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A solitary African penguin entered an empty lobby in the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium, curiously under an unoccupied bench.
As a bright bank of silver sardines glided through the one-million-gallon display in the open sea, soft atmospheric music was heard in an empty room.There was no circle of relatives there to watch the sharks feed.Jellyfish shone on their own in the dark.
Crowds filled the aquarium corridors in those last days of summer, but the Cannery Row Aquarium has been closed to the public for five months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Inside, it’s quiet.
While examining a sedated sea otter cub rescued from seaweed beds in Santa Cruz, Dr. Michael Murray, the aquarium’s director of veterinary services, said aloud whether the animals had noticed how much things had changed.
“A part of me says, “Oh, you don’t care, ” he said.The other component says, “They’re not stupid animals. They are very aware of their surroundings.They can see other people through acrylic and they can react to other people.Then why wouldn’t they notice?””
Life on the water tense.
The aquarium has missed the entire summer tourist season and its finances are so complicated that more than a third have been fired or licensed.
“They’re gone. Revenue is gone,” said Julie Packard, general manager of the aquarium.”In the meantime, animals and exhibits are going well.
Outside, three wildfires burned in Monterey County, causing at least one member to lose a house and others to evacuate.Smoke-sensitive animals and ashes falling from the orange sky had to be dragged inside.
Sea otters are vulnerable to coronavirus, forcing you to wear masks and gloves around you, and be sure to stay away from social mammals, who now stand when they see the few humans passing through their exhibits.
“It’s scary; it’s disturbing, disconcerting,” said Jon Hoech, the vice president of animal care, who evacuated from his home near Salinas over the river fire.”We had to navigate the PPE [personal protection equipment], take social distance, take divided turns …However, the real difficulty for the staff is not seeing other people see the paintings they are passionate about.
When it opened in 1984, the aquarium, built in Hovden’s former sardine canning factory, helped revitalize Cannery Row.After the place, he described Cannery Row as “a poem, a stench, a squeaky sound, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream.”
“The Monterey Bay Aquarium is world-renowned and like a global beacon for us travelers,” said Rob O’Keefe, Executive Director of the Monterey County Convention.
The aquarium closed on March 13 on March 13.A primary reopening scheduled for July 9, but canceled a few days earlier because Monterey County had just been included on the state’s coronavirus watch list.Lately there is no opening date.
“The visitors are gone. The source of income is gone.Meanwhile, the animals and exhibits are going very well.
Julie Packard, executive director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium
With an expected loss this year of about $45 million, the aquarium laid off 220 of its 580 employees.Others have noticed that their wages fall until the end of the year.
Because the nonprofit had more than 500 employees, it is not eligible for a coronavirus assistance loan through the federal paycheck coverage program, Packard said.
He begged donors to contribute more and conservation programs, has cut the budget of their conservation and science branch by 70%, which works, inter alia, for plastic pollutants in the ocean and to combat the negative effects of climate change.
The aquarium has maintained limited staff on site to care for more than 81,000 animals and the complex formula that pumps about 2,000 gallons of seawater constantly.
Zoos and aquariums, which feature ticket sales, concessions, car parks, occasions and gift department stores, were affected by closures, said Dan Ashe, president of the Zoological and Aquarium Association, an accreditation organization representing more than two hundred amenities in the United States.
“The pandemic has been, in a word, devastating,” Ashe said.
The organization suggested to Congress that it provide $30 million for zoos and aquariums in the upcoming stimulus investment circular and expand eligibility for forgiven loans from the paycheck coverage program for larger nonprofits.
Almost all of its members have been closed. Although about 86% have partially reopened, they operate with a seriously limited capacity that is sustainable in the long run, Ashe said.
The Los Angeles Zoo opened to the public Wednesday after a five-month closure in which it cost $11.7 million.The San Diego and Santa Barbara zoos and the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Palm Desert reopened in June.
After it closed in March, the Pacific Aquarium in Long Beach opened in mid-June, at 25% of capacity, with scheduled entry, door temperature controls and mask requirements.Its indoor facilities were open 19 days before it closed again due to the accumulation of coronavirus cases in Los Angeles County.His exhibitions are open in a limited capacity.
The aquarium provides a $15 million shortfall from an operating budget of about $40 million, said CHIEF financial officer Anthony Brown, who rejected 82 of its 400 members and fired about a hundred people, he said.
He wants to be creative, adding the relaunch of his penguin mounting sessions to $150 depending on the user for small teams and virtual yoga categories registered at the aquarium.
“There’s not too small a concept, ” said Brown. We are agile, we are able to do almost anything, but that is by far the biggest challenge this organization has ever had.”
The closure of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which draws 2 million visitors a year, was strongly felt on the Central Coast.
Tourism in Monterey County collapsed this year.Hotel occupancy rates are regularly 80% or more during the summer, O’Keefe said.In June, the rate was 48%. Travel began to increase, albeit slowly, the CEO said.
“This is the ultimate double blow, COVID plus fires,” O’Keefe said.”We face one of, other people can’t get in and other people can’t get outside.”
At the aquarium, they seek to keep their spirits up. There is a staff dance festival underway, which includes a number choreographed through underwater divers at the Kelp Forest exhibit.They also recorded “MeditOcean” videos, mindfulness meditations guided with photographs of jellyfish and breaking waves.
Swimming between anchovies and rockfish in the seaweed forest, on a recent morning, a diver answered his audience’s questions about what it’s like to feed the population from the depths.
“Are there fish that prefer food?” asked someone.
“Ohhh, yes, ” said Patrick Webster, his voice crackling in the underwater microphone.The bar is ‘always a little diva’. Sometimes, she explained, throws a piece of shrimp and she swallows it and spits it out.Other times, he brings squid and she decides, “Today I’m more shrimp.”
The questions came from an audience perched in the stadium near the three-story outdoor tank; instead, the diver was heading to a dark and silent room.The questions came here from an online audience, observed through the live stream.
Wearing an aquarium-branded mask with its own sketches of solar stars and algae, Packard said the facility is in a position to operate as soon as it is allowed to reopen, plans to introduce limited and timed entrances and single-track roads.You should wear a mask and double-check that you have no symptoms of COVID-19.
People can’t wait to come back,” Packard said.
“What we want from us right now, both for one and both days, is anything that calms us down and lifts us up with something positive and joyful,” he said.”The good looks of nature here and enjoying anything glorious and curious with its circle of relatives and loved ones, is just a reminder that as a human race we have done much to harm nature and yet nature will endure.”