I Never Would Have Imagined

When I was young my family had an annual pass to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and I would attribute some of my interest in scuba diving to my interactions with the marine life there. My favorite thing to do was to lie on the floor of the Open Sea Exhibit (despite my parents’ protests that it was dirty) and look up as the giant tuna swam by. As a child I never would have imagined having the chance to stand on top of that tank, watching the marine life swim below me instead of above me.  

My friend, Emily, is an assistant aquarist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and she took Sky and I on a behind-the-scenes tour last weekend. Our visit began with watching Emily do the broadcast feed for the Open Sea Exhibit. It was beyond cool, to walk in through one of the many locked doors I had definitely tried to open a child and climb the stairs to the top of the tank. The Mahi Mahi were zooming around the surface of the water, the Hammerhead sharks were doing ovals around the back of the tank, the tuna were at a mid depth, swimming amid the fray of the bait ball, and the rays and the white tipped shark were hanging out near the bottom. Occasionally the Mola Mola would appear underneath Sky and I for a swim by. Emily explained this exhibit has a feeding two times per day in which different fish are targeted. There are both slow swimmers and fast swimmers in the tank, and they need to be sure everyone has a chance to eat.       

After the feeding was over, Emily and her fellow aquarists went into turtle mode. The green sea turtles are moved out of the exhibit and into a holding area during feedings because they are pushy and tend to get in the way. They are trained to a mark, which is a yellow and white or red and black buoy, depending on the turtle. Hypothetically, the turtles know to follow their mark, which is how they are led to and from the exhibit. I say hypothetically because turtles do not always follow directions.

After the turtles were successfully relocated and happily munching on lettuce we went down into the drifters lab. Emily covers the Drift Gallery on weekends and is in charge of the gallery when the senior aquarist is gone. In the lab she does jelly culture work as well as algae, nauplii, and rotifer culturing. The lab is a set of rooms with jellies in all stages of life floating in tanks with rounded edges. It also has pipes of bubbling orange and green stuff, which we learned later, is algae. Emily told us jellies do better in tanks with rounded edges because it allows them to stay suspended rather than getting stuck in a corner. The algae are grown because the aquarium makes a point to grow every food source for the marine animals. The idea is you grow nourishing algae, which is then fed to the brine shrimp, which is then fed to the jellies. This helps ensure the health of the animals on exhibit and also makes the aquarium sustainable.

I have always found jellyfish extremely beautiful but never thought of them as the type of animal you would interact with, but Emily treated them like you would a cat. She moved them around with her hands and petted them, despite some of the species stinging her. She said she had been working with them for so long it didn’t bother her anymore, especially on her hands where the skin is tougher. Occasionally though, she said she leaves work with stingers still on her hands, and on the drive home she will touch her face or her eyes and that hurts!

In addition to the responsibilities I mentioned above, Emily is also on the Mola Mola, Turtle, Jellies Experience, and Tentacles teams. I am extremely grateful to her for taking time from her busy schedule to show us around. It was an amazing experience, especially as a diver! If you happen to be one of the lucky ones invited to the aquarium by Emily, I definitely recommend you seize the opportunity!  

Photo by Skylar Merritt