Aquarium of the Bay

Hundreds of plant and animal species call the San Francisco bay home, which is composed of over 500 square miles of water. On our group's first day in the city, we explored the Aquarium of the Bay to learn about some of San Francisco's wildlife. The aquarium houses many species of fish, both bony and cartilangenous, jellyfish, echinoderms, amphibians, reptiles, and marine mamals. The necessity of conservation is also stressed by many exhibits.

Sharks, rays and skates have skeletons composed of cartilage rather than bone, but are still classified as fish. The bay area is home to 21 species of sharks, 3 species of rays, and 3 species of skates. Below is a leopard shark, that generally can grow to between 50 and 60 inches long, but can be up to 7 feet long, eating invertebrates and small fish. It inhabbits the bottom of the bay, and in the aquarium coexisted with other fish and echinoderms.

Jellyfish are invertabrates, and so they are not actually classified as fish, but rather are large plankton and move at the mercy of the current. Jellyfish species range in size, shape and toxicity. There are stinging species called medusae and non-stinging species called comb jellies or ctenophores. Medusae have millions of very small stinging cells in their tentacles called nematocysts. Below are 4 species of jellyfish found in the san Francisco Bay.

All echinoderms have one thing in common: radial symmetry. This means that the creatures have appendages that usually occur in multiples of five which point outward from the center of the body like the spokes on a bicycle wheel. The aquarium had mutiple species of sea stars, probabaly the most famous type of echinoderms that have very obvious radial symmetry. Sea cucmubersare also found in the bay, and there were a few in the aquarium's touch tanks. A few species of sea stars and a sea cucumber a pictured below.

Photo taken by Anna Margret Clyburn

I have been interested in Marine Biology for the majority of my life, and so I always enjoy aquariums. This aquarium was beautifully laid out in a way that brought out the individual beauty of each creature and the ecosystem as a whole. The tunnel tank was particularly stunning. The descriptions of the species were informative and stressed the importance of conserving their natural environments.

All photos without credit were taken by me.