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Beautiful day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium
May 23, 2007

On a whim, both my husband and I decided to take last Friday off and visit the Monterey Bay aquarium with our toddlers. Usually on weekends, you end up watching people and strollers rather than watching the marine lives. We visit the aquarium about three times a year, so the exhibits are not entirely new to us. Nonetheless, we enjoy every visit and the kids seem to understand a little more every time. We visited the must-see Outer Bay exhibit and continued to be mesmerized by these giant but graceful fish – blue fin tuna, yellow fin tuna, funny looking sun fish, barracudas, hammer-head sharks…As always we visited the adorable otters and cute penguins. But this time around, we also got to spend some time at the “Real-Cost” café where we learned which fish were on the brink of extinction and which fish were good choices. The exhibit was so interactive and interesting even my 2 & ½ year old could sit at the bar stool for 10 minutes. My 4 year old went through the “fish menu” and listened to the café “chef” and “hostess” explain why her picks were good or inappropriate. While I am not sure how much she understood, she was still learning in her own way. There were quite a few kids taking turns on the bar stools to learn how to make smart seafood choices. One boy told his mom, “We have to tell pop not to order Chilean Seabass any more.” Mom smiled.

It’s taxing to your memory if you want to remember what the “chef” and the “hostess” said. Fortunately you can get a wallet-sized “Seafood Guide”. The aquarium has guides for different regions of the US and updates them annually. Example of the best choices are farmed Tilapia, Alaskan wild-caught Salmon, and white Seabass. Examples of fish to avoid are Chilean Seabass, all farmed Salmon, and blue fin Tuna. The guide now sits on our refrigerator next to friends’ pictures and to do lists. I feel kind of dorky pulling out the seafood guide at a restaurant before ordering fish, but I am also glad to know that by doing so, my children will be able to order the fish I am ordering today in 20 years.

You can download the handy seafood guide from the Monterey Aquarium Seafood WATCH website

CindyW

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