A Letter to the Aquarium of the Pacific

Dear Aquarium of the Pacific,

Hi, I am Teri, and I have a strong passion for protecting our oceans. I love visiting aquariums all along the pacific coast and hope to visit more country wide someday.  I even have started a blog which includes ocean stewardship.  Also, I have a membership with the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

This past  April I did visit the Aquarium of the Pacific while I was spending the day in Long Beach. This is the 2^nd time I have visited and I did enjoy the exhibits and experience very much.  I love your conservation programs for the California sea otter, sea turtles and the Abalone, especially!!  This is a big part of why I love Aquariums, the efforts at ocean conservation.  For this I am thankful.

However, during my visit to your Aquarium I did notice something that disturbed me.  I was very hungry when I got there, so I went to snack bar.  The selection, of course was limited, but what disturbed me was the packaging, too much single use plastic!  The iced tea I got, and the plastic container for my food, the cheese and fruit, among many other items was packaged in single use. Also, in the gift shop, I found no effort to eliminate plastics.

After my visit to the aquarium, I did do a Harbor tour, and while waiting in line to board, I looked down at the shoreline, and there was a LOT of garbage down there. Now I know that the area there may not be the direct responsibility of the aquarium, however, it is still a reflection of how lacking the conservatorship efforts are.  Unfortunately, not everyone is concerned about the care of our oceans, but something like this doesn’t help in promoting a most important cause. 

Monterey Bay Aquarium has made so changes that support ocean stewardship.  For instance, they have “eliminated single-use plastic — bottles, straws and bags — from the cafe. We now offer recyclable aluminum water bottles and stainless-steel reusable bottles filled with filtered water. In 2017, these efforts prevented the use of 40,000 single-use plastic bottles in the Aquarium Restaurant and Café”,

Also, “Many visitors buy a souvenir from our gift shops as a memento of their visit. That’s why we’ve been working with our retail and culinary partner, Service Systems Associates (SSA), to minimize the plastic packaging around the products we sell. In 2021, we achieved our goal of eliminating single-use plastic packaging in our store”

Please consider joining other aquariums across the country in reducing plastic waste. Disposable plastic is only in your hands for a moment, put piles up forever in our oceans, rivers and lakes and hurts aquatic animals.  There are simple actions you can take to help.

Just so you know, this letter is going to be posted to my blog, hopefully to get support from my readers, and increase awareness to this problem.

I am looking forward to visiting again soon.

Teri Martin

Mermaidgypsy.com

503-360-3871

I will keep you updated to any response I may receive!