 in exchange for the amendment of this U.S. dolphin-safe standard. The amendment allows fishermen to set nets on dolphins to catch larger, mature tuna that school under dolphins, and then back down the net to let the dolphins jump over and escape.

While this back-down technique appeared to be a viable solution, more recent research has shown this activity causes undue stress to dolphins that may affect their long-term survival. On average, a northeastern spinner dolphin is chased 11 times per year and caught three of those times. The research revealed some dolphins found dead in the nets died of heart lesions consistent with overexertion—other animals showed evidence of healed heart and muscle lesions, suggesting that heart and muscle damage is routine. Stress may suppress their immune function and reproductive fertility and cause some pregnant dolphins to abort their fetuses. In addition, any chase lasting more than 30 minutes results in dolphin calves becoming separated from their mothers, an experience most calves can't survive. Researchers concluded that the impact to dolphins is greater than first thought, a situation that requires more research. However, authorities amended the dolphin-safe standard to allow the use of the back-down technique if no dolphins were killed.

It’s important to note that while the dolphin-safe label has improved the impact of the fishery on dolphins, they’re not completely out of harm’s way. This is why even tuna labeled "dolphin-safe" is a good alternative but not a best choice. Canned tuna that’s troll or hook-and-line caught is a best choice.

For a list of sustainable tuna sources, please visit our Sustainable Seafood Sources section.

Where can I find sustainable sources for tuna?

Yellowfin and skipjack make up the bulk of canned tuna products and the vast majority of the world's total tuna catch. Bigeye and tongol tuna may also be canned. In the U.S., canned albacore, also known as “white” tuna, is also very popular. Yellowfin and skipjack are labeled "chunk light" tuna on cans. Smaller amounts of fresh albacore and yellowfin are also available fresh, frozen or as sashimi. Tuna is caught and canned by many different countries, so labeling on the can or brand names is not always useful when trying to differentiate how or where it was caught. Consumers can inquire as to how the tuna was caught by writing, calling or emailing the companies and directing them to learn more about sustainable seafood by visiting the Seafood Watch web site.

Skipjack and yellowfin destined for the can are predominately caught using purse seine nets. Purse seine nets work by encircling a school of fish and pulling up on the bottom of the net to cinch it closed like a purse-string. The bag is then raised up onto or near the boat, where the catch is sorted. This method is very successful at catching large schools of fish but often times other animals that were not the target of the fishing trip are caught and wasted. The unintentional catch of animals often includes small tunas, mahi mahi, triggerfish, wahoo, sharks, billfish and other small fish. Occasionally, these sets attract sea turtles though they’re usually released in fair condition. For both canned and fresh tuna, we recommend troll or hook-and-line caught as a best choice.

For a list of sustainable tuna sources, please visit our Sustainable Seafood Sources section.

Shark

Are some kinds of sharks on the edge of extinction?

Most kinds of sharks, including the white, are under heavy fishing pressure. People hunt sharks for their meat and for their fins (used to make shark fin soup). Charismatic sharks like white sharks are the target of trophy hunters. Many sharks also die as wasted catch, caught by mistake in nets or lines set for other kinds of fish. Because most sharks have only a few young per year, they can't reproduce fast enough to keep up with so much fishing. Populations of many kinds of shark have declined drastically in recent years.

Of the 350-plus species of sharks worldwide, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature lists over 75 as imperiled, ranging from “critically endangered” to “near threatened.” White sharks are also protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). However, while over 100 nations fish for sharks, just a handful have adopted regulations to protect them. Because of this, the Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program recommends that consumers avoid eating all sharks.

You can learn more about white shark research and conservation on our web site.

Are white sharks threatened?

Yes, they’re considered a threatened species, and their numbers have declined greatly in recent decades. They're protected in many places where they occur, including California, Australia and South Africa. They're slow growing, late to reach sexual maturity, and they produce relatively few offspring. This makes them highly vulnerable to exploitation. They're killed accidentally in fishing gear and are targeted by trophy hunters. As a result of this trophy hunting, they’re now protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

Can sharks hear?

Sharks and other cartilaginous fishes are able to hear sounds in the water. They hear best in low frequency ranges below 1,000 Hz, the range of most of the natural sounds under water. No cartilaginous fishes are known to produce sound, as is the case in many bony fishes. A shark's lateral line system, like that in other fishes, can detect nearby mechanical vibrations and sounds, as well.

Can sharks sense electrical currents?

Yes, scientists have found that sharks have the keenest electric sense yet discovered. Sharks have a system of electroreceptors—special sense organs located in tiny pits in the shark's skin on the head and lower jaw. These electroreceptors can detect electrical currents and changes in their intensity—as small as thirteen-billionths of a volt per inch. Since all living creatures produce a weak electrical field, the electric sense can help sharks locate prey.

How do deep-sea sharks see in the dark?

There is some light in the deep sea, where many animals are bioluminescent

. But most deep-sea sharks don't see well and probably rely heavily on their other senses: smell, vibration and electroreception.

The exception is the deep-sea catshark. Catsharks are well adapted for seeing in dim light. They have big, well-developed eyes with large numbers of light-gathering cells. In addition, in the back of their eyes, catsharks have a reflective surface, called a tapetum lucidum, which helps concentrate dim light. Catsharks, unlike other sharks, can also adjust the size of their pupil.

Catsharks get their name from the similarities between their eyes and the eyes of cats, which hunt in the dark on land.

How do sharks reproduce?

Unlike most fishes, sharks have internal fertilization. Males have claspers (modified fins) to transfer sperm into females. The majority of sharks give birth to live young, but some species lay eggs in leathery cases. Sharks that give birth to live young include the leopard shark, blue shark and white shark. Egg-laying sharks include the catshark and the swell and horn sharks. Baby sharks grow in their egg cases, nourished by yolk for several months before hatching. Depending on water temperature, they can take a year or longer to hatch.

How large do white sharks get?

The longest white sharks accurately measured range from 19 to 23 feet (5.8 to 7 m). A 21-foot (6.4 m) white shark was estimated at 7,000 pounds (3,175 kg). White sharks eat fishes until they reach large size, and then they switch to seals, sea lions and other marine mammals while continuing to eat some fishes. No one knows how long white sharks live, but 20 years may well be a conservative estimate.

Is a shark a fish?

Yes. There are three kinds of fishes alive today—the primitive jawless fishes (hagfishes and lampreys), the cartilaginous fishes (sharks, skates and rays) and the bony fishes, which include most of the living species of fishes.

Sharks evolved from fishes with bony skeletons, but now sharks have skeletons made of cartilage (the same material as the tips of our noses). Lacking swim bladders, which most bony fishes use to regulate buoyancy, sharks may have lost bone as one means of achieving more neutral buoyancy. Instead of a swim bladder, sharks have large, oil-filled livers that give them buoyancy.

Because they have cartilaginous skeletons, sharks do not fossilize well—except for their teeth. Sharks shed their teeth throughout their lives, so fossil shark teeth are common in some places. People collect a lot of fossil shark teeth near Scotts Valley, California; Bakersfield, California; and Venice, Florida.

What are the most common sharks in Monterey Bay?

Leopard sharks, blue sharks and spiny dogfish sharksare the most common shark species here.

Leopard sharks are usually found in shallow bays along the California coast, often as shallow as 12 feet (3.6 m). Blue sharks are here seasonally and are abundant near the surface in the summer.

Prickly sharks come to the head of the Monterey Canyon in the spring and summer, but aren't abundant. Catsharksare found in the deep waters of the Monterey Canyon, as are sixgill sharks.

What sharks do you keep at the Aquarium?

The Aquarium has many shark species on display—from the slender soupfin shark to the abundant leopard shark. You can use our shark spotting guide to find out more about some of the species we have on exhibit and where to find them during your visit.

Where are the most white shark attacks in this country?

The triangle drawn from Monterey to Tomales Bay to the Farallon Islands and back is sometimes referred to as the "red triangle." This is a hot spot for white sharks, particularly from Tomales Point to the Farallons. Researchers working on the Farallons see a white shark eat a northern elephant seal about once every three days when the seals are abundant on the islands.

Where can I get more information about sharks?

Our Sharks: Myth and Mystery section and Outer Bay section have more information on sharks and what you can do to help them survive.

Which shark is the largest?

The largest shark is the whale shark, which can grow to about 55 feet (16.8 m). Whale sharks live in shallow water in the tropics and near-tropics around the world. These giant sharks swim close to the surface, and open their mouths wide to feed. The largest shark in the world feeds mostly on microscopic plankton—primarily small, shrimplike crustaceans called copepods—which it filters out of the water. Occasionally, small fishes may be taken in as well. Feeding whale sharks look a lot like huge vacuum cleaners swimming along just below the surface.

Why do hammerhead sharks have broad heads?

Scientists think that having their nostrils separated helps hammerheads to better follow the direction of a scent trail. A hammerhead can detect a slight change in the concentration of a scent between the two nostrils, which helps them map any changes in direction of their prey. And their eyes sit out on the ends of their head, giving them extremely good binocular vision.

In addition, most sharks use the underside of the head, as well as the pectoral fins, to help them "fly" through the water. It's possible that the broadened head also provides additional lift.

Whale and Dolphin

Can whales see under water?

Yes. Whales and dolphins have eyes on each side of the head, as do fishes. The eyes work independently, so the whale sees both sides at one time. For finding food, some cetaceans may rely more on their echolocation or sonar

than their eyes.

Do whales have their young in a specific season?

It's common among whales that they migrate to warm waters to give birth. In December and January, gray whales migrate to Baja California, and humpback whales migrate to Mexico or Hawaii. For killer whales that live in Puget Sound, however, births occur throughout the year with no particular breeding season.

Do whales nurse their young?

Yes. Cetaceans

have internalized their mammary glands and the nipples reside inside mammary slits, one on either side of the genital slit. The nipples are exposed by reflex when the calf nuzzles the mother. Whale milk is much richer than cow's milk, and is about the consistency of cottage cheese. It's about 50% fat, 12% protein and 2% sugar. Because the milk is so rich and thick, it can be squirted from the everted nipple of the mother into the mouth of the calf without much loss by dilution in the surrounding sea water. Whales, dolphins and porpoises all nurse their young this way.

Do whales sleep?

In a way—they become quiescent, which is a resting state much like sleep. Whales and dolphins are thought to sleep with half the brain at a time, and are often observed, during quiescent periods, with just one eye open.

A resting whale breathes by reflex, bobbing slowly up and down in the water to take periodic breaths. Since the whale isn't moving much, it doesn't need to breathe very often as it rests.

Do whale-watching boats harm whales?

The Marine Mammal Protection Act forbids whale-watching boats from cutting off the path of a whale, following too closely, or in any other way changing the whale's travel path or behavior. Commercial whale-watching boat captains are very responsible in this regard. They even report private boats when they get closer than the prescribed distances, and the authorities follow up on those reports.

How can a whale stay under water for so long?

These deep-diving mammals have numerous adaptations that enable them to extend their breath-holding time and to avoid the diving maladies (the bends

and nitrogen narcosis) that plague human divers. The important factor in avoiding the effects of pressure is that the lungs of deep-diving mammals are able to collapse completely. All the air is then compressed into the large air ducts and nasal passages, where no additional gas exchange takes place with the blood. This explains how they avoid the bends and narcosis—no excess gas enters the blood during the dive.

How deep can a whale dive?

Sperm whales hold the depth and time records for whales (so far as we know). They are known to dive deeper than one mile, and can stay down more than an hour.

How do sperm whales find food?

Sperm whales are masters of echolocation or sonar

, and likely find their deep-sea squid prey not with their tiny eyes, but with reflected sound waves. Once squid are located deep in the dark, how does a lumbering whale shaped like a boxcar chase down and capture jet-propelled squid? One theory is that they focus and concentrate powerful sound waves that are emitted from the midpoint of the whale's upper lip—sound so powerful that it can "sonicate" and paralyze a squid from a distance of at least a few feet. Once paralyzed, the squid fall easy prey to the whale.

How does whale sonar work?

Sonar

starts when the animal sends out bursts of sound waves. The sound waves bounce off objects in the water, including fishes, schools of krill

, boats or other whales. The bouncing sound waves return to the whale as echoes.

The whale listens for these echoes with a highly developed reception system, which goes beyond the ears to include special adaptations of the head and jawbone. A whale may be "feeling" the echoes as they bounce back, more than hearing them. However it feels to the whale, the echolocation sense is very accurate—whales and dolphins can navigate and find food in dark or murky water, or even if blindfolded.

How fast can whales and dolphins swim?

Toothed whales and dolphins can swim as fast as about 35 miles (56 kilometers) per hour in bursts. Most baleen whales swim between two and four miles per hour when cruising. They may reach speeds four times that for short distances. A humpback whale is known to have covered 2,500 miles (4,023 kilometers) in 39 days. That's an average speed of 2.7 miles (4.3 kilometers) per hour.

How many species of whales and dolphins are there?

There are 76 species of whales in the world. They're divided into two main groups: the toothed whales and the baleen whales. The 66 species of toothed whales include sperm whales, orcas, dolphins, porpoises and beaked whales—all use sharp, pointed teeth to catch fishes and other large prey.

The 10 species of baleen whales include blue whales, humpback whales and gray whales—all have mouths with baleen fringes instead of teeth, which they use to strain tiny prey out of huge mouthfuls of water or mud.

The baleen whales that enter Monterey Bay include gray whales, blue whales and humpback whales. As for toothed whales, we often see orcas, dolphins, porpoises and sperm whales.

What do gray whales eat?

They slurp up crustaceans and worms that live in mud and silt on the ocean floor. Gray whales typically feed in the rich cold waters of the Bering and Chukchi Seas. Video of gray whales feeding indicates that they stay in one place, creating a shallow pit in the ocean floor as they filter silt through their baleen and swallow the animals they strain out.

What do orcas eat?

They hunt fishes and sea mammals. Because orcas hunt in a pack, they can bring down the largest sharks and sea mammals. Orcas in the Puget Sound area eat a good deal of salmon and a few seals and sea lions. The transient groups that move through Monterey Bay from time to time probably eat more seals and sea lions, as well as the occasional gray whale calf. Orcas were seen feeding on a 25-foot (7.6 meter) whale shark in the Sea of Cortez. It's thought that orcas eat from 5% to 10% of their body weight daily.

What is an orca?

Orcas, also called killer whales, are the largest member of the dolphin family. They're intelligent predators that live in family groups, called pods, of up to two dozen animals. Orca pods are much like wolf packs—pod members care for each other, protect the young and hunt together as a well-coordinated team.

Orcas are fast—they can put on bursts of speed in excess of 40 miles (63 kilometers) per hour.

Orcas are thought to live between 50 and 80 years. They can be reproductively active all year 'round. A newborn pup weighs between 100 and 200 pounds (45-90 kilograms). Males are larger than females, and the mature males have a taller dorsal fin. Male killer whales may weigh as much as nine tons (8.2 metric tons), while females may weigh up to 4.5 tons (4.1 metric tons).

What is baleen?

It's a tough, flexible material, made of keratin protein (the same as a cow's horn or your fingernails). Baleen grows in feathery fringes from a baleen whale's upper jaw. Baleen whales use these fringes to strain vast amounts of sea water, catching shrimplike krill

and small fishes. Though this prey is small, there's a lot of it—enough to let baleen whales grow into the largest creatures on Earth.

When can I see gray whales in Monterey Bay?

Gray whales make the longest migration of any mammal—each year, they travel from feeding grounds near Alaska to lagoons in Baja California, where their calves are born. The California gray whales begin passing here in late December on their way south. The earliest migrators are the pregnant females.

The southward migration continues past Monterey until early February. Then there is a lull during which a few animals may still be going south, while others are beginning to go back north. From mid-February through April, the flow will be back to the north, with a few stragglers passing Monterey in May or June.

Where can I get more information about whales, dolphins and other marine mammals?

Our Life on the Bay section has more information on whales, dolphins and other marine mammals.

Which whale is the largest?

Blue whales are the largest known animals that have ever lived—larger than the biggest dinosaurs. They may grow to 110 feet (32.5 m) in length and weigh up to 150 tons (136 metric tons). A large blue whale is about as big around as a large minivan—except when it takes a huge mouthful of water to feed on shrimplike krill

. Then pleats (folds) in its throat allow the floor of its mouth to expand, and the whale may approach school-bus size! Blue whales migrate to rich sources of krill, which they filter out of the water with their baleen

plates. Here in Monterey Bay we see them most often in September and October as they make their way south, probably to Mexico, to spend the winter.

Why do baleen whales have two blowholes and toothed whales have only one?

Scientists aren't sure. One theory behind this difference between the two types of whales is related to their use of echolocation—using sound waves to find their food and sense the environment around them. Toothed whales tend to rely heavily on echolocation, while that ability in baleen whales is poorly developed. It is thought that the air passageways in toothed whales have been altered over time to allow for better sound production for purposes of echolocation. One of the results from this change in the air passageways is the reduction from two blowholes to one.

Why do humpback whales sing?

Only lone males do the singing. Each humpback whale has his own song, which changes from one year to the next. No one knows for certain what the songs mean, but it is guessed that they may be attracting mates or maintaining territorial distances by advertising themselves to other males.

We don't hear humpbacks singing in Monterey Bay. The humpback whales we see here belong to the north Pacific population, which do their singing when they're wintering near Mexico or Central America. (An occasional Monterey Bay humpback may go to Hawaii in the winter, but scientists think this is infrequent.)

Why do whales beach themselves?

No one really knows, yet. Some theories are that a whale may beach itself when it is heavily parasitized, or diseased, and too tired to hold itself at the surface to breathe. Or parasites may affect the balance organs of the inner ear, and the whale gets confused and beaches itself by accident.

The whales that most commonly beach themselves (sperm whales and pilot whales) are toothed whales that swim in large groups with a very formal, complex social structure. These species rarely venture off as single individuals and show great loyalty to group members that are in trouble.

One hypothesis concerning mass stranding is that the lead whale becomes ill or confused, swims ashore and is followed by the rest of the group.

Why do whales swim by moving their tails up and down, instead of side-to-side like a fish?

The ancestors of sea mammals were land mammals. Because air is a very thin medium that does not help support the body, land mammals evolved strong bones and muscles to support themselves against the constant downward pull of gravity.

For that reason, all mammals have muscles and bone arrangements that produce strong support and motion in the vertical (up-and-down) plane. These "up-and-down" muscles are much stronger and better developed than those that operate in a horizontal (side-to-side) plane.

This means that the land ancestors of whales and dolphins passed on a body musculature best suited for strong vertical motions rather than strong side-to-side motions. It is the vertical motion of the tip of the tail that has developed into the strong swimming motions of the whales, dolphins and porpoises.

White Shark Research Project

How are the white sharks tagged?

We use a “pop-up satellite archival tag.” It's attached externally to a shark, where it collects data on temperature, depth and light (used to estimate position) and stores it in a tiny computer. On a pre-programmed date, the tag is released from the shark, and it floats to the surface. The data are then sent via satellite back to the laboratory, where they can be analyzed. Some tags wash ashore, and their data are recovered when the tags are found and returned by beachcombers. We are also considering the use of "smart position-only tags" (SPOTs) that provide near-real-time information about where the sharks go.

How does this tagging project help white sharks?

Juvenile sharks are caught accidentally in commercial and sport fishing gear. Whatever we learn about their movement patterns can play a role in developing management strategies to further protect them. By learning what habitats juvenile white sharks use, and the distances over which they roam, resource managers will better understand the risks white sharks face and be able to conserve these rare animals more effectively.

How will you collect white sharks?

We’ll rely on commercial fishing boats in southern California, which occasionally catch juvenile white sharks accidentally while fishing for other species. We've asked crews to contact us if they capture a young white shark that's alive and healthy. Aquarium staff will have a rapid response team on location to recover the animal and transport it to our ocean pen anchored off southern California.

How will you know if a white shark is healthy and not suffering from stress?

One of the best indicators of how an animal is feeling is its feeding behavior. If an animal is ill or stressed, it will typically stop eating. We’ll be watching carefully to see how often and how much the white shark eats, and make sure that we can respond immediately if there are any signs of problems. We also look at swimming patterns, calm tail beating and overall physical appearance.

What about your tagging project? What do you hope to learn from tagging sharks?

Working with Stanford University scientists, through our collaboration in the Tuna Research and Conservation Center (TRCC), and with other research partners, we hope to learn more about the lives of juvenile white sharks in the wild. We want to learn where they go and what they do. Basically, we want to gain insights into how they fit into the ocean ecosystem in the first year or so of their lives.

What have you learned so far from the tagging project?

We’ve found that the juvenile white sharks we tagged tended to remain in the coastal zone, although some traveled more extensively than others over the one to two months they were tracked. Juvenile white sharks traveled from Southern California to halfway down the Baja Peninsula, thus inhabiting both U.S. and Mexican waters. They spent most of their time in shallow waters but also revealed the ability to make 1,000-foot dives. We hope to learn more by configuring tags to collect data over longer periods of time. We'd like to learn whether their behavior changes from season to season.

What is the Aquarium’s white shark research project?

It’s a multi-year study of young white sharks off Southern California that we began in 2002. Originally, the project had two goals: to better understand the biology of these threatened ocean predators through electronic tagging; and to determine, systematically, whether it was possible for us to keep and display a young white shark. Since we were successful in exhibiting a white shark for six months, the project is now focused on tracking young-of-the-year white sharks (white sharks less than one year old) in the wild as well as refining our techniques for keeping and displaying young white sharks at the Aquarium. We’re collaborating with several research partners and believe that tagging and displaying white sharks contribute significantly to public understanding and protection of these maligned animals—an ecologically important and increasingly threatened species.

What will you do if a white shark doesn't eat? Will you release it? Where?

If we find that a shark is not eating, but otherwise appears to be in good health, we’ll release it back in the region from which it was originally captured—even if that means transporting it from Monterey back to southern California. If a shark appears to be sick or injured, and is unlikely to survive a return to the wild, it would be humanely euthanized and a necropsy performed so we could learn as much as possible.

What will you do if you bring a white shark to the Aquarium and it gets too big?

We’ve faced this problem many times over the years, and we've released animals back to the wild when they outgrew their surroundings. When we’ve been able to tag and track these animals, we’ve found that they continue to thrive in the wild, despite their time on exhibit. Data from the archival data tag retrieved from the white shark released to the wild in March 2005 after six months on exhibit showed that she survived and thrived after release. One sevengill shark spent four years at the Aquarium, swam several hundred miles back to its home waters, and survived another two years before she was caught by a sport fisherman.

What will you feed a white shark on exhibit?

We've found that young white sharks on exhibit feed enthusiastically on wild-caught salmon, mackerel and sardines, supplemented with specially formulated vitamins. We also added albacore tuna to the menu and will continue to experiment with diet as opportunities arise. Juvenile white sharks are fish eaters, only switching to marine mammals when attaining a larger size with increasing needs for an energy-rich diet from the mammals' blubber.

What’s different from other attempts to put white sharks on display?

We succeeded where others failed because most past attempts by aquariums involved capturing a white shark and putting it directly on display. We took a more cautious and methodical approach, developed in collaboration with shark experts and aquarium colleagues from around the world over a three-year period. Our demonstrated success involved working with a white shark in an ocean pen before gradually proceeding, step-by-step, toward putting it on display. If at any point in the process it appeared that the shark wasn’t doing well, we were ready to release it back to the wild.

Where can I get more information about white sharks?

Our White Shark Research section has more information and updates about the research project as well as white shark biology.

Where do you keep the white shark at the Aquarium?

Any white shark that we display is placed in our million-gallon Outer Bay exhibit, which was designed to simulate the open ocean environment and engineered with sharks in mind—we dampened as much electrical field created by the life-support equipment interference as possible in the exhibit. In the Outer Bay, an exhibited white shark joins many other open ocean species, including bluefin and yellowfin tunas, bonito, barracuda, sea turtles and other sharks.

Why put a white shark in an ocean pen first?

Using a four-million-gallon ocean pen gives the shark a chance to recover from the stress of being caught in fishing gear. By working with juvenile white sharks in the ocean pen, we can also learn how they adapt to an enclosed space—an important step in evaluating whether it’s possible to bring one to the Aquarium.

Why put a white shark on exhibit at all?

Our mission is to inspire conservation of the oceans. We know that bringing people face-to-face with living marine animals is a powerful way to move them to care about the oceans and ocean life. White sharks are among the most maligned animals on Earth, and one of many shark species worldwide threatened by human activities. In fact, they’re protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). We believe there's no better way for us to raise awareness about the threats white sharks face than to let people see for themselves what magnificent and fascinating animals they are; tell the story of the threats they face in the wild; and offer ways to take action that will protect them. When we had a white shark on exhibit in 2004-05, nearly a million people saw her in person—and took home important conservation messages about sharks. In 2006-07, our shark was seen by nearly 600,000 people, and in 2007-2008 by more than 650,000 people.

Will a white shark eat other animals on exhibit?

Although these incidents are not unprecedented in the Aquarium, they are rare, and we try to keep them to a minimum—primarily by ensuring that the animals in our care are all well fed.

Inspiring Conservation of the Oceans

www.montereybayaquarium.org
886 Cannery Row | Monterey, California 93940
Open every day except Dec. 25
Regular hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
Winter: 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Summer/holidays: 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m.
Summer weekends: 9:30 a.m.-8 p.m.
More information: (831) 648-4800