Still waiting: Why is the famed Monterey Bay Aquarium still closed?
High case numbers inland keeps county in purple COVID tier
In the 36 years since Silicon Valley tech pioneer Dav id Packard and his family opened the Monterey Bay Aquar ium, it has been an economic engine of Monterey, drawing millions of visitors to Cannery Row and expanding the public’s understanding of the oceans.
But the aquarium has been shut down for the past seven months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And although other aquariums and zoos in Northern California have already reopened, including the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, Monterey’s — regularly included in lists of the world’s best — cannot.
The reason: Monterey County is still in the state’s purple tier for COVID-19, one of only nine of California’s 58 counties in the most restrictive of the four tiers.
For pur ple count ies, aquariums, museums and zoos can only open to outdoor visitors. They can reopen indoors at 25% capacity when case rates fall and their county moves into the next tier, the red tier. After that, in the orange tier, 50% capacity is allowed, and full capacity in the yellow, or lowest, tier.
Neighboring Santa Cruz County improved to the orange tier on Oct. 27, clearing the way for outdoor rides to operate at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk with up to 500 people at a time, as long as they are from within the county.
But most of the CO - VID-19 cases in Monterey
County aren’t in the coastal communities of Monterey or Pacific Grove, next to the aquarium. Most are farther inland, in the city of Salinas and in the small towns that line the Salinas Valley, where farmworkers often live in cramped housing, more than 50 miles away from the aquarium and the crashing waves of Monterey Bay. The issue is highlighting long-standing disparities between the low-income Latino farmworkers in Steinbeck Country and the coastal towns that are often worlds away.
“We are seeing our numbers go down,” said Karen Smith, a spokeswoman for the Monterey County Health Department. “But we are seeing some really tough pockets of illness. A lot of it is related
to crowded housing. When one person gets sick, they might be living in a multifamily home, and it spreads pretty rapidly.”
Until case numbers fall, the aquarium cannot open. And without visitors, the economic impact has been devastating.
The aquarium expects to lose $45 million this year. It has laid off or furloughed roughly 220 people, nearly 40% of its staff. In June, after consulting with medical experts, aquarium officials released a detailed plan to reopen, limiting the number of visitors to 25% of normal, checking temperatures for visitors and staff members, requiring one-way loops for social distancing, mandating masks and closing hands-on exhibits such as touch pools.
But everything is on hold. And that is threatening the aquarium’s survival, said Julie Packard, the aquarium’s executive director.
“It’s pretty frustrating, I have to say,” she said. “The animals in the exhibits are looking great. Our animal care and facilities team has been on-site the whole time caring for the animals. The place looks fantastic.”
It costs the aquarium $1 million a month to feed and care for thousands of fish, sharks, birds, sea otters and other animals in its landmark buildings on Cannery Row. But every day, the deficit grows.
“We’ve had to do severe budget reductions,” Packard said. “That’s been really heartbreaking for everyone. We really need to get back open as soon as we can to get some revenue flowing again from visitors.”
In testimony before the State A ssembly i n Sacramento two weeks ago, Packard noted that the aquarium prov ides free admission to 100,000 students a year and even during the pandemic has been providing online science lessons to thousands of students. Of the more than 30 major aquariums in the United States that have already opened in recent months — including the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, the National Aquarium in Baltimore and the New England Aquarium in Boston — there have been no COVID outbreaks tied to any of them, she noted.
The closure, she said, “is threatening our very existence.” Under current state r ules, i ndoor shopping malls are allowed to be open in Monterey County and others in the purple tier, Packard said, but not zoos, aquariums or museums, key institutions that educate and inspire millions of children.
“The fate of California’s zoos and aquariums are going to remain in jeopardy for months if not years,” she said. “Some of them are not going to make it.”
The Packard Foundation, based in Los Altos, has provided grants to nonprofit groups working to reduce COVID-19 in Monterey County.
Monterey County is still str uggling w ith a high coronavius case rate of 8.5 per 100,000 people, well above the 7.0 rate needed to move into the next tier. Farmworkers have higher rates than workers in any other of the county’s industries. Nearly 79% of the COVID-19 cases in Monterey County are among Latinos, who make up 61% of the county population.
“It’s a reflection of issues that predate the pandemic,” Packard said. “If there’s any positive thing, it will hopefully bring more visibility to the challenges that need to be solved here. We’re one community, one county, we all need to take care of each other.”
Some say it isn’t fair or economically sustainable, however, for the tourism industry on Monterey’s coastline to be shut down, with thousands of jobs lost because of COVID-19 spikes inland, and that many facilities can reopen safely.
“Do we agree with it? No,” said Frank Geisler, CEO of the Monterey Peninsula Chamber of Commerce. “Our economy on the coast depends on hospitality and tourism. It employs thousands of people. All of it has gone to nil. We should be able to look at it ZIP code by ZIP code.”
Geisler said 40% of the restaurants and hotels on the Monterey Peninsula are in danger of closing.
Dr. Edward Moreno, Monterey County’s public health officer, said Wednesday he doesn’t know when the county is likely to move into the next tier. County officials are working with nonprofit groups to do more outreach to low-income Latino communities and have helped coordinate financial aid, masks and other assistance to farmworkers.
Charles McKee, Monterey County’s administrative officer, said county officials are in discussion with the state, but for now, the aquarium rules must be followed.
“Yes, we would love to say let’s open the aquarium,” he said, “but even if we think there’s a way to do it safely, it’s still going to be done by how the state articulates the guidelines.”