Monterey bay aquarium - A Fascination for Fish: Adventures of an Underwater Pioneer - page 185

there. Chuck was teaching marine biology at Hopkins, and Nancy,
Robin, and Steve were marine biology graduates of Stanford Univer-
sity. Julie's master's degree in biology, earned with a thesis on marine
algae, was from the University of California at Santa Cruz across the
Bay. I was impressed with their enthusiasm and their extensive knowl-
edge of the invertebrate and algal life of Monterey.
They seemed a bit weak on fishes, however, and they freely admit-
ted that they had little experience actually keeping animals in aquari-
ums. They told me they needed help from someone in the business,
so to speak. The plan, an ambitious one to be sure, was to exhibit all
of the environments and microhabitats of Monterey Bay, from a liv-
ing kelp forest all the way down to the meiofauna, those almost mi-
croscopic organisms living among the grains of sand. It would be the
first major aquarium in the United States to focus exclusively and in
depth on local species displayed in natural communities. Virtually all
other major aquariums displayed species and environments from many
di¤erent parts of the world.
THE BAY'S RICH PROMISE
I could sense the group's enthusiasm for the rich marine life of Mon-
terey Bay and their desire to share it with others. That was just the way
I'd felt when I started diving in the 1950s, and I still felt the same. Robin,
Nancy, and Steve had all taken invertebrate zoology from Don Abbott
at Hopkins. It's interesting how a truly inspiring teacher can have such
an impact upon your life. I was fortunate to have had such a teacher
in Boyd Walker for ichthyology when I was at UCLA, but wished I'd
also had an equally inspiring mentor for invertebrate zoology and
marine ecology.
The four instigators—Robin, Nancy, Chuck, and Steve—told me
they'd dreamed up the idea of an aquarium during an evening of lively
conversation inspired by liberal consumption of margaritas. The orig-
inal idea was of a small combination aquarium-co¤eehouse on Can-
nery Row, but the more they talked, the more they wanted to include—
and, of course, the more ambitious the project became.
Even a modest public aquarium is not an inexpensive undertaking,