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The Monterey Bay Aquarium Has a Secret

2019-05-24 · documentary visit · Hank · 8:02 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Science & nature · mode: Documentary visit · tags: on location

Visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Hank explains its secret: unlike inland aquariums that make seawater, it pumps 2,000 gallons a minute of raw, nutrient-rich water from the canyon-fed bay, matching the sea's chemistry and microbiome but bringing engineering challenges (barnacles, invasive species, jellyfish clogs); the hidden work makes it an open door to the ocean.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Hank's visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and its secret

  • ★★ Last week (week of 13 May 2019) Hank went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which he calls one of the best places on earth, and delighted in mudskippers, otters, mola mola and cuttlefish. — 00:00:00

00:00:22 — Shedd Aquarium in Chicago and the problem of getting seawater far from the ocean

  • ★★ Shedd Aquarium opened in Chicago in 1930 and was then the largest aquarium in the world. — 00:00:22 · Chicago (city)
  • ★★ Since Chicago is far from the ocean, Shedd got seawater by sending train tanker cars to Key West, Florida, and back. — 00:00:22 · Chicago (city)
  • ★★ Today Shedd makes seawater from scratch, mixing a bought product into fresh water in roughly 80,000-gallon tanks; it is expensive, so the water is constantly filtered and reused. — 00:00:52
  • ★ Coastal aquariums get seawater from the sea, and Monterey Bay Aquarium gets it from some of the best sea in the world. — 00:00:52

00:01:33 — Monterey Canyon, upwelling and the 2,000 gallons a minute pumped from the bay

  • ★★★ Along the US west coast the continental shelf lies offshore except at Monterey Bay, where Monterey Canyon, with cliff faces over a mile high, brings deep water to the coast. — 00:01:33
  • ★★ From shelf to base the canyon is roughly as deep as the Grand Canyon, giving researchers access to many ocean depths and ecosystems close to shore. — 00:02:03
  • ★★ Consistent winds push warm, nutrient-poor water offshore, so cool, clean, nutrient-rich deep water rises in upwelling, making the area abundant and the water fantastic. — 00:02:03
  • ★★★ The aquarium simply pumps 2,000 gallons of seawater per minute into the facility, and roughly 2,000 gallons flow back into the bay. — 00:02:32
  • ★ Hank got to walk around in the seawater system and learn a little about how it works. — 00:02:32

00:03:09 — The seawater system: data points, microbiome, barnacles, kelp tank, invasive species, jellyfish clogs

  • ★★ The system tracks over 33,000 data points, sets temperatures per exhibit, keeps flow from stopping too long, is built for massive earthquakes and has redundant backups. — 00:03:09
  • ★★★ Raw seawater gives the aquarium a perfect match for both the chemistry and the microbiome of the sea, which benefits its plants and animals. — 00:03:09
  • ★★ As our own microorganisms mostly keep us healthy, the ocean microbiome keeps plants and animals healthy: more microscopic diversity means fewer harmful infections. — 00:03:38
  • ★★ Raw seawater brings barnacles in the pipes: no coating resists them, their larvae are too tiny to filter, and water can't move fast enough to stop them cementing. — 00:04:03
  • ★★ So the aquarium has two sets of pipes; several times a year one is closed and starved of oxygen, then a rubber plug called a pig washes the dead barnacles to sea. — 00:04:32
  • ★★ Filtered seawater goes first into the kelp forest tank, whose ecosystem is close to the bay's, then through the aquarium; the tank is public-facing storage whose level drops when intake stops. — 00:04:32
  • ★★ Water from native-wildlife exhibits needs no filtering out, but unlike an inland aquarium in Atlanta, Monterey discharges constantly, so invasive species are a risk. — 00:05:15
  • ★★ Water from exotic exhibits is filtered and passed through what is basically a UV tanning bed that sterilizes it before discharge to the bay. — 00:05:45
  • ★★ Pumping water takes a lot of energy, and if a smack of jellyfish clogs the intake, the steel cylinder keeping big animals out gets crushed and the flow stops. — 00:05:45

00:06:14 — Warming oceans and jellyfish blooms; the aquarium as an open door to the ocean

  • ★★★ Ocean water has warmed over the last 50 years or so, and warm water holds less oxygen, which is bad for many animals. — 00:06:14 · climate change
  • ★★ Jellies, older than fish, appear to be taking up the slack, so jellyfish blooms are more common and the intake cylinders must be replaced more often. (hedged) — 00:06:14
  • ★ The basement engineering creates a magical experience for the millions of people who visit every year. — 00:06:14
  • ★★★ The ocean's other world knocked on Monterey's door and humans answered: the aquarium is an open door giving appreciation of the oceans and the understanding that this is all one planet to be treated as such. — 00:06:43

00:07:12 — The secret summed up; thanks to the aquarium's social media team and Andrew Huang; sign-off

  • ★★★ On the surface the aquarium looks like effortless magic; underneath is the secret: work, engineering, science, passion, and the geology and climate that make it possible. — 00:07:12
  • ★★ Hank thanks the Monterey Bay Aquarium and its social media team, among the best in the world at science social media; following them on Twitter or Instagram is an absolute joy. — 00:07:12 · Twitter, Instagram
  • ★ Hank credits Andrew Huang for the video's music, all from his album TV and Video Games. — 00:07:12

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description adds that most jellyfish on display are bred at the aquarium, which researches their finicky breeding and grows algae to feed the jellyfish's prey. — video description
  • ★ Hank calls the mola mola wild and says he needs to make a whole video about them. — video description

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: Monterey Bay · Monterey Bay Aquarium

Also: Organizations: Instagram · Shedd Aquarium · Twitter

Concepts: barnacle · Biodiversity · climate change · continental shelf · cuttlefish · human microbiome · invasive species · jellyfish · mudskipper · ocean sunfish · otter · upwelling

Places: Atlanta · Chicago (city) · Grand Canyon · Key West · Monterey · Monterey Canyon · West Coast of the United States

Only in the description or credits: Andrew Huang · TV and Video Games

Also centred on Monterey Bay Aquarium: Behind the Scenes in the Deep Sea

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