The Steinhart Aquarium was founded in 1923 and is part of the California Academy of Sciences, which also includes the Natural History Museum and the Morrison Planetarium, all of which are located in one convenient place. This means you don't need to rush around, and permits variety if your kids are not interested in spending a whole day looking at pretty fishes. I visited all three areas, and they are all well laid out and marked.

One of the best things about running a dive-related web site is that I get to talk to professionals who might not be available to everyone. When I am so fortunate I slip on my "everyone" hat and fire away questions that I think you would want to know. I do go with a theme in mind. In this case I wanted to find out how the Steinhart Aquarium acquires and maintains their exhibits and I wanted to talk with a career diver. I found answers to these questions, and many more during my visit. If my request to speak with a marine biologist who is also a scuba diver was a strange one, no one ever said anything about it. I was introduced to Tom Tucker who is a curator at the aquarium. His depth of information was tremendous, and his willingness to share made our meeting very productive and fun.

When I asked him what the biggest change for visitors was, that he has seen during his career, he replied "acrylics." How quickly we have forgotten when tank size was severely limited by the amount of pressure glass could support. Now we take for granted seeing large fish actually swimming and chasing each other in large tanks. When I asked what made Steinhart different from the many other aquariums, Tom told me something I was to see more of later: they focus on diversity of marine life. He wasn't kidding. I spent almost the entire day there, happily wandering around. I think I looked into almost every one of the 165 tanks that they have showing a tremendous variety of aquatic life gathered from around the globe. I saw the lungfish that has been at the aquarium since 1938! How long have you kept your fish?

Tom Tucker was a student of Margaret Bradbury, the world renown marine biologist. Her influence led to Tom's decision to become a biologist himself. Tom says that having an advanced degree is an advantage, but not a requirement. A bachelor's degree will do for a start. It's important to love what you're doing. There are always volunteer opportunities in local aquariums, including CAS. If you're interested in this kind of a career, spend some time there and find out if this kind of work is really what you want to do.

I wondered how aquariums obtain their specimens. Tom says that while they do gather worldwide, aquariums also trade among themselves. He had just returned from collecting anemones off the coast of California in a sixteen foot open boat! If you have seen the rocks and surf off that beautiful coast, just think about trying to get back into a small boat under those conditions. Not for the weak-kneed.

I next met Tomio Iwanmoto, Ph.D., curator in Ichthyology at the California Academy of Sciences. I asked Dr. Iwanmoto about books regular people might use to help identify marine life. He likes the Peterson's Guides. They are easy to use and cover most things we might come across. He does say that occasionally CAS receives specimens that even stump him. When I was there he was comparing grenadier fish specimens from half a dozen jars. Tom later gave me a glimpse of the specimen room, which was huge and filled with racks and shelves of jars of marine animals. They even have one area just for specimens they cannot readily identify. If you can imagine such a thing! Tom suggested taking a look at your books before going on a dive. I know if I review on the plane, or the first night before diving, that I can identify more fish on a dive than trying to flounder (sorry!) through the guides afterwards.

Look at the California Academy of Sciences Web page, www.calacademy.org. Their site includes a lot of scientific data as well as some great pictures. I particularly enjoyed reading about cubozoans off the coast of Australia. These are box jellies that may have actually killed more people than sharks and crocodiles combined! The Academy also runs courses geared to adults, children, and families. Check dates and times before going; you may be able to combine several activities in one visit. As you can no doubt tell, I had a great time and highly recommend that you make sure you block the 4-5 hours that the CAS deserves. All right, spend the whole day.

Recommended Reading:

McCosker, John E. 1999. The History of the Steinhart Aquarium: A Very Fishy Tale
A definitive history of one of the oldest aquariums in the U.S. It can be ordered from the CAS bookstore; call the Information switchboard at 415-750-7145.

Scott, Peter W. 1995. Complete Aquarium
This book that starts with general knowledge and background of different water environments and fish. Then it spends, the rest of the book explaining how to setup different sorts of aquariums. Great information to use revamping or updating your aquarium.

Sandford, Gina. 2000. Aquarium Owner's Guide: The Complete Illustrated Reference for the Home Aquarium
This extensive guide has great pictures and how-to information on creating, stocking, and maintaining a fresh- or saltwater home aquarium.

Page, Lawrence M. et al. 1998. A Field Guide to Freshwater Fishes : North American North of Mexico (a Peterson Field Guide)
A tremendous guide to all 790 known species in the specified range, with some 700 illustrations (most in color), 377 distribution maps and additional line drawings of key details; information range, habitat, and behavior, and status of endangered fishes. WOW!

Humann, Paul et.al. 1996. Coastal Fish Identification: California to Alaska
A definitive guide for the west coast diver, with hundreds of great photos.

Kaplan, Eugene H., et. al. 1999. A Field Guide to Coral Reefs: Caribbean and Florida (a Peterson Field Guide)
If you dive in these areas you MUST have this book. The book shows how to identify quickly and accurately the common inhabitants of the reefs. Carrying just this book alone can keep adults & kids occupied for hours marking off the fish you have seen and hope to locate. Tell the stories when you saw the critters and let your teenagers share theirs too, it doesn't get any better than this.

Additional Reference Sites:

The American Zoo and Aquarium Association's website www.aza.org has a lot of information about how aquariums are run and why we must support them.

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