The Cabrillo Marine Aquarium (CMA) tour was both a pleasure trip as well as an opportunity to learn and understand the various seascapes and marine concepts the Pacific has to offer through the lens of the aquarium. For instance, the trip divulged that the oceans are under increasing threat, overfishing, climate change, habitat loss, and marine pollution being just some of the major issues challenging our aquatic world today (Cabrillo Marine Aquarium [CMA]). Partly, because of that, the trip came at an opportune moment to imprint such a reality. The CMA, located on the shores of Cabrillo in San Pedro California, offers a pristine arrangement of the local sea environment and an almost endless assortment of aquatic life. Moreover, because of its strategic location between Point Fermin and the Port of Los Angeles, CMA further provides a rare opportunity to get up close with several sea animal species that are not so common in even larger aquariums along the Pacific coast (WanderBat).
The impression from the aquarium is one of naturalistic intuition. A feeling that sensationally seems to project out of the CMA’s mock aquatic life displays. The feeling culminates in a sense of the place telling how and where the animals live and survive in their natural settings. Since 1935 when CMA first opened its doors with a small amount of aquatic life on display, the commitment of the aquarium to conservation initiatives has lived through the spirit of the aquarium over the years. That sense of responsibility can barely escape recognition once one steps foot inside the museum. At the time of the visit, the numerous exhibits at the museum convey the full scope of the local natural habitats and the conservation issues currently plaguing our natural sea world ecosystem.
While it is easy to misremember the CMA as being more of a maritime museum than an aquarium in several occasions, its increasing array of living collections and Ocean Outreach programs are there to highlight the thought and keep the museum façade at bay. Its exhibits display an abundance of aquatic life forms ranging from the small types (such as the Red Rock Shrimp) to the outrageously large varieties (like the whale fossils, giant sea bass, and the black abalone) (CMA). Another significant impression of the aquarium is that one does not have to pay to visit the place. Instead, CMA is completely free and runs on public donations, and so a feeling of contribution to their conservation course is worth the excursion. Of the numerous displays at the museum which include several stuffed previously living animals and tanks filled with local living varieties, the great white shark left a significantly great impression. The mere facts about the animal were mind boggling. Firstly, despite its rare statistical attacks on humans, the great white shark still strikes more fear in humans than most sea animals.
Secondly, the predatory efficiency of the shark is accentuated by several adaptive mechanisms. When viewed from above, the sharks are blue-gray on the dorsal side that helps them blend in with the sea while their ventral part is white which makes them difficult to see from below especially with the sun shining in around them. They can swim at speeds up to 50km/hour (30 miles per hour) due to their strong, powerful tails and torpedo-shaped bodies. On average, the great white shark averages about 4.5 m (about 15ft.) in length but some record lengths of about 6m (20 ft.) and can weigh up to 2250 kg (around 50000lb.) (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History). Tooth wise, the great whites have 3000 teeth at any one time spread across rows that can total to about seven. These animals also have highly developed senses. For example, their acute sense of smell makes them capable of detecting even a single drop of blood in 10 billion drops of water (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History). Their preferred diet revolves around seals, dolphins, sea lions, fish, and even other sharks. Due to increasing threats from human activities like illegal hunting and overfishing, the great whites are listed as a vulnerable species under the IUCN Red List (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History).
Another fact discovered at the aquarium was presented through a visit to the Aquarium’s Susanne Lawrenz-Miller Exhibit Hall. Here, three environments – the Rocky Shores, the Open Oceans, and the Sand and Mud ecosystems - presented one of the most explorative and interpretive life exhibits of the museum (CMA). At a personal level, the Rocky Shores ecosystem paradoxically stood out among the rest. It is expected that due to the nature of the ecosystem’s substratum, the Rocky shores should have the fewest diversity of marine plants and animals. On the contrary, the Rocky Shores has instead, some of the marine’s largest and diverse flora and fauna, each uniquely adapted to protect self and fend for food. Examples of species found here include the sponges, mussels, sea squirts, sea star, prickly urchin, and the barnacles (CMA).
The 'whale graveyard' also offered a due impression. I, therefore, did focus on this exhibit not only because of the magnitude of reality it projected of our destructive nature but also on how much we need to do to salvage what remains of these wonderful, charismatic, and most recognizable cetacean species. As one of the Touch Exhibits of the Aquarium, the whale graveyard provided a rare opportunity to touch and physically interact with the remains of this formerly living aquatic animal. The exhibit also served as a reminder of how destructive of the natural habitat and biological species humans can be while the information presented at the exhibit gallery highlighted ways on how the guests can help minimize the human impacts on the oceans and the lives of the marine animals.
The California grunion (Leuresthes tenuis) was also another captivating CMA living collection exhibit. Naturally, this fish species is native only to the coast of Southern California and the Northern ends of Baja (CMA). They are justifiably famous not only for their small sardine-size stature but also for their unique spawning behavior and ability to breathe in air. They are one of the few fish species actually to come ashore to lay their eggs. Females are reported to lay 300-3,000 eggs in each of their 4-8 spawns per season (CMA). Along the sandy beaches of California, these fishes appear on select nights especially after the high tide in periods between the new and the full moon (Martin). The eggs buried in the sand, incubate for approximately two weeks after which the high waves before the next new and full moons wash out the hatched larvae. The Grunions, typically spawn at the age of one year, are known to live for between 2 to 4 years (Martin). Because grunion comes ashore to breed, they are vulnerable during these times and are hence usually protected by a closed season during the months of April through May (CMA; Martin).
Although the CMA offers adequate displays and exhibit designs as well as thoughtful insights into their exhibitions to make one make repeated visits, much can still be done to make the place more public friendly. One is by introducing highly interactive exhibits which will not only attract and retain visitors but also help CMA fulfill its educational mission (Lin). The impracticality of direct interaction with most of the exhibits that can put both the animal and the guests at the risk of injury further reinforces this approach (Dogu, Wehman, and Fagan). Therefore, adopting a touch-screen information system can help CMA improve its exhibit interactivity and attract visitors. Another strategy CMA can use to draw the public is by increasing its exhibit collection to include specimens from various places around the world (Yokoi). This approach could also mean expanding both the size and scope of operations of the museum to include an assortment of species from several locations accompanied with detailed maps indicating just where the animal is found (Yokoi).
Works Cited
Cabrillo Marine Aquarium (CMA). "Exploration Center Tours." Cabrillo Marine Aquarium - San Pedro, California. N.p., 2016. Web. 24 Mar. 2016. <http://www.cabrillomarineaquarium.org/>.
Dogu Huseyin, Samm Wehman, and Julie M. Fagan. Touch Exhibits for Aquatic Animals: Best Management Practices for Touch Exhibits of AZA Accredited Aquariums. N.p., Web. 25 Mar. 2016. <https://rucore.libraries.rutgers.edu/rutgers-lib/38467/PDF/1>.
Lin, Sharon. "The Interactive Aquarium: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Interactive Interfaces in an Aquarium Visit." Journal of Young Investigators (JYI) (2007): n. pag. Web. 25 Mar. 2016. <http://www.jyi.org/issue/the-interactive-aquarium-evaluating-the-effectiveness-of-interactive-interfaces-in-an-aquarium-visit/>.
Martin, Karen. "What Is A Grunion?" Grunion.Org. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2016. <http://grunion.pepperdine.edu/whatis.htm>.
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. "Great White Shark (Carcharodon carcharias)." Smithsonian Ocean Portal. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2016. <http://ocean.si.edu/great-white-shark>.
WanderBat. "Cabrillo Marine Aquarium (CMA)." N.p., 2016. Web. 25 Mar. 2016. <http://aquariums.wanderbat.com/l/99/Cabrillo-Marine-Aquarium>.
Yokoi, Iris. "Cabrillo Marine Museum: Yearning to Be a Bigger Fish." Los Angeles Times 7 Jan. 1994: n. pag. Web. 25 Mar. 2016. <http://articles.latimes.com/keyword/cabrillo-marine-museum>.
