Monetary Bay is basically a bay situated in the Pacific Ocean; it can be seen at California’s cost. Geographically the bay is located at the southern part of San Jose and San Francisco, the popular city of Santa Cruz is also located at the bay’s northern end. There are a lot of tourist sites across the bay and many people belonging to different countries of the world who come to visit United States of America come at this place to relax themselves.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium is also abbreviated as MBA is basically an aquarium of public nature located primarily in Monterey (California, USA). The aquarium was established in the year 1984, about two million tourists visit the aquarium annually which is of course a huge number, and it also highlights the fact that the Monterey Bay Aquarium is popular all over the world and is a recognized tourist site. The aquarium consists of about 600 species of different animals and plants. The animals and plants are given utmost care through fresh ocean water which is transferred through pipes into the aquarium.
The aquarium is equipped with sea life which includes popular fish like jellyfish, stingrays and sea otters etc., many other marine species are also their which a visitor can view both from below and above the line of water, the aquarium is among few which is exhibiting both kinds of tuna i:e yellow fin and Bluefin. Apart from otters no other mammals are being displayed or exhibited in the aquarium.
The design of Monterey Bay Aquarium is fantastic, about 2000 US gallons worth water is being pumped through seawater of monetary Bay in to the aquarium each minute, the water is pumped continuously doesn’t matter whether it is day or night. In order to view clarity, during the day water gets filtered, however at night sea water (Raw) is pumped via displays, which of course brings plankton which serves as a food. The ocean water which gets wasted is transferred back into the monetary bay from the aquarium. The aquarium is designed in such a way that it has become a regular part of the main ocean.
The aquarium’s centerpiece is the kelp forest exhibit which 8.5 meter tall, the unique thing about this exhibit is that it is the first exhibit in the world which is equipped with kelp forest of living nature. The kelp actually needs water continuously and this is facilitated by the surge machine which is actually placed at the top of the exhibit. According to statistics about 80 species of different seaweeds are grown and taken care of at this particular exhibit, an interesting point is that not all of these weeds are being planted purposefully, some of these weeds also got the entry into the aquarium via bay water as well. Width of the main window is 2.4m, the height is 4.9m and thickness is about 7.5 inches.
In the year 1996 the management of the aquarium launched or opened the outer bay wing, this area is equipped with a tank which is considered largest in the whole aquarium, the tank can hold water up to 1200,000 US Gallons. Another important feature of this particular tank is the windows, these windows are considered as one of the world’s largest single pane windows, the windows have been designed by a well-known Japanese company. However the outer bay wing was temporarily closed in 2010, the purpose of closure of renovation, after the renovation the area was again opened in the year 2011, precisely in the month of July. The area was named as open sea galleries.
The fish which actually caught the eye of the tourist in the open sea gallery were the great white sharks. Several great white sharks were placed in this gallery due to which the area got very popular and many visitors started to visit the aquarium just to see these popular shark species in action, sharks normally is also a very attractive creature, presence e of the shark in the aquarium made the place more popular as far as visiting is concerned. Some history related to these great white sharks is as follows
1. The first great white shark was placed in the aquarium or ocean sea galleries in the year 2004 precisely in the month of September, the shark actually stayed in the aquarium for about 198 days breaking the previous record of 16 days. However the aquarium management decided to release the shark on March 31 2005. The reason was that the shark actually killed two other sharks belonging to a different species. Defending the territory is in the nature of the shark, hence the management decided that to make other species secure, it is a good decision to release this particular white shark.
2. Soon after the release of the first shark, a second shark was brought into the aquarium on august 31st, 2006, this particular white shark just like the first one was set free in the year 2007, the exact date was January 16th. Due to intense care given by the aquarium management, the shark actually gained weight which was 171 pounds as compared to 103 pounds when it was brought into the aquarium.
3. The third shark was brought on august 28th 2007 and was later released on February 5th 2008. The white shark released was a young one.
4. The fourth shark was brought into the aquarium was the a female and she was young, the shark was released soon as there was a danger to the life of the shark, it couldn’t adapt to the conditions of the aquarium and was not eating enough, due to this issue the management decided to get the shark released from the aquarium.
All the sharks gave fair bit of entertainment to the people touring the aquarium, sharks especially great white sharks are a popular predator and seeing them in front of the eyes swimming in the aquarium was an entertainment both for adults and young children as well. The white sharks were kept with utmost care in the aquarium and constant medical checkups were also made to keep the health of the sharks in check.
Monterey Bay Aquarium has many other exhibits as well which you as a tourist can surely enjoy, among these other exhibits some popular ones are penguins, the penguin exhibit was opened by the authorities in the year 2000 in the month of March. Similarly on March 30th 2012 a jelly fish exhibit was also opened for the entertainment of the visitors and tourist. In the year 2014 an exhibit named as tentacles was also opened, as the name signifies, the exhibit consisted of octopus, squids and cuttlefish etc.
Monterey Bay Aquarium is managed by professional people, the aquarium is linked with the MBARI which is a research institute. This research institute is located in California. The institute is popular worldwide due to its extensive research in the marine life and other such programs involving biology of marine life. The aquarium provides excellent facilities to the marine species placed there, constant medical checkups of the species are made. The aquarium also ensures that excellent services are provided to the people visiting, they ensure that people visiting the aquarium have a memorable experience of their life.
If you are planning for your summer vacation, then Monterey Bay Aquarium is a perfect place for you to visit. The aquarium is equipped with lot of entertaining stuff; it is a nice place where one can take his or her children and family. Wild life itself is very informative and one never gets bored while visiting suchplaces, all you need to do is by tickets and gets one of the best experiences of your life.
The information about the tickets and different shows happening in the aquarium can be gained by you by calling the aquarium management and nowadays you can also get all the necessary information from the aquarium’s website as well. The website is very well designed and as a visitor you want face any trouble while navigating the site, all the necessary information and updates are very much their on the site.
Apart from the aquarium a visit to monetary bay itself is very exciting the place offers a lot of touring and entertainment stuff. The place is a mixed combination of history, vistas, life of marine and arts as well. one can really relax oneself through golf and shopping as well. As a visitor you must be thinking that which hotel can be best suited for you while visiting Monterey bay, well the answer is casa munras, which is a hotel having a serious history. The hotel is affordable and is well known for its different facilities and services.
You can get all the information regarding the hotel, through their website, the design of the website is user friendly and even if you are a layman you can easily surf the website very easily. You can also call the hotel and discuss your issue with them.