Twice a day, every day (except Christmas), a volunteer diver enters the 28 feet
deep 335,000 gallon Kelp Forest exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The diver wears a
surface air supplied full face mask that allows two-way communication to the Aquarium
audience of up to 150 visitors. During the 20 minute show a volunteer guide and the diver
interpret the Kelp Forest habitat while the diver hand feeds the various sharks,
rockfishes, perhes, wrasses, and eels that inhabit the underwater forests of Monterey Bay.
44 Sec. movie clip of introduction (1.9 Mbyte)
In this exhibit you can get a diver's-eye view of a kelp forest as
it appears out in the bay. This exhibit is open to the sky above to allow sunlight in so
plants can produce food and a wave machine provides water motion to circulate fresh
nutrients to the kelp plants. Giant kelp is one of the fastest growing plants in the world
and these grow an average of over 4 inches per day! In addition there are over 90 other
kinds of algae growing in the exhibit.
6 Sec. movie clip of shark (part A) (345 Kbyte)
We feed these fish a mixture of krill, squid and fish cut into
various sizes. Not all of the animals eat from the diver's hand. There are many types of
invertibrates in the exhibit that are filter feeders -- they collect small plants and
animals called plankton out of the unfiltered sewater we pump through the exhibit at
night.
18
Sec. QuickTime movie clip of sardines (1.3 Mbyte)
This exhibit is 31 feet (10 meters) tall, 66 feet (20 meters) long
and holds 335,000 gallons (1.2 million liters) of water. Seawater is pumped directly in
from the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary at rates of 1200 to 1800 gallons (4500 to
6800 liters) per minute. The large acrylic windows are 7.25 inches (18.4 cm) thick, 15
feet tall and weigh over 2.5 tons (2,260 kg) each.
Every feeding show is different and I encourage you to try to see
one in person. When you visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium remember that Kelp Forest Feeding
Show times are 11:30 am and 4:00 pm. Thank you for visiting this page, please send any
comments you have to mccann@mbari.org.
T
hese movie clips are from the 11 June 1992 show with Mike McCann as the diver and Bill Merrylees as the
guide.
Go to MBA Web site.
Originally posted on Internet: 6/23/96
Last updated: 15 June, 2000, Mike
McCann
© The Monterey Bay Aquarium 1995
44 Sec. movie clip of introduction (1.9 Mbyte) 
