Cooped up? Feeling anxious? Looking for a diversion for the kids? Or yourself?
Until at least April 8, the Monterey Bay Aquarium is closed due to the coronavirus outbreak. But you can still visit its famed animals — from sea otters to sharks to hypnotic moon jellies — through 10 live webcams. And the online crowds are growing fast.
“Our webcams are still streaming,” said Julie Packard, executive director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, in a tweet on Saturday. “Until we reopen, you can check in on the sea otters, sway with the kelp forest, find tranquility with the jellies and look for wildlife out on Monterey Bay.”
The free webcams are available from 7 a.m.to 7 p.m. Pacific time, on the aquarium’s Facebook page, its Youtube channel or the aquarium’s website, at www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/live-cams.
The webcams feature the sea otter tank, kelp forest tank, bird aviary, penguins, open sea tank, jellyfish tanks and live views of Monterey Bay.
Most of the aquarium’s more than 500 staff members are working from home. But key employees are remaining at the Cannery Row landmark to maintain the building’s operations and oversee the welfare of the animals. That includes security crews, workers who feed and care for the animals, and workers who maintain the tanks and other facilities.
The sea otters, sharks, sea turtles, fish, birds and other wildlife at the aquarium cannot get the COVID-19 coronavirus, said Ken Peterson, an aquarium spokesman.
They are still being fed on the same schedules as before.
“The animals are doing great,” Peterson said. “They are getting the same level of care as they were before. We’re closed on Christmas day. So it’s kind of like that for them now.”
In the middle of a typical day, about 120 people are watching the aquarium wildlife cameras online live at any one time. With the coronavirus outbreak and large numbers of workers and students riding it out at home, that number has gone up more than eight-fold in recent days, to more than 1,000, Peterson said.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium isn’t alone in offering wildlife webcams. Other Northern California institutions that do include the Oakland Zoo, which has webcams for elephants, bears and other wildlife, the California Academy of Sciences, which features its coral reef, penguin exhibit, and a live webcam on the Farallon Islands, and the Ventana Wilderness Society in Big Sur, which showcases condors in the wild.
“We’re grateful to have the opportunity to lift people’s spirits,” Peterson said. “We can’t welcome them in our doors but we are still there for them.”
On Monday, fans of the webcams gushed on the aquarium’s Facebook site.
“Watching from upstate New York. Thank you for something to laugh about!!!” wrote Nancy Rouse as the sea otters rubbed their paws together.
“Thanks for sharing this feed!” wrote Toshiko Eng. “Something we all can enjoy during our county-wide shelter-in-place! Takes the stress away!”
“We need this with no baseball, theater, or other normal activities,” wrote Stuart Endick on the moon jelly cam. “Wish the jelly cam had TP!”
