The Monterey Bay Aquarium opens, 1984
The opening of the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Oct. 21, 1984, was a huge event for the region.
MONTEREY >> It was billed as “Fish Return to Cannery Row.”
The opening of the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Oct. 21, 1984, was a huge event for the region.
“The fish are back on Cannery Row, and they brought an estimated 30,000 twolegged friends with them for Saturday's grand opening of the Monterey Bay Aquarium,” wrote the Herald's Ken Peterson. “There probably haven't been that many people on Cannery Row since its heyday, when the roar of cannery whistles drew hundreds of workers down from the hills of New Monterey to pack the silver harvest of sardines.”
Aquarium officials said that 11,057 people trooped the exhibit halls and police estimated that there may have been as many as 30,000 people in the Cannery Row area that day. After the Aquarium closed for the day there was a half-hour fireworks display that “set the bay aglow,” wrote Peterson.
“I'm delighted that you brought such a beautiful day,” David Packard told the crowd as he opened the ceremonies to dedicate the $50 million project that he and his wife, Lucile, donated to the community.
Julie Packard, the aquarium's executive director, extended thanks to the designers and engineers for their “many hours of love and labor.”
Peterson wrote of the conception of the Aquarium in a preview of opening day:
The Hovden Cannery “closed more than a decade ago and, like its brethren along the row, fell into disrepair. It was purchased by Stanford University to prevent any development. … `People at (Hopkins) had been looking at it for years,' explained Julie Packard, herself a marine biology graduate of UC Santa Cruz. `They used to come over and snoop around. It was near and dear to everyone's heart.'”
Among those who occasionally prowled were Robin and Nancy Burnett, Packard's sister and brother-in-law. In 1976, during an evening with fellow Hopkins graduates, their halfformed ideas about an aquarium began to take shape.
Stanford eventually sold the cannery to the newly formed Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation for just under $1 million and construction began in early 1980.
They had about 2.3 million visitors that first year and it didn't slow down much until COVID-19 hit, forcing the Aquarium to close. During the non-COVID years, the aquarium averaged about 2 million visitors a year.
Yet, the Aquarium never rested on its laurels. In 1996, the Aquarium opened an Outer Bay wing, at a cost of $57 million. In February, the Aquarium opened it newest exhibition, “Into the Deep: Exploring Our Undiscovered Ocean,” at a cost of $15 million to develop.
As David Packard said on opening day to the enthusiastic crowd, “We hope to live up to your expectations.”
“The fish are back on Cannery Row, and they brought an estimated 30,000 twolegged friends with them for Saturday's grand opening of the Monterey Bay Aquarium.” — Ken Peterson in the Herald's 1984 report on the opening of the Monterey Bat Aquarium