• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Current Issue
  • Archives
  • Advertise
  • Contact

Carmel Magazine

The Lifestyle Magazine of the Central Coast

  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Food & Wine
  • Music
  • Golf
  • Cars
  • Subscribe to Carmel Magazine!

A Watershed Moment

May 4, 2014 by Renee Brincks

A few months before the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s October 1984 opening, Mary Barrett registered for the facility’s volunteer orientation classes. She’d grown up sailing on Lake Michigan and, after moving to the Monterey Peninsula, wanted to learn about the Bay in her new backyard.

As Aquarium co-founder Dr. Steve Webster presented concepts on an overhead projector, Barrett took detailed notes. Three decades later, she still has notes from those classes, and she continues as an aquarium volunteer. Her daughters, 27-year-old Kadee and 28-year-old Meghan, were student volunteers for 10 years before graduating from the adult volunteer program. Barrett’s mother, Jane Gorman O’Brien, also volunteered for more than 15 years before retiring from the aquarium in her early 90s.

“It’s really given us a strong, unique bond,” says Barrett. “I think that all volunteers will attest to this: Being part of a guide shift at the aquarium is like having a second family… These people become lifelong friends.”

MBA Serves Up Delicious, Sustainable Fare

Some of the country’s biggest culinary stars will promote sustainability during the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s 13th annual Cooking for Solutions celebration, May 16-18.

Alton Brown, John Ash and “Top Chef: All Stars” winner Richard Blais are among 90 chefs participating in the three-day affair, which includes new VIP events, tours and workshops. The weekend opens with a popular Friday night gala among the aquarium’s galleries. Ticketholders are treated to gourmet fare, craft beer and wine, plus live music, takehome gifts and access to a dedicated sushi lounge. Silent and online auctions tied to the event feature food and wine experiences, and two pre-gala gatherings for aquarium members promise exclusive access to guest chefs.

A series of countywide culinary tours top Saturday’s schedule, and chefs will lead several do-it-yourself workshops that teach guests new cooking skills. A salon series touches on topics ranging from bacon to chocolate to honeybee health, and the street food event that debuted in 2013 returns with casual food and drink served in a festive, bay-view venue. Also new this year is a Saturday night party hosted by chef and author Alton Brown, complete with food, cocktails, music and dancing.

Additional workshops and salon seminars take place on Sunday, and aquarium guests can expect cooking demonstrations, book signings and related events all weekend long. As always, the goal is to teach consumers how their food choices impact ocean health, while also getting them in touch with well known culinary figures.

“The thing we continue to do is get our food fanatics closer and closer to the personalities they’ve come to see,” says Monterey Bay Aquarium Spokesperson Angela Hains.

Tickets and a full Cooking for Solutions schedule are at www.cookingforsolutions.org or 831/647-6886.

As the Monterey Bay Aquarium celebrates 30 years in 2014, Barrett is among some of today’s 1,200 volunteers and 425 employees who have been there since the beginning. Four marine biologist friends originally envisioned the facility that currently houses more than 35,000 animals and plants and welcomes an average of 1.8 million guests annually. When the aquarium kicked off its anniversary celebration in February with free admission for Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito County residents, 31,285 locals visited in just seven days.

“I heard so many great stories from that week, including one about a 90-year-old-woman who lives in San Benito County and had never been here before. That was one of the goals of the free week,” says Aquarium Spokesperson Angela Hains. “It means a lot to us, to be able to thank the community that has supported us.”

In April, the aquarium opened an exhibit that promises to be this year’s most buzz-worthy birthday headliner. The $3.5 million “Tentacles: The Astounding Lives of Octopuses, Squid and Cuttlefishes” features two-dozen fanciful species in 12 live exhibits, plus interactive activities and an array of marine-inspired art.

Because the animals on display are mostly nocturnal, experience short life cycles and regularly camouflage themselves, designers faced unique challenges as they created display environments.

“They’re sensitive to light, so we’ve experimented with different lighting and different substrates at the bottom of the exhibits,” says Hains. In addition, she explains, designers developed special exhibit mechanisms–including custom bubble-making equipment crafted from empty soda bottles— and instituted a facility-wide no-flash policy for all galleries to keep animals comfortable.

Guests entering “Tentacles” start at a 1,900- gallon exhibit that introduces a school of vibrant Bigfin Reef squid, while rarely seen species such as the giant Pacific octopus, wunderpus, flamboyant cuttlefish and tiny northern pygmy squid rotate through other displays. From time to time, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute [MBARI] staff may bring in additional deep-sea octopuses and squid collected on expeditions.

Elsewhere, illustrations, sculptures, mosaics, models, prints and other artifacts explore the role of cephalopods in art and history. A dynamic multimedia exhibit demonstrates the quick navigational movements of the chambered nautilus; another explores how sea creatures use color-shifting abilities to communicate, hide and hunt.

Interactive exhibits, like the one that allows aquarium guests to create and upload cephalopod images to social media channels, have become increasingly popular in recent years. Expanded family and student programs also introduce new audiences to marine wonders. The Monterey Bay Aquarium offers free admission to 80,000 schoolchildren annually— that’s more two million students since 1984—and another 17,000 preschoolers have participated in the innovative Splash Zone/Head Start Discovery program. Young Women in Science and the Student Oceanography Club are among the teen programs that offer rich educational experiences. Sleepovers, tours and youth scuba outings organized under the Aquarium Adventures umbrella present exclusive exhibit access too.

Three decades after the aquarium opened, research and conservation efforts continue to shape outreach at all levels. The independent MBARI studies ocean life on the California coast. Sea otter, white shark and tuna research programs examine the needs of and threats to significant marine populations. Since 1999, pocket guides produced through the Seafood Watch initiative have helped millions of consumers, restaurants and distributors make smart, sustainable seafood choices.

That goal of inspiring ocean conservation remains as important today as it was 30 years ago. “Through education, our hope is that future generations will be able to share in the responsibility of taking care of Monterey Bay. Staff and volunteers also help visitors appreciate the wealth that’s right here,” says Barrett.

Filed Under: Spring/Summer 2014 Tagged With: Lifestyle

Primary Sidebar

CURRENT & PAST EDITIONS HERE

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

GUIDETOCARMEL

READ THE GUIDE HERE

Tags

Cars Food & Wine Golf Lifestyle Music surfing Travel

ForAdvertisers

  • ► Publisher’s Note
  • ► Mission Statement
  • ► Ad Specs
  • ► Advertise in Carmel Magazine
  • ► Media Contact
  • ► Full Media Kit

Secondary Sidebar

Archives

  • Spring 2025
  • Winter 2024
  • Fall 2024
  • Summer 2024
  • Spring 2024
  • Winter 2023
  • Fall 2023
  • Summer 2023
  • Spring 2023
  • Winter 2022
  • Fall 2022
  • Summer 2022
  • Spring 2022
  • Winter 2021
  • Fall 2021
  • Summer 2021
  • Spring 2021
  • Winter 2020
  • Summer 2020
  • Summer 2020
  • Winter 2020
  • Fall 2019
  • Summer 2019
  • Spring 2019
  • Winter 2019
  • Fall 2018
  • Summer 2018
  • Spring 2018
  • Winter 2018
  • Fall 2017
  • Summer 2017
  • Spring 2017
  • Winter 2017
  • Fall 2016
  • Summer 2016
  • Spring 2016
  • Winter 2016
  • Fall 2015
  • Summer 2015
  • Spring 2015
  • Winter 2015
  • Fall 2014
  • Summer 2014
  • Spring 2014
  • Winter 2014
  • Fall 2013
  • Summer 2013
  • Spring 2013
  • Winter 2013
  • Fall 2012
  • Summer 2012
  • Spring 2012
  • Winter 2012
  • Fall 2011
  • Summer 2011
  • Spring 2011
  • Winter 2011
  • Fall 2010
  • Summer 2010
  • Spring 2010
  • Winter 2010
  • Fall 2009
  • Summer 2009
  • Spring 2009
  • Winter 2009
  • Fall 2008
  • Summer 2008
  • Winter 2008
  • Fall 2007
  • Summer 2007
  • Spring 2007
  • Winter 2007
  • Fall 2006

Footer

Carmel Magazine is the quarterly lifestyle magazine for Carmel and the Monterey Peninsula, featuring the notable people and places, arts, food and wine, destinations, styles and events of Carmel and the Peninsula.

Address:
126 Clocktower Place, Suite 103
Carmel, CA 93923

Phone: (831) 625-9922
Fax: (831) 626-3613

Recent Posts

  • In Great Taste
  • A Grammy-Award Winner’s Home Hits All the Right Notes
  • Riding the Waves of Hope
  • A Driving Force
  • From the Bright Lights to Moonlit Nights

Search

Tags

Cars Food & Wine Golf Lifestyle Music surfing Travel

Copyright © 2025 Carmel Magazine · Carmel, California · Designed by BEAR★PRESS