Aquarium Audio
Hear Our Latest Aquacasts
Bruce Perry
Southern California’s Bight and Borderland: Where the Dynamic Ocean Meets Plate Tectonics
In his lecture on February 7, 2012, Bruce Perry covered the evolution of the Continental Borderland and its effects on the current circulation, wave action, and biology of the Southern California Bight (the Southern California coast running from Point Conception to Mexico). Perry holds a BS and MS in geology, teaches oceanography and geology at local community colleges and universities, and has extensive on-the-job training in physical oceanography.
Mark Jackson
Atmospheric Rivers, Floods, and Climate Change
In his talk with Jeanine Jones on January 25, 2012, Jackson discussed recent scientific discoveries are revealing new information about atmospheric rivers—the concentrated streams of moisture that originate over the Pacific Ocean and cause major winter floods in California. Jackson is the meteorologist in charge for the National Weather Service serving Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo Counties.
Jeanine Jones
Atmospheric Rivers, Floods, and Climate Change
In her talk with Mark Jackson on January 25, 2012, Jones discussed recent scientific discoveries are revealing new information about atmospheric rivers—the concentrated streams of moisture that originate over the Pacific Ocean and cause major winter floods in California. Jones is the interstate resources manager for the California Department of Water Management.
Ellen Prager
Sex, Drugs, and Sea Slime: The Oceans' Oddest Creatures and Why They Matter
Dr. Ellen Prager presented stories and images about the organisms that inhabit the oceans' depths and how they are connected to our food supply, the economy, jobs, and in biomedical research and biotechnology in her lecture on January 19, 2012.
Brandon Strathmann
Using Animated Films to Make Ocean Issues Come Alive for Kids
The Plastic Perils of the Pacific highlights the issue of plastic pollution in the ocean and how it affects the animals that live there. Dissolving Destinies, a 3D animated film, addresses ocean acidification and follows a crab through a coral reef. Strathmann is an assistant professor of animation at the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University.
Ian Mitroff
Swans, Swine, and Swindlers
Crisis management expert Ian Mitroff has co-authored a book with Can Alpaslan addressing what steps we can take to better anticipate and manage crises, such as the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Hurricane Katrina, and 9/11. Swans, Swine, and Swindlers: Coping with the Growing Threat of Mega-Crises and Mega-Messes explores the concept of messes—webs of complex and dynamically interacting problems—and then provides tools and frameworks to deal with the crises of today and tomorrow. Mitroff is a professor at the Marshall Goldsmith School of Management at Alliant University in San Francisco.
Wendy Williams
Kraken: Tales of Octopus Smarts and Super Cephalopods
In her presentation on December 1, 2011, Wendy Williams will teased out fact from fiction based on the findings in her new book, Kraken: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid. “Kraken” is the traditional name for gigantic sea monsters. The book examines the world’s enthralling cephalopods, including the octopus and the cuttlefish, and explores their otherworldly camouflage and bioluminescent abilities.
Henry Pollack
The New Face of the Arctic
Henry Pollack spoke at the Aquarium on November 9, 2011 on the topic of warming in the Arctic. He is an emeritus professor of geophysics at the University of Michigan, where he served as chairman of the department of geological sciences and associate dean for research in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. He is a science advisor to former Vice President Al Gore’s Climate Project and a contributing author to the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report.
Julie Skoglund
Gulf Oil Spill 2010: An Overview of the Bird Rehabilitation Efforts
Julie Skoglund, who spoke at the Aquarium on August 16, 2011, has worked for International Bird Rescue since 2004. She has been the rehabilitation manager at Bird Rescue’s Los Angeles location for the past four years. After the Gulf oil spill, she designed and built an oiled bird center in Alabama and managed bird care in Louisiana.
Rosi Dagit
Penguins in our Watershed? Adventures in Antarctica and the Santa Monica Mountains
Rosit Dagit, who spoke at the Aquarium about the impact of climate change on sensitive species on September 1, 2011, has been a researcher with the non-profit research and education foundation Oceanites and the Antarctic Site Inventory since its inception in 1994 and a senior conservation biologist with the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains since 1988.
Judith Weis
Do Fish Sleep?
Judith Weis, who spoke at the Aquarium on October 18, 2011, is a professor of biological sciences at Rutgers University and the author of Do Fish Sleep? Fascinating Answers to Questions about Fishes. She is also the chair of the Science Advisory Board of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
The Arctic Fox
Resilient and adaptable as it is, will the arctic fox be able to survive the challenges ahead?
The IUCN lists the Arctic Fox as one of the species most vulnerable to the effects of climate change in its environment.
Magellanic Penguin
Spheniscus Magellanicus, A Penguin for All Seasons
Throughout history, penguins have captured the hearts and imagination of people of all ages. Comical and endearing, our perception of this awkward creature belies its amazing abilities to survive in the ocean and on land.
June Keyes Penguin Habitat
Get up-close with more than a dozen Magellanic Penguins both above and below the water in the new June Keyes Penguin Habitat.
The exhibit is home to the first penguins in the Aquarium’s collection and includes a crawl-in space, allowing you to feel as if you are in the exhibit with the animals.
The Invisible Ocean
Is the ocean’s beauty in the eye of the beholder?
The largest geographic feature of our planet is the ocean, almost inconceivable in size to the imagination. It is in this vast environment that microscopic plants and animals make our planet habitable.