Education Audio

Each year grunion return to the sandy beaches of Southern California to lay their eggs. This unusual spectacle is readily observable during a walk on the beach, provided you’re willing to stay up late enough.

Aquarists at the Aquarium of the Pacific have achieved remarkable success in breeding marine organisms. This often involves interesting challenges that result from the unusual ways in which ocean-dwelling animals breed.

Seals have remarkable adaptations for surviving the cold, pressure, and darkness of deep water.

Clipperton Island is the easternmost coral atoll in the Pacific Ocean. This remote island enjoys a colorful history. Its isolation is not enough to protect its pristine reefs and unique wildlife from human impacts.

The demand for live fish for both the marine aquarium and seafood trade spurs the use of destructive collecting techniques, including cyanide fishing. Cyanide is a toxic chemical used to stun the fish, allowing them to be gathered by hand. Many fish suffer lasting injury and experience early mortality. The fishermen frequently cause physical damage to reefs during collecting as well, destroying branching corals while getting at small fish in crevices.

Monitors are intelligent carnivorous lizards that include the Komodo dragon, the largest lizard in the world. A species of monitor known as “Kalabeck’s monitor” was rediscovered in the 1990s after it had been re-identified as a distinct species. Baxter the monitor at the Aquarium is an example of this species.

The menacing-looking sand tiger shark is unfairly labeled as a man-eater. The species is vulnerable across much of its range due to bycatch and recreational fishing. In Australia, efforts to restore the sharks’ population include endangered species listing, recovery planning, and captive breeding.

The Cabo Pulmo reefs along Baja California support marine life ranging from strikingly colorful fish to playful seal lions, but these reefs have been endangered by a variety of sources. Due to this threat, the Mexican government has made it a national marine park. See some of the animals native to Cabo Pulmo represented at the Aquarium.

Coral reefs can be found all over the world, and are as old as they are diverse. Although they've survived millions of years, human impact threatens the longevity of coral reefs and the organisms that inhabit them.