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| July 7, 2006
Water World
BY JORDAN E. ROSENFELD
In lieu of such a miracle, the Bay Institute has received the next best gift—a partnership with the only facility in the country that focuses specifically on the life and story of the bay—the Aquarium of the Bay at Pier 39 in San Francisco. For nearly two years the Bay Institute, a leading scientific nonprofit that restores and stewards the San Francisco Bay and its tributaries, has worked with the management team of the aquarium and countless partners and decision-makers to try to purchase it under a pressured time-line. And against a corporate bidder. Just when they feared they would lose their chance altogether, in stepped Bay Area businessman Darius Anderson, and his firm Kenwood Investments, who acted as a bridge and purchased the aquarium to preserve a legacy for current and future generations of Bay Area residents. In support of the Bay Institute, Anderson offered the funds at the final hour, winning the bid against the Ripley’s: Believe It or Not franchise. Anderson has given the Bay Institute an exclusive two-year option to acquire the Aquarium of the Bay and operate it as a nonprofit facility. In the interim, they will work as scientific collaborators to raise awareness and introduce people to the aquarium. THE ESTUARY THAT LINKS THE BAY AREA “The waters of the bay connect all Bay Area counties,” stressed Grant Davis, executive director of the Bay Institute. Marin County is home to several tributaries that weave their way into the San Francisco Bay, all part of what scientists now call the San Francisco Estuary, one of the largest in the entire country. The estuary—a semi-enclosed coastal body of water that connects with open sea and is diluted by fresh-water drainage from land—encompasses the San Pablo Bay, San Francisco Bay proper, the Carquinez Strait, Suisun Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Marin County shares an especially intimate connection with the San Francisco Bay. Marin is, after all, just a few miles across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. But more directly, the San Pablo Bay in Novato and the Central Bay in Mill Valley empty their imperiled waters directly into the San Francisco Bay. The Aquarium of the Bay, which is accredited by the esteemed American Zoo and Aquarium Association, is the only one in the country that tells this unique story of the San Francisco Bay Estuary in visitor-friendly exhibits that educate as well as entertain. The other San Francisco aquarium, the Steinhart, which will re-open in 2008 after a renovation, reflects animals and fish of the world and has given its blessing to the Aquarium of the Bay as a sister organization, with hopes on both sides to work as partners. THE BAY INSTITUTE: There is not a creek or river in Marin County that the Bay Institute has not done restoration or education work on, or a local environmental organization that it has not partnered with. Yet, while the organization is centralized in Marin, and committed to the health of those tributaries, its overarching mission has always been to steward and restore the San Francisco Bay at large. “This aquarium is a rare opportunity for us to fulfill our mission. All the stars aligned for us,” said Davis. “What’s been missing in our work is only our ability to reach the broader public. With the aquarium we’ll have a place where people can come be introduced to our work in a very immediate way and it will serve as a platform for other conservation groups the bay over to do the same. Since its location is right in the heart of San Francisco’s waterfront at Fisherman’s Wharf, it will be many times over more accessible to people,” said Davis. “I envision a day when kids will come from the aquarium to the Bay Model in Sausalito and get a real picture of the many ways the bay connects us.” The Bay Institute has pioneered a set of scientific measurements to determine how healthy the bay is, and how it is changing each year. This “report card” known as the S.F. Bay Index, assigns grades to each tributary of the bay in a variety of areas from water quality to the numbers of invasive species. This scorecard provides a realistic starting place for restoration and conservation efforts. Marin residents might be interested to know that their water-bodies have been receiving fairly poor grades for some time now. For an agency that works hard to bring a practical understanding of how critical the health of the San Francisco Bay is to all Bay Area residents, the Aquarium of the Bay is an ideal living model of their mission. Since 1997, when Davis joined the Bay Institute, the organization has created a strong educational component, instituting the STRAW program (Students and Teachers Restoring a Watershed), in which hundreds of schoolchildren learn how to be good stewards and help restore tributaries every year. “Now kids will begin their watershed education here at the aquarium,” said Davis with obvious enthusiasm. “They’ll get to actually see the creatures that live in the bay and understand what’s at stake.” Davis believes that the Aquarium of the Bay, which is staffed with naturalists and biologists, can also inspire children to think of their own futures in the field. “These scientists represent the possibilities of working as a biologist or ecologist who can interpret the natural world. We’re presenting opportunities for children and sparking their imagination to become better stewards,” he said. FROM “UNDERWHELMING WORLD” TO SUCCESS Will Travis, the executive director of the S.F. Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), which issued the permits for the aquarium, remembers the negative buzz surrounding its opening all too well. “When we processed that application, it was very controversial,” said Travis. “We were sued by Save the Bay, which is the organization that founded our agency, so it was a bit like getting whomped by your mother. Many legal challenges delayed the opening of the aquarium and the result was disappointing. My 5-year-old daughter’s response to it was, ‘Where’s the fish?’ and it quickly earned the nickname ‘underwhelming world.’ ” By 1997 the owner declared bankruptcy and the French bank that owned it, BNP Paribas, took over. Many proposals were put in to turn it into other things besides an aquarium—from restaurants to an IMAX theater. “Because we had approved it under this cloud of litigation, we felt it should stay an aquarium and focus on the bay as it had once purported to do,” said Travis. Enter John Frawley, now the general manager, who had originally been hired to work in the Minnesota version of Underwater World until it became clear that the San Francisco version needed help. In 2001 the aquarium underwent a renovation and became the facility it is today. “Frawley turned it around and metamorphosed it into something fabulous,” said Travis. “It just got better and better, which made us at BCDC happy. Then it went up for sale.” John Frawley turned to Grant Davis because he felt the Bay Institute might have a powerful interest in buying the aquarium to use it as a research center and platform for its work. “I couldn’t believe that the San Francisco Bay—the biggest estuary in the West Coast and the most branded one in the United States—didn’t even have its own nature center focused on telling the story of the bay,” said Frawley. “In Minnesota, every puddle and creek has its own nature center. I approached Grant because the Bay Institute is well-respected and already committed to conserving the bay. We needed a partner with the level of science they have to take the data sets that are out there and put them into a form that the general public can understand.” For nearly two years Davis scrambled to acquire the funds needed to make the purchase. When it became clear in 2005 that Ripley’s was actively pursuing the acquisition and had the fluid means to buy it, the pressure mounted. “We knew this was a once in a lifetime opportunity,” said Davis. “And we felt that we were the right ones for it.” “The sale is an exciting story of bringing people together who demonstrated passion and commitment,” said Travis. “First John Frawley turns the place into a topnotch facility. Then Grant comes in and suggests ways to do outreach to the people who are already coming to Pier 39. Then, Darius Anderson comes in, the knight on the white horse, with the funds. We were dazzled by what he had done around sustainable planning for Treasure Island and his vision for the aquarium.” Along with BCDC’s approval, the Bay Institute rallied support from the likes of Mayor Gavin Newsom, Senator Barbara Boxer, Representative Lynn Woolsey and other influential figures. At the final hour, BNP Paribas sold the Aquarium of the Bay to Anderson, who was moved by Davis’s enthusiasm and came on board with the understanding that this was “too great an opportunity to pass up.” Anderson has given the Bay Institute an exclusive two-year option for which they are now mounting a capital campaign. “It’s as much a campaign to raise awareness as it is funds,” said Davis. “This is kind of a call to action. The bay defines the Bay Area, and the aquarium furthers our mission to protect and preserve the health and well-being of the bay. There’s an enormous philanthropic and conservation-minded history in the Bay Area. I believe people will respond to this historic opportunity.” THE WHITE KNIGHT “Darius is the hero in this,” said Frawley. “I know for a fact that without him, we wouldn’t be here,” said Davis. Anderson’s company, Kenwood Investments, is known for making good business decisions and sound investments that result in financial returns. “On the one hand,” said Anderson, “we felt that the purchase [of the aquarium] had to make financial sense. When we looked at the fundamentals of the business we felt that they were strong. It has a great management team, it takes in nearly half a million visitors every year and it turns a profit. We felt that in the interim while we’re operating it we can build even more value into it and when we turn it over to the Bay Institute down the road, it will be in better shape.” Anderson is also a fourth generation San Franciscan who believes in investing in his community. “As a proud San Franciscan who lives in the North Bay I feel that more investors need to look beyond just the return on an investment, but at the social return. We feel really good about this because we know that a legacy will be created in an unrivaled way that will improve the health of this bay.” Anderson was impressed with the Bay Institute’s scorecard and concerned over the scores he saw reflected in it. “Those scores need to come up all around. Using the platform of the Aquarium of the Bay we want to continue to support the research that Grant and other nonprofits in the Bay Area are doing and use it as a catalyst for improved science and research,” Anderson said. Other than research, Anderson feels that the most important service the aquarium can offer is the education of the next generation of environmentalists in the Bay Area. “We want to draw kids from underprivileged communities and work with sponsors in educational programs,” he said. “Our focus is to really look at all the nine Bay Area counties and target local residents. As parents look for places to take their kids on a rainy winter weekend, the aquarium becomes a viable first option. We know that kids are a tough audience and smarter than everybody gives them credit for, so we have to be sure the experience is an E-ticket ride that also has a strong educational value.” TELLING THE STORY OF THE BAY: “While we were waiting for the first round of funding to come in, we started really talking to our visitors and listening to the questions they asked,” said Frawley. “As a result, the exhibits in the first section of the Aquarium—in ‘Discover the Bay’—are essentially answers to their questions.” For example, anyone who wonders what the official marine fish of California is will find the answer in a tank containing dark blue or red Garibaldi fish. For great white shark enthusiasts, a special exhibit has been created that pairs video of a great white attacking a surfboard with that very surfboard and its shark-sized bite above easy-to-read displays. Other creatures of the bay are displayed in cylindrical tanks that visitors can walk around with ease. The exhibit doesn’t shy away from the truth, either. Facts about the high numbers of urban waste that are dumped into the bay—800 million gallons each year—and the diminishing numbers of species are prominently displayed as well. Naturalists weave through the crowd and stop to talk to children and adults alike to bring the exhibits to life. “I’m a big fan of interpretation, so one of my first tasks was to hire an entire staff of naturalists,” said Frawley. He pointed out peering eyeballs of flat, mud-covered flounders in a tank to a woman who then squealed in delight and pulled her husband over to view it. “See, this is what it’s all about. When you talk to people, it brings the exhibit to life, and gets their minds going. We aim for each guest to have four or five interactions with a naturalist on their trip through the exhibits.” The aquarium is broken into three “levels,” designed to take the viewer no more than one to two hours to view. After “Discover the Bay,” visitors wait in a glass-paneled atrium that reveals a simple view of the actual bay before descending in an elevator to what Frawley calls “the signature event” of the aquarium, known as “Under the Bay.” Without being told, there would be no way to know that the 300-foot Plexiglas tunnel, which contains 700,000 gallons of bay water and thousands of bay species, is not actually under the bay. It’s an effective illusion. “This is the only place in the world that shows you what it’s like to be under the San Francisco Bay,” he said. Above visitors swim bat rays, skates, sharks, a large variety of fish and at one point, an impressive school of silver anchovies that move overhead like a living, scaly storm cloud. “This is only a tiny scoop; there are anchovy schools as big as football fields,” said Frawley. The aquarium staff takes animal health very seriously. Aquarists and biologists are on hand at all times to monitor the animals and take all precautions to keep them healthy. They have a yearly plan to bring in fresh catches and rotate out animals in the touch pools. They have also made an agreement with local crabbers who often catch and kill octopus to bring them down to the aquarium instead. “We think of ourselves as a home for retired octopus,” Frawley said. Other exhibits down under include one where you can view the eggs of skates, which are in the ray family of fish. These creatures gestate in egg sacs like chickens. With the aid of small Plexiglas windows, viewers can look inside and see the developing embryos. Next to that is the jellyfish life-cycle exhibit, which shows the diminutive jellies in stages smaller than a fingernail all the way up to their recognizable adult size. The final exhibit is called “Touch the Bay,” and just as it sounds, visitors are encouraged to touch the surprisingly velvety wings of bat rays and the menacing looking “spikes” of sea urchins, which turn out to be not so sharp after all. “We feel that if you touch an animal, you’re more inclined to want to protect it,” said Davis. Frawley nodded. “We need to move people emotionally to conserve. People act when they’re moved, so we see this aquarium as a tool that speaks the language of the visitors.” On the way out, conservation is encouraged with a final section called “Save the Bay,” in which information is handed out. The most commonly heard word along the tour of the visitors was, “Wow!” “Most people don’t think that anything lives under the bay,” said Frawley. “They see the bay as a view and don’t realize that it is actually a living ecosystem.” CONSERVATION PARTNERSHIPS “There’s a great Bay Area ethic of working together,” said Davis. “We are at our best when we work as a region.” There are future plans for new exhibits, possibly a larger one for jellyfish and one dedicated to river otters. “In the months to come we hope to be announcing some very strategic partnerships that will allow us to reinvigorate the aquarium both for the out of town tourist and the local Bay Area resident,” said Anderson. Other noteworthy state and federal organizations, such as the National Estuarine Research Reserve, which currently has an office in the China Camp beach area of San Rafael, may have a presence at the aquarium, linking the work in this watershed with that being done on others around the country. Meanwhile, the Bay Institute will be launching a formal capital campaign this year to raise the funds to acquire the facility in two years. “Every donation large and small will count. We think that in decades to come people will look at this acquisition with the same sense of relief as people regard the preservation of Muir Woods. Now we have a platform to make sure that locals can really understand their bay and become better stewards,” said Davis. “I foresee this acquisition being the thing that directs our agency for the next 25 years.” People can visit www.bay.org or call 415/506-0150 ext. 26 to find out more information. Aquarium information can be found at www.aquariumofthebay.com or by calling: 888/SEA-DIVE (888/732-3483). |
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If the staff of the Novato-based Bay Institute could have one wish granted for its 25th birthday this year, the bay and all its inflows would magically return to a pristine state of health, unsullied by the human footprint.  |
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