Monterey Bay Aquarium The Monterey Bay Aquarium is located in Cannery Row in Monterey, California. Cannery Row used to be where the sardine factories were located since they were right where the sardines thrived. After the factories closed down in 1973, plans for an aquarium were beginning to come to life. in 1984, the aquarium was open to the public.

This past summer, the aquarium had a new exhibit called “The Jellies Experience”. It was full of various jellyfish found in the open sea. I didn’t even know all these different ones existed! It was awesome because some of them were bioluminescent, which means they glow in the dark. They had some parts of the exhibit where the lights were off so you can see the jellies glowing and floating around. The bottom floor was where the bioluminescent jellies were. Some of them were hard to see, and some you had to press a button for a light to come on in the display tank to see them. I think at one point, I lost my boyfriend in the dark.

It was cool because they had little tiny jellyfish that were even smaller than a penny. They also had huge jellyfish with really long tentacles. There were so many jellyfish to see, but I think we looked at all of them. It was a pretty big exhibit and I took so many pictures. My boyfriend asked me if I had enough pictures of the jellyfish, but I told him I needed more! Even though they are pretty and majestic, you don’t want to be stung by them. They have a nasty sting and if you ever find yourself stung by a jellyfish, DO NOT have someone pee on you — that is a myth. Here’s how to handle a jellyfish sting the right way.

Lots of jellyfish. All photos by me. Interesting tentacles. They look like X-rays. Upside down jellies. They look like mushroom caps. Tiny jellies. Tiny bioluminscent jellies. More jellies.

They had a certain allure which drew me in. They flowed effortlessly in the water and their transparent bodies just floated around. There was something mysterious about them that captivated me. They had various unique body shapes and colors. One jellyfish laid upside down on the bottom of the “sea floor”. All the jellyfish were so interesting and pretty! I’m not sure if it was a temporary exhibit, but they still have jellyfish in the aquarium. On this map, it says that jellies are on the second floor, so that might be the exhibit. You can purchase tickets online here, and if you are a student they even offer student discounts. The good thing about the aquarium is that you can go in and out as long as you get a hand stamp. You can split your day up and not have to worry about being at the aquarium for the whole day. Parking is a little tricky — I didn’t see a parking lot when we got there, but I was able to find metered parking on the street. I would definitely go back to the aquarium if I was ever in Monterey again.

Just keep swimming and #ExploreCA