A new direction - A Fascination for Fish: Adventures of an Underwater Pioneer - page 304

develop and perfect exhibit ideas, to explore and experiment and do
the best job we could. This dedication to excellence was felt by every-
one involved in the project, from contractors to laborers, graphic de-
signers to biologists—all of us. This is not to imply that there were not
problems or di¤erences of opinion along the way; there were plenty.
But somehow they were resolved, and the end result was something of
which we were all uniformly proud.
For me, though, it was time to move along, and at the end of 1997
I retired from the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Since my boyhood days in England trying to figure out what my
life's work would be, I've learned more than I thought possible, solv-
ing problems I couldn't even have imagined existed back then. But some-
how, along the way, I learned a lesson that surprised me. My goal as
an aquarist and biologist was to build exhibits, to collect and care for
animals, and to create satisfying experiences for people of all ages. That
part wasn't new to me. What was new was the keen appreciation I'd
developed for visitors and what it means to them to come in contact
with the creatures that inhabit the world of water.
We may have only one chance to turn a visitor's head toward con-
servation and conscience and away from complacency—a chance that
is o¤ered through our exhibits. For an exhibit and a visitor to make a
connection, those of us designing displays and defining messages must
be cautious.
Do we assume the visitor knows nothing and it's our obligation to
explain as much as we can? At one time, I would have answered yes to
that question. My original goal was to bring as much factual under-
standing as possible to the visitor, to describe every detail of a crea-
ture's existence, from feeding to spawning to its relationship with the
other creatures in its environment. And I expected the visitor to ab-
sorb all this eagerly.
Now I see things quite di¤erently. I've come to realize that perhaps
our true goal in the aquarium world is to inspire awe, to create a sense
of wonder and appreciation that will grow into caring. Communicat-
ing facts is all well and good, but without awakening a sense of caring
we have accomplished little.
Conservation has become a watchword in the aquarium industry,