Nighttime Under the Sea

A girl and her mother carry sleeping bags into the Monterey Bay Aquarium for a special Camp-In. The aquarium closes at 6:00 P.M., but at 7:00 P.M. the doors open again for a nighttime sleepover.

First, the girl wants to visit the touch pool. She touches a sea star and notices that its top is bumpy and its feet are tiny. She also touches a spiny sea urchin carefully because some sea urchins can be poisonous.

Each aquarium exhibit presents creatures from a particular ocean zone. A zone is an ocean environment, or habitat. Each habitat supports different creatures, just like different neighborhoods support different people and animals.

The diagram shows animals in different ocean zones. The rocky shore includes sea urchins, sea stars, and hermit crabs. The coral reef and kelp forest include groupers, corals, and leopard sharks. Open water includes jellyfish, tuna, and sea turtles.

In the Kelp Forest exhibit, the girl sees many sizes and colors of fish. A marine biologist explains overfishing. Overfishing means people catch fish faster than the fish can reproduce. Some fish become too rare, so people should avoid eating them for a while.

The girl reads a Seafood Watch booklet and sees sea bass under “Avoid.” She and her mother decide not to eat sea bass for a while. Later, they eat milk and cookies, visit tuna and sea otters, and sleep near anchovies and the Kelp Forest exhibit.