Monterey Bay Aquarium

How does a healthy ocean in balance benefit us all?🌊

🌟If you follow our research, you may remember a story about a disease that is wiping out sea stars along the rocky intertidal zone of the California coast. A new paper in Science Advances by Dr. Joshua Smith, a Monterey Bay Aquarium scientist, demonstrates that loss of a key predator in one ecosystem can cascade across ecosystems to affect another top predator in a neighboring ecosystem.

✨This research reveals a surprising link between coastal ecosystems: the mass die-off of ochre stars is indirectly benefiting sea otters.

⁉️How? The decreasing sea star population led to a surge in mussels, a top prey item for sea otters. With more food available, sea otter numbers grew. This research demonstrates how ecosystems and habitats are fundamentally connected systems—and how changes in one species or ecosystem can have significant ripple effects.

🦦Keystone species like sea otters and sea stars keep ecosystems thriving. Sea otters play a crucial role in maintaining healthy kelp forests by keeping sea urchin populations in check. When otters thrive, kelp forests flourish, providing habitat for countless marine species and boosting biodiversity—creating otterly phenomenal benefits for us all!.

💗Seeing the interconnectedness of ocean ecosystems reminds us that predator diversity is essential for the conservation and resilience of coastal ecosystems.
Illustration ©Monterey Bay Aquarium

Read the paper at: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adu1028

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3 days ago | [YT] | 665

Monterey Bay Aquarium

🐠💻 Got a few minutes? We shore could use your kelp!

We want to make it easier to use our website. Take our short survey (just 10–15 minutes) and let us know what you think.

We appre-sea-ate your feedback!

Take the survey: ows.io/qs/wr6xrr7b

3 days ago | [YT] | 632

Monterey Bay Aquarium

🌊There’s more than one kind of FAD—one’s a trend, the other’s a device that can harm our ocean. But just like trends can spark positive change, innovation is transforming fishing practices too.

🦈 The FAD we’re talking about is a fish aggregating device—floating rafts made of plastic, netting, and rope that attract tuna in the open ocean. While FADs make tuna easier to catch, they also attract sharks, sea turtles, and other marine life, which often get accidentally caught too.

‼️The harm doesn’t stop there. An estimated 80,000 to 120,000 FADs are deployed every year—and many are later lost or abandoned. These FADs risk becoming ghost gear—harming marine life, breaking down into microplastics, and adding to marine pollution.

✨ The good news? Solutions to FAD-driven pollution are in the works—from biodegradable FADs made from bamboo, cotton, and plant-based materials to satellite and drone tech that are helping track and recover lost FADs.

🔍What are WE doing? The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program considers FAD use when assessing tuna fisheries because they often have a lot of bycatch of other marine life. We also check if fisheries work to prevent, reduce, or remove ghost gear.

📢 What can YOU do? Buy from businesses that share where their seafood comes from and commit to sustainability—they’re more likely to sell green- or yellow-rated seafood. If the tuna is caught with FADs, make sure it’s from the eastern Pacific Ocean. Also, choose canned tuna labeled:

✅ pole-and-line-caught or pole-caught
✅ troll-caught
✅ FAD-free or free school

📷 2 and 3: Ocean Conservancy/The Global Ghost Gear Initiative.

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5 days ago | [YT] | 539

Monterey Bay Aquarium

🌱💙 Our volunteers are walking the talk this Earth Month, leading by example with reusable water bottles in hand! They know that life is better without harmful, unnecessary plastic that can end up in our ocean.

🌱💙 Using reusable water bottles is just the beginning for a healthier ocean. Earth Month is the perfect time to roll up your sleeves and get involved. Volunteer in your community, support local cleanups, or use your time and talents to be part of something bigger.

🌱💙 Together, we’re creating waves of change—one refill, one action, one person at a time.

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6 days ago | [YT] | 766

Monterey Bay Aquarium

🌿 Did you know? In the early 1970s, Congress passed three of our most important environmental laws—the National Environmental Protection Act, Clean Air Act, and Endangered Species Act—with overwhelming bipartisan support.

💧 The Clean Water Act faced a tougher path to passage. President Nixon vetoed it—but public support was so strong, Congress overrode the veto the very next day!

🤔 Why did these landmark laws have such strong bipartisan support back then?

🔥In the late ’60s and early ’70s, the environment was in crisis—rivers burned, oil spills made headlines, and smog filled the air. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) had helped spark a national movement, and public pressure pushed lawmakers from both parties to act, protecting our air, water, and wildlife.

🌎 Today, we’re facing a new kind of crisis—these and other essential environmental laws that for decades have protected our health, communities, and wildlife are under attack.

📢 But if this history teaches us anything, it’s this: our voices are our power—and when we speak up together, we can have an impact!

✊ Now, more than ever, your voice is needed! This Earth Month, join us in urging Congress to protect our essential environmental laws! Take action today at mbayaq.co/3GyrIBK

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 1,042

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Think community actions can’t make waves? Local efforts are powerful forces to protect our ocean and fight climate change!

💡One example: Central Coast Community Energy. Fueled by public demand, local governments on California’s Central Coast launched this public utility in 2017 to bring clean, renewable energy to our region, helping reduce emissions and combat climate change.

🤝And yes—we proudly teamed up with our community to support its creation. In 2018, we switched to 100 percent wind and solar power, supplied by Central Coast Community Energy.

🌎Real climate action can happen when communities come together—with shared purpose and local power.

Want to bring this energy to your community?
💙Start local
💙Build trust
💙Lead with heart

Follow the link and sign up for our quarterly ocean action emails for more ways to make a difference! mbayaq.co/3RVRGSh

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2 weeks ago | [YT] | 664

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Happy Earth Month 🌎 and Volunteer Appreciation Month 🙋!

Let’s sealebrate by highlighting how the Aquarium’s volunteers and interns impact healthy habitats in Monterey Bay. 🌊

📸 Southern sea otters are a keystone species in the bay’s kelp forest ecosystems, greatly affecting the habitat's health and diversity of marine life. A healthy sea otter population = a healthy kelp forest.

📸 Volunteers with our sea otter program help care for abandoned, sick, or injured animals rescued along the California coast. This is an important step in the overall process to return healthy sea otters to the ocean to support the wild population.

📸 Our dive interns have a direct impact on kelp forest research and conservation. They play an important role in collecting data on the biodiversity and function of kelp forests, and how sea otters contribute to their recovery.

Together, our interns and volunteers are helping support healthy wildlife populations and habitats in Monterey Bay. 🦦🌊

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2 weeks ago | [YT] | 955

Monterey Bay Aquarium

In celebration of Earth Month, we're spotlighting the power of education to create lasting change. A national group of Aquarium education leaders collaborated to write a special edition of the Journal of Museum Education entitled, Navigating the Progress of Equity in Aquariums. Monterey Bay Aquarium staff co-edited the journal and contributed several articles.
Dive into the article “The Kids Aren't Alright: Climate Education in a Trauma-Laden World” by Katy Scott and Andrew Clemente to discover how the Monterey Bay Aquarium is equipping youth, supporting coastal communities of color and championing ocean conservation through trauma-informed, equity-driven education. Because protecting the planet starts with supporting the people who call it home.
Follow this link to read the article: mbayaq.co/3G5MRDg

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 1,113

Monterey Bay Aquarium

We’re thrilled to welcome the FathomVerse team back to the Aquarium for our next gaming livestream!

Join us live on April 10 at 3:30 p.m. PT with members of the ‪@MBARIvideo‬ and ‪@PlayFathomVerse‬ teams to play and discuss the recent 2.0 launch of this innovative mobile game that combines cozy gaming and deep sea science.

FathomVerse players participate in community science by training artificial intelligence that experts can use to identify ocean animals as they explore.

Based on feedback from the dedicated FathomVerse community, FathomVerse 2.0 introduces exciting features, including:

🎮 Brand-new mini-games
🏆Badges and quests
⚡Smoother gameplay

📲 Ready to get started? Download FathomVerse:

App Store: mbayaq.co/3Rw2KFp
Google Play Store: mbayaq.co/3QXg31A
Website: www.fathomverse.game/

1 month ago | [YT] | 169

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Welcome to the raft, Opal! ✨

🗳️Thanks to nearly 30,000 of you who voted in our online poll, we’re otter-ly excited to introduce our newest southern sea otter, Opal.

🦦Our team is already hard at work training Opal to join Ivy, Selka, and Ruby on exhibit.

💙They describe Opal as smart, sassy, confident, and protective–an otter that watches out for her raft.

💎 We can hardly wait for you to meet this gem; stay tuned for updates on the timeline for her official debut!

In addition to enchanting visitors and showing off for the exhibit live cam, Opal has a big part to play in the conservation of her species. Opal may act as a surrogate mother to orphaned sea otter pups as part of our sea otter surrogacy program.

Though Opal was deemed unreleasable by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service after she was rescued as a stranded pup, she may give young pups a second chance by teaching them the skills they need to survive in the wild, like grooming and foraging.

Our work with sea otters has a real impact on their survival—and the vital coastal habitats they call home—as the two are inextricably linked. The sea otter is a keystone species, which means that the health of sea otters is a good indication of the health of other species and ecosystems nearby.

By releasing their adoptive pups back into the wild, our sea otter surrogate moms help restore California’s treasured kelp forests, keeping them healthy and thriving!

1 month ago | [YT] | 2,326