The Monterey bay aquarium stands on the grounds of a former sardine cannery. Due to overfishing, the sardine population collapsed. When I heard about this I thought of the Silicon Valley office parks 50 miles north, engaged in modern extractive exploitation without ever giving back.
The recovery of the bay, the work of the aquarium and the marine national park status has completely changed the environment
Attending a staff-only internal guitar concert in the open sea exhibit this morning
You can watch some live cams here (of the animals, not the concert)
Meeting in the kelp forest (we are closed today for a staff only event)
There really was a guitar concert in front of the sea nettles this morning
An exhibit that shows what a ‘whale fall’ looks like
Slow shutter speed / low light photo of a lump fish
My friends are asking if I’m involved in any of the fun social media and I’m like nope but I love that team and I’m trying to meet all of them
(Monterey Bay is the GOAT: Greatest Ocean of all Time)
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCZ-RrjIwQy/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
The otter people didn’t let me take my phone to the behind the scenes otter feeding, but promised to send me photos after so
#Marine #Mammals #Otters #OttersOfMastodon #OttersOfTheFediverse
At work they got us to head out to connect with the ocean. Honestly can’t believe I get to be here
Also not lost on me that this very beach was yet another Chinese settlement that was destroyed by ‘fire’ in 1906
View from a room where I’m having a 3 day training program
Someone just told me ‘California sheephead transition from female to male, AND conjure a sphere of mucus to protect them when they sleep’
Maybe it shows I spend a lot of time looking at jellyfish but I got in this morning and was like NEW JELLY
@skinnylatte or the ‘poorly poached egg’, as my wife dubbed it. One of my favorites! Though I think the gooseberry comb jelly, and the unnamed one that looks like a red gooseberry are the top of my list.
Some photos of the outside
Many of my days in Monterey kick off here. It’s the coffee spot near work I tend to have breakfast meetings at, and also the mid point stop on my bike ride there.
Some days I feel like I’m in a John Steinbeck novel
Can’t believe I get to see penguins while I’m at work
View from an office window (and I work in one of the ‘boring’ office buildings, not at the main aquarium). They all have pretty good views I think
The kelp forest exhibit says something like ‘you always know it’s a rockfish when it’s just laying there not moving’
Same
Birds before work (I went through a secret door to find some cormorants)
My wife is in town (very rare!) so we took a nice evening stroll from the aquarium to the Sandbar
Bloody-belly comb jelly. Can’t believe I get to see this at work
https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/animals-a-to-z/bloodybelly-comb-jelly
Black necked stilts at our onsite aviary (which rehabilitates and releases injured birds, and keeps those who can’t be released)
The ‘wave crash’ feature at the Monterey Bay Aquarium
@skinnylatte the photo really does not convey how ridiculously big they are.
@b0rk @skinnylatte Yes. It's just so pleasing to see someone having a great and exciting time right now.
