by Noella Noelophile®
(Photo courtesy of Robin Riggs, and used with permission.)
Who knew conservation could have such an element of “cute”?
Obviously, Aquarium of the Pacific, in Long Beach, did. And so will Aquarium visitors, starting tomorrow, May 27th, as the Aquarium’s newest exhibit, “Babies!”, opens to the public.
“Babies!” focuses on the Aquarium’s care of baby animals. The exhibit will contain more than a dozen exhibits featuring young animals, according to a press alert from the Aquarium.
And many of these “babies” are on either the threatened or endangered-species list. So their future is closely tied to the future of our planet.
Among them: rescued sea otter pups, color-changing cuttlefish and tiny baby sharks. Visitors will learn how the Aquarium cares for baby animals–including those that require 24/7 care. (A human baby’s two a.m. feeding seems like a breeze, by comparison!)
Hearts, minds and sustainability
“This is my first time to see a new exhibit opening, and it’s really exciting,” said Aquarium President and CEO Dr. Peter Karieva during Thursday morning’s live-streamed press preview. (Dr. Karieva began his position in August, 2020, according to the Aquarium’s website.)
“(Babies! is) what I would call a heart-and-mind exhibit,” Dr. Karieva continued.
“And I think of the Aquarium as a heart-and-mind kind of institution.
“…I say ‘heart’ because you can’t think of babies without it evoking caring for (them), wanting to protect them when they’re vulnerable. And also being optimistic, because there’s no future without the babies.”
And I say ‘mind’ because so often–I’m a conservation biologist by training–babies really…need, and demand, our protection. if we’re going to save the species.”
A look inside the nursery
Assistant Curator of Fish and Invertebrates Janet Monday took the podium next.
Previewing the animals in the “Babies!” exhibit, she held up a glass jar.
“Among the species you’ll see are baby bamboo sharks and epaulet sharks, and the eggs they emerge from. I have an example up here if you want to check it out.”
Janet said the exhibit also included a dozen color-changing baby flamboyant cuttlefish, born at the Aquarium.
“When these babies hatch, they’re about the size of a dime,” she explained. “(Now, these dozen baby cuttlefish) are about two months old, and one inch long.”
And feeding the babies is another area which the exhibit explores.
“In our Jelly Lab, you can find out how we grow sea jellies and live food…for our smallest eaters here at the Aquarium, such as these moon jellies you can see in this jar here,” Janet said.
Now, if you go to see “Babies!”, be on the lookout for Sally. She’s a juvenile desert sea tortoise.
“Visitors get to learn about this endangered species, the threat it faces and how we can help,” Janet explained.
But while conservation is a serious subject, the approaches to it don’t always have to be.
Fun and “fashion”
Next to appear on the program: a “Fashion Show”, starring Aquarium of the Pacific’s “Pacific Pals”!
Show co-creator Sarah Berman served as MC, giving facts on each each sea creature who made an appearance.
To uptempo “runway” music, Axel the Axolotl, Captain Quinn the Hermit Crab, Elsie the Otter and Seymour Shark took the stage.
Each wore the latest in baby fashions.
Just after introducing Seymour as “the only baby shark that I need”, Sarah told the audience that Season 3 of the “Pacific Pals” series would be available on YouTube, next week!
Conservation: on exhibit and behind the scenes
“I would like to tell you…about some of the conservation programs you might learn about in our “Babies!” exhibit area,” said Aquarium of the Pacific Mammalogist Erin Lundy.
The Aquarium she explained, breeds and raises baby animals to help save endangered species, in addition to caring for baby animals which will live on the premises.
White abalone is one such species, Erin said. So is another which you won’t see in the “Babies!” exhibit, but which nevertheless have “a very important conservation story”.
The species: mountain yellow-legged frogs, a local endangered species.
“The Aquarium is currently providing a home for about 250 tadpoles, keeping them safe…until they grow into frogs and can be released back into the wild,” Erin explained.
Royalty-free image by Claudia Peters from Pixabay.
While you won’t see those tadpoles, you do get to see the sea otter pups in the Aquarium’s Northern Pacific Gallery.
“We are currently providing a home for four rescued sea otter pups that were orphaned up North,” Erin explained. “And (they’re non-releasable).”
“The Aquarium of the Pacific is a partner facility in the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Sea Otter Surrogacy program.”
Erin said that this program rehabilitated rescued pups, raising them with the help of surrogate mother sea otters. The program benefits both, as the mothers learn to “foster” the baby sea otters.
Y ahora en espanol
The final speaker on the live stream was Senior Education Associate Cynthia Jardon, who oversees the Aquarium’s Spanish resources.
Speaking in both English and Spanish, Cynthia told the audience that the Aquarium’s content had had some exciting upgrades.
“…We can now access our app in Spanish,” she said. “So it is completely free on either the app store… or Google Play, and you can get this app to do a lot of really fun things.
“We even have fun and cute baby photo frames on there that you can use, which is really exciting.”
Additional contents in Spanish, she said, included some of the Aquarium’s Online Academy programs.
“I invite you to join me every Wednesday at 10 am for our Spanish programming” Cynthia said.
Next Wednesday morning’s class, on June 1, is going to be “all about amphibians”.
“But we will be focusing on some baby amphibians,” Cynthia said. “More specifically, our mountain yellow-legged frogs that we have been working with here. We will look at their life cycle, and just some really cute baby pictures.”
As often happens with technology, our live stream cut out before the next speaker started. But it had been an interesting morning. And if you’re out and about in the Long Beach area, don’t miss “Babies!” at the Aquarium of the Pacific.