Aquarium Video Presentations

Francisco J. Ayala, Professor of Biological Sciences, University of California at Irvine, shares how evolution shows us the history of life through time and how natural selection is the mechanism by which change in organism occur. Ayala also covers ways to improve awareness of the current ecological crisis our world faces, and ways to preserve the environment and biological diversity.

Are you seafood savvy? Do you know what fish are good for you, which are sustainably fished and which are overfished? Vice Admiral Conrad Lautenbacher, Jr., USN (Ret), Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, talks about FishWatch. This new program of NOAA’s Office of Fisheries presents up-to-date scientific data and is designed to help the public make intelligent, informed decisions about the fish they select to consume.

There are rescue animals, or animals that would not be able to survive in the wild, that reside at the Aquarium of the Pacific, including sea otters, sea lions, and other marine creatures. One of those is a recent addition to the Aquarium family, a sea lion named Odin. Despite the fact that Odin is nearly blind, he has acclimated to his new home quite nicely.

Herman Karl, a marine geologist and former chief scientist with the US Geologic Survey's Western Coastal and Marine Geology Program, and co-director of MUSIC—the Massachusetts Institute of Technology—USGS Science Impact Collaborative, discusses "wicked environmental problems."