Monterey Bay Aquarium Major deep sea animal exhibit coming to MBA

Here's something to look forward to after the pandemic. In 2022 the Monterey Aquarium will be opening the world's first large-scale deep sea animal exhibit. The aquarists and scientists are learning how to keep the animals alive for it now.

This story has many interesting husbandry details on keeping deep sea creatures alive.

Bringing the Ocean’s Midnight Zone Into the Light

Here is an announcement from the aquarium about the exhibit: https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/stories/diving-into-the-deep

 

Awesome! It’ll be interesting comparing their approach to keeping deep-sea fauna to the Japanese approach.

 

I have to get to MBA when this opens! This might be the most exiting zoo news I have ever heard (move over, San Diego Platypus)!

 

Amazing! Gonna be there in a couple years!

 

I did hear about that. Very exciting, afaik that snailfish is the first kept outside of Japan. Also bone-eating worms would be a fascinating display. Knowing MBA, the exhibit will be fantastic. Will it be one of the temporary exhibits or permanent?

 

I would hope its permanent. Its a big project, so I hope for it to be at MBA for a while.

 

I think the bone-eating worm exhibit will attract more people if it is listed as the 'bone-eating snot flower'

 

I wonder if they'd be small enough to tolerate mixed-species exhibits with larger fish.

 

The worms? I imagine they could be kept with fish that don't eat worms.

 

True!

 

Great news! I’ve always wanted to see deep sea animals!

 

One of my favorite habitats! Just below the northern alpine forests.

 

I'm curious where this exhibition will go, my hunch being it will replace either Tentacles or Viva Baja. Very much looking forward to seeing the full species list! Deep sea creatures would be well worth a long day trip!

 

Someone asked this question on Instagram and they answered saying it'd be where the lowering viewing of Open Seas currently is (this is currently an exhibit about overfishing) so on the same level as Tentacles and Viva Baja but the entrance is in between them. Also I'd like to echo other people as I too am extremely excited for this exhibit.

 

Makes sense that's where they'd put the exhibit, the deep sea is basically the open sea but, well, deeper. Hopefully this means it will be a permanent exhibit. Hopefully we'll get frequent updates on the progress. I'm particularly excited for the possibility of even more species that have never been kept before, they've already confirmed Bone-Eating Worms and Giant Larvacean which have never been kept AFAIK.

 

I don't think any of the animals mentioned so far have ever been kept in captivity.

There is no way this is a temporary exhibit - so much work and money is being poured into this, I'm sure. There is no way they are doing all that for a temporary exhibit.

 

Gotta be honest with you I did not really know what a Giant Larvacean was until I read this, but it seems very unlikely that these animals have ever been held successfully in captivity, their lifestyle is very difficult to replicate in captivity.

 

I would think with the investment required in new tech, their location on the edge of a massive submarine canyon, and their experience with MBRI that they'll make it permanent if it's at all successful

 

So then I am assuming it will be built around the large ocean wonders viewing area. Also, the aquarium of the pacific had an okay deep-sea exhibit with chambered nautilus, moon jellies, a whale fall tank, and a few other species I don't know. Just thought that was interesting because it could give us a hint at what we will see as both exhibit deep-sea creatures from the pacific

 

If anyone watches the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Twitch/Youtube gaming streams, they've talked about the new exhibit a bit, as well as the difficulties with keeping benthic animals in captivity. One of the biggest obstacles has been and continues to be water oxygenation: most deep-sea creatures have no air pockets in their bodies, so barometric pressure is not much of an issue after the animal has been safely brought up to the surface, but they do live in a very cold, low-oxygen environment, and removing oxygen from water at sea level is very, very difficult. They have also given some clues about what will be on display. It seems that bloodybelly comb jellies, sea pigs, giant isopods, vampire squids, thermophilic tube worms, chimaeras, umbrella octopuses, chambered nautiluses, and several others are distinct possibilities. They also indicate an estimated opening in 2022-2023.

Personally, I would love to see giant oarfishes, Humboldt squids, Greenland sharks, goblin sharks, and giant squids, but I very much doubt any of those will ever happen, anywhere in the world. But who knows?