Monterey Bay Aquarium

The mission of the nonprofit Monterey Bay Aquarium is to inspire conservation of the ocean. Since opening in October 1984, we have advanced our mission through our amazing exhibitions of ocean wildlife, education programs for youth and their teachers, and conservation and science initiatives that combat growing threats to ocean health. We work to educate the rising generation of ocean stewards, recover threatened ocean species and ecosystems, reduce ocean plastic pollution, and lead the way towards more sustainable fisheries and aquaculture. As one of our nation’s leading Aquariums, we are trusted by the public, businesses, policymakers and international stakeholders, allowing us to tackle pressing issues affecting ocean health and support solutions that create meaningful change.

We envision a world in which the ocean is healthy, and people are committed to protecting the integrity of Earth's life-sustaining natural systems. To make this vision a reality, we help people know more, care more and do more on behalf of the ocean. Our exhibits and programs introduce people from all walks of life to the wonders of the marine world, from Monterey Bay to the vast oceans beyond. As a leader in ocean conservation, we extend our impact by: inspiring the public through our webcams, web stories, and social media that showcase amazing ocean animals and habitats; engaging schoolchildren, teens, and teachers in science and conservation-based education programming; promoting ocean-friendly policies in California and the U.S. that help protect ocean animals, like the threatened southern sea otter; and providing tools to help the public make better seafood choices for a healthy ocean and global buyers and producers improve sustainable fishing and aquaculture practices.

Source: Nonprofit submitted responses

Goal One: Inspire and Engage: Create inspiring experiences for Aquarium visitors, build a constituency for the ocean, and develop and empower young conservation leaders.

Goal Type: Grow, expand, scale or increase access to the existing programs and services.

Goal Two: Act for the Ocean: Improve the sustainability of global fisheries and aquaculture, advance policy for ocean conservation, and generate scientific information to guide conservation decisions.

Goal Type: This goal reflects our commitment to further our advocacy work for our organization and or cause area.

Goal Three: Build Our Capacity: Ensure financial sustainability, invest in our people, take care of our physical assets, model best practices in environmental sustainability and advance technology and innovation.

Goal Type: Invest in the capacity of our organization (financial, management, technical, etc.).

Describe an investment in leadership

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is dedicated to developing leadership qualities in our staff of all levels. Each leader is required to attend a three-day, experiential leadership development program that provides knowledge and skill building in the areas of leadership fundamentals, coaching skills, feedback and conflict resolution skills, employment law, inclusive interviewing practices, and leading teams. Leaders are also required to attend a two-day program on personal leadership and accountability. Since 2020, all Aquarium staff, including our leaders, are asked to attend a two and a half day program on racial equity and social justice. Every two years leaders complete sexual harassment awareness training, along with other periodic workplace management training. Each month, additional courses are offered in either an online or instructor-led format that offer skill building opportunities for leaders. These courses are self-selected by leaders to support their personal, development goals.

This organization mobilizes for mission in the following ways:

• Strategic Partnerships

• Networks of Collective Impact Efforts

• Thought Leadership

• Raising Awareness

• Community Building

• Policy Advocacy

What are this organization’s external mobilizaton efforts?

We partner with aquariums nation-wide on initiatives to ensure ocean health and with formal and informal educators, school districts, colleges, and universities to help build a rising generation of ocean stewards. We support community partners in their efforts to achieve equitable access to the ocean and encourage ocean-friendly activities. We work closely with government agencies and academic organizations to conduct research and conservation efforts that protect threatened ocean animals and with elected officials at the local, state and federal level to ensure legislation is passed to conserve the ocean, its ecosystems and wildlife. We work with partners in countries around the world to support efforts by seafood buyers, fishers, and farmers to achieve sustainable fishing and aquaculture practices.

Although the Aquarium was closed to the public for 14 months due to the pandemic, we remained committed to our mission to inspire conservation of the ocean. Throughout our closure, we continued to provide the best quality care for the nearly 80,000 animals and plants at the Aquarium. We pivoted programming to virtual platforms, leveraging our web and social channels to share stories about ocean animals and ecosystems. We also launched online courses for schoolchildren, teens and teachers and offered virtual field trip programs for K-12 students that have been extremely popular. Understanding that threats to the ocean continued to become more serious, we continued to care for stranded sea otters, maintained our global Seafood Watch program and supported critical ocean conservation efforts. We accomplished this while managing major programming and staffing cuts. Regardless of the significant challenges, our staff remained deeply committed to their work. They were nimble and creative as they came up new ways to communicate about and forward our critical ocean conservation mission, including accomplishing ground-breaking work on our new exhibition Into the Deep: Exploring Our Undiscovered Ocean because of a generous donor. And when we reopened to the public on May 15th, our staff did an outstanding job developing and employing modifications for the health and safety of our staff and guests, while ensuring an amazing Aquarium experience. During this difficult time, we were heartened to have thousands of new subscribers, followers and virtual visitors and more than 40,000 students, teens and teachers enroll in our virtual education programming. Now that we’ve reopened and restarted in-person education programs, we’re continuing our virtual presence to reach diverse audiences around the globe. Despite the challenges, we’ve remained optimistic due to the amazing support of our members and donors who stood steadfastly by us so we could emerge stronger than ever before.