This report is part of a series from a trip to the Bay area that I took this month. In addition to MBA I will be posting reports on Aquarium of the Bay, CuriOdyssey, Happy Hollow Park & Zoo, and the California Academy of Sciences.
This is the third time I have been to MBA, but the last time was in 2013 IIRC.
I am not going to review every tank or everything there - rather I am going to give a fast tour of the main sites in the aquarium that we saw.
Entry is steep - there is no way around that. There are no AZA, AAA, or other type discounts. We were forced to buy our tickets online as they were not operating the ticket booths. They had staff stationed outside directing people to the website to buy tickets before going in. To be honest, that was a bit off-putting and not the best way to start the visit.
Adults $59.95
Youth $49.95
Child $44.95
Senior $49.95
Four and under free
Is it worth the entry? It certainly is if you are interested in this type of thing, but if you are only mildly interested and are visiting based on reputation alone, I don't think it is. Combined with a 1.5-2 hour drive from San Jose, or up to 3-4 from San Francisco, it is a bit remote.
Total time on site was about 4.5 hours. I think we could have stayed longer, but they were closing up.
We first visited the world famous Kelp Forest as our first stop. The window into the tank did not disappoint. There is nothing like seeing that massive window, kelp, leopard sharks, and all the other fish swimming around. It really is as impressive as we all make it out to be.
The next major tank is the Monterey Bay Habitats. This is a very large tank with different habitat areas. Of course the fish swim about the whole thing, so while the idea is cool, it doesn't exactly translate into seeing different fish in different Bay habitats. Most interesting here were the seven-gill sharks and some other fish such as rock fish.
The following major area is the Seabird Aviary and touch pools. The touch pools held the standard animals, probably the most fun was feeding the barnacles with assistance from a volunteer. The seabird aviary was OK, but really nothing special.
After the aviary we headed upstairs to see the kelp forest from above and the Coral Play and Splash Zone area. This is best if you have kids, but even without kids it is interesting as this area holds the tropical fish, sea slugs, and the African Rock penguins.
The kids area is nice, if small. But, as I was with my 5 year old son, we spent probably 45 minutes here (split between the stop now and again at the end)
Ahh, the penguins. This is the one tank that is a miss for MBA, IMO. The habitat is fine, but just fine. MBA does everything else to the top level, world class....and then there is this indoor penguin habitat with a shallow pool and honestly just not a lot of space. It is far from the worst penguin habitat I have seen (that award goes to the Florida Aquarium's current "habitat"), but it is also far from the best out there.
After the lackluster penguin habitat it was time to go to one of the best - Open Sea. First one must walk through some small jelly tanks, which are pretty standard sea nettle, purple-striped, etc. The most interesting to me was the lobster larve with jelly tank.
Leaving jelly's takes you to the jewel of this part of the aquarium - the large open sea tank. I primarily wanted to see the mola mola, pelagic stingrays and scalloped hammerhead sharks. Unfortunately the mola mola was nowhere to be seen, but the other two were moving all about and easy to see. This tank truly is incredible with the variety of fish, even the small fish were schooling in the bottom of the tank, which was super cool to see.
After the heady Open Sea tank you encounter a seabird habitat with common mure and puffins. It is fine if un-inspired for a seabird habitat. But the rock work looks good and the animals were all active.
Finally - Into the Deep! This temporary exhibit was one of the deciding factors in us making the trip out to California this year. It did not disappoint. The entire area is in the dark, with dimly lit tanks and nicely done graphics. Most of the animals are jellys, crabs, and animals like corals, but it is fantastically done and the animals were enlightening. I found the deep sea coral tank to be stunning. Regardless the exhibit is done to a wonderful level and well worth the trip and cost of the whole aquarium.
Jellys:
Deep sea coral:
Large tank:
Bone-eating worms:
North Pacific Big-eye octopus:
Lastly is a nice sea-otter habitat. It's really deep and nice looking, but honestly we were pretty "done" by then and while enjoyable, we had already seen a few wild otters, so the captive two were less....captivating.
In conclusion, MBA is an aquarium that every zoo and aquarium fan should visit at least once, and if you can I would go while the deep sea exhibit is there - it is worth the trip and expense of the whole thing, IMO.
This is the third time I have been to MBA, but the last time was in 2013 IIRC.
I am not going to review every tank or everything there - rather I am going to give a fast tour of the main sites in the aquarium that we saw.
Entry is steep - there is no way around that. There are no AZA, AAA, or other type discounts. We were forced to buy our tickets online as they were not operating the ticket booths. They had staff stationed outside directing people to the website to buy tickets before going in. To be honest, that was a bit off-putting and not the best way to start the visit.
Adults $59.95
Youth $49.95
Child $44.95
Senior $49.95
Four and under free
Is it worth the entry? It certainly is if you are interested in this type of thing, but if you are only mildly interested and are visiting based on reputation alone, I don't think it is. Combined with a 1.5-2 hour drive from San Jose, or up to 3-4 from San Francisco, it is a bit remote.
Total time on site was about 4.5 hours. I think we could have stayed longer, but they were closing up.
We first visited the world famous Kelp Forest as our first stop. The window into the tank did not disappoint. There is nothing like seeing that massive window, kelp, leopard sharks, and all the other fish swimming around. It really is as impressive as we all make it out to be.
The next major tank is the Monterey Bay Habitats. This is a very large tank with different habitat areas. Of course the fish swim about the whole thing, so while the idea is cool, it doesn't exactly translate into seeing different fish in different Bay habitats. Most interesting here were the seven-gill sharks and some other fish such as rock fish.
The following major area is the Seabird Aviary and touch pools. The touch pools held the standard animals, probably the most fun was feeding the barnacles with assistance from a volunteer. The seabird aviary was OK, but really nothing special.
After the aviary we headed upstairs to see the kelp forest from above and the Coral Play and Splash Zone area. This is best if you have kids, but even without kids it is interesting as this area holds the tropical fish, sea slugs, and the African Rock penguins.
The kids area is nice, if small. But, as I was with my 5 year old son, we spent probably 45 minutes here (split between the stop now and again at the end)
Ahh, the penguins. This is the one tank that is a miss for MBA, IMO. The habitat is fine, but just fine. MBA does everything else to the top level, world class....and then there is this indoor penguin habitat with a shallow pool and honestly just not a lot of space. It is far from the worst penguin habitat I have seen (that award goes to the Florida Aquarium's current "habitat"), but it is also far from the best out there.
After the lackluster penguin habitat it was time to go to one of the best - Open Sea. First one must walk through some small jelly tanks, which are pretty standard sea nettle, purple-striped, etc. The most interesting to me was the lobster larve with jelly tank.
Leaving jelly's takes you to the jewel of this part of the aquarium - the large open sea tank. I primarily wanted to see the mola mola, pelagic stingrays and scalloped hammerhead sharks. Unfortunately the mola mola was nowhere to be seen, but the other two were moving all about and easy to see. This tank truly is incredible with the variety of fish, even the small fish were schooling in the bottom of the tank, which was super cool to see.
After the heady Open Sea tank you encounter a seabird habitat with common mure and puffins. It is fine if un-inspired for a seabird habitat. But the rock work looks good and the animals were all active.
Finally - Into the Deep! This temporary exhibit was one of the deciding factors in us making the trip out to California this year. It did not disappoint. The entire area is in the dark, with dimly lit tanks and nicely done graphics. Most of the animals are jellys, crabs, and animals like corals, but it is fantastically done and the animals were enlightening. I found the deep sea coral tank to be stunning. Regardless the exhibit is done to a wonderful level and well worth the trip and cost of the whole aquarium.
Jellys:
Deep sea coral:
Large tank:
Bone-eating worms:
North Pacific Big-eye octopus:
Lastly is a nice sea-otter habitat. It's really deep and nice looking, but honestly we were pretty "done" by then and while enjoyable, we had already seen a few wild otters, so the captive two were less....captivating.
In conclusion, MBA is an aquarium that every zoo and aquarium fan should visit at least once, and if you can I would go while the deep sea exhibit is there - it is worth the trip and expense of the whole thing, IMO.
I need to get up there, is there a reason why that may be?
