Monterey Bay AquariumIn 1984, the Monterey Bay Aquarium opened, the largest artificial environment for marine life, built on Cannery Row on the site of the old Hovden sardine cannery, with a $40 million grant from David Packard of Hewlett-Packard, and housing 6500 marine animals from at least 525 species displayed on a grand scale. The idea for an aquarium devoted to showcasing Monterey Bay habitats came in 1977 from a group of four marine biologists at Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station. Currently, the aquarium has an active research program, with groups working on sea otter conservation and tuna conservation biology and a sister institution, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, which conducts deep-sea research in the vast Monterey submarine canyon. |
