Pacific Visions: A Bold Departure for an Aquarium to Enhance Ocean Education

Abstract

The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach California, the 4th largest aquarium in the U.S. in terms of attendance, needed to expand to accommodate its growing attendance. It chose to depart from traditional aquarium expansions that focus on more and larger tanks to display more and larger marine animals and to focus instead on the one animal that is putting all other animals on the planet—aquatic and terrestrial—at risk. That animal is of course us. The new wing called Pacific Visions is a permanent commitment to telling the story of the changing relationship of humans with the Earth and World Ocean and what it will take to make that relationship sustainable. It uses media, technology, interactives, and some live marine animals to tell this story. The story was created with the assistance of some of the world's best scientists. It doesn't pull any punches concerning the severity of the problems of climate change, but offers hope if we use the knowledge and technology we have.