Steve Webster isn't real sure how they came to have the letter.
Dr. Steven Webster is Director of Education emeritus at
the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The letter is from the superintendent
of the Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco. It's addressed to
Mr. K. Hovden, owner of the largest cannery in Monterey.
Knute Hovden must have been pleased with the letter's contents.
He had often thought that an Aquarium on Ocean View Boulevard
might prove to be a successful venture. He was obviously aware
of the marine biological wonders of Monterey Bay. Now, here was
the man who operated the San Francisco Aquarium telling him he
was right. It was indeed a good idea. The letter is dated November
12, 1925.
Hovden must have had more pressing things on his mind. The
letter was simply filed. Nothing was done about the aquarium
idea. Monterey was on the way to becoming the Sardine Capitol
of the World; and for the Hovden Cannery - business was good.
Hovden Canning Company
-Cannery Row Monterey-
King of the Silver Harvest
|
|
|
A few years later, a marine biologist named Edward F. Ricketts
moved his business (Pacific Biological Laboratory) a few doors
down the street from the Hovden Cannery. Pacific Biological's
business was the gathering of specimens for use in high school
and college biology classes. He was well known at Stanford's
Hopkins Marine Station located just up the shore from Cannery
Row.
Ricketts was also working on a text book for students interested
in coastal tide zones. Between Pacific Tides - now in
its 6th printing - is the largest selling text book in the history
of Stanford University Press.
This is an irony because when he was writing his now famous text
- Ricketts was regarded by Stanford scientists as sort of a scientific
lunatic. He insisted upon studying organisms in relation to their
environment. A starfish was not just a starfish. It was an entity
in an overall inter-related universe. He was actually an ecologist
and environmentalist who was out of step with his time - because
he was decades ahead of it.
Several years later, Ricketts collaborated on another book.
This time with his friend - John Steinbeck. They had gone on
a now famous expedition, aboard a sardine fishing boat called
The Western Flyer, to collect biological specimens in
the gulf of California.
Their book about the adventure was was called The Sea
of Cortez. It contains this quote: "If we could have
put our sensitive urchins in an aquarium, we could have seen
how it is that they move so rapidly...but we preserved them and,
of course, they lost their beautiful color and dropped many of
their beautiful sharp spines. Also, we could have seen how the
great snails are able to consume animal tissue so quickly. As
it is, we do not know these things."
And so, it seems Steinbeck and Ricketts were very aware of
the the benefits that could be derived as a result of keeping
and observing marine life in an aquarium. Remember also, that
Ed Ricketts's lab was but a few doors down the street from the
Hovden Cannery. Sea of Cortez was first published
in 1941 - sixteen years after the letter to Mr. Hovden about
his Aquarium idea.
|
In 1945, Steinbeck published another book. He dedicated
it to his friend - saying: "For Ed - who knows why or should."
Cannery Row changed Ricketts' life. The world now knew
him as "Doc." He and his lab became world famous. At
the same time, an era was ending.
Steinbeck moved to New York. Ricketts died a few years later.
The sardines disappeared and the canning industry collapsed.
Soon the name of the street was officially changed from Ocean
Avenue to "Cannery Row;" and visitors began coming
from around the world to see "The Row" and "Doc's
Lab."
|
Then, around 1970, Steve Webster and a few others were working
at Hopkins Marine Station. The group frequently discussed what
might be done with the old empty Hovden cannery building around
the corner. Someone said the word "Aquarium" - and
they've been saying it ever since.
Steve Webster describes the organizing committee as a sort
of "gang of five." Two of them were daughters of David
Packard - one of the wealthiest men in America. The David and
Lucille Packard Foundation received a grant request. The good
idea's time had come! The idea that was spawned nearly 50 years
earlier by the man who owned the building on the very site that
now houses the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
It is a world class facility that attracts millions of visitors.
MBARI (the Monterey Bay Research Institute) is the research arm
of the Aquarium. It is researching the Monterey Canyon (twice
as deep as the Grand Canyon) with the help of a $16 million research
vessel known as The Western Flyer!
And now, over half a century later, the sea worm has turned.
Inside the Aquarium, exhibits are laid out as a walk through
the different habitats of the Monterey Bay. This, says Steve
Webster, "was derived as a result of our all being very
familiar with Ed Ricketts' book Between Pacific Tides;
and, we're all pretty confident he would approve of what's going
on here!"
© Copyright 1997 Roger Powers. All Rights
Reserved.
Photos courtesy of the Pat
Hathaway Collection
|
By
Roger Powers