Full transcript
The Building Remembers
Knut Hovden opened his sardine cannery here in July 1916 and built it into the largest on the Row; when the fish crashed, the plant shut for good in 1973. The aquarium that replaced it opened on October 20, 1984, keeping the factory walls, the facade and the fiberglass smokestacks that rise through glass near the entrance. Inside, seawater does what it always did here — flow through the building — only now it feeds tanks instead of canning lines. Duck under the glass ceiling at the main entrance and look up at those old smokestacks.
A Living Forest Nobody Believed In
When plans were drawn, marine professionals doubted giant kelp could survive in a tank, and doubted anyone would care if it did. The builders answered with a 28-foot-tall, 343,000-gallon exhibit — nearly three stories — that became the first successful living kelp forest ever kept, complete with machines that surge the water so the fronds sway like the real coast. Barred surfperch and leopard sharks circle through it today, exactly as critics once said they never would. Sit on the bench facing this tank for one full swell cycle and watch the light move.
Otters, Surrogates and Firsts
Before opening day, staff had already hand-raised four orphaned sea otter pups — Jiggs, Goldie and Hailey among them — starting the program that made this place famous. Its surrogacy method, in which surrogate mother otters teach rescued pups to hunt before release, was a world first, and it helped pull the southern sea otter back from near-extinction. The aquarium also became the first anywhere to keep and release a great white shark — her 2004 stay in the Open Sea tank lasted 198 days. Watch the otters crack crab shells on their bellies and remember every one of them may be a teacher.