Overview

The Aquarium of the Bay at PIER 39 facility boasts 300 feet of crystal clear acrylic tunnels holding 700,000 gallons of carefully maintained bay water that sustains approximately 20,000 animals, from octopi to eight-foot, native, seven-gill sharks. Visitors are treated to mesmerizing walls of jellyfish and a chance to touch bat rays, skates and “splash zone" animals. In its fifteen year history, over seven million guests, including more than 100,000 school children, have visited San Francisco’s spectacular Aquarium of the Bay.

Your Aquarium of the Bay exploration begins in Discover the Bay, featuring the distinctive ecosystems that support an incredibly wide variety of marine life. In eight exhibits featuring over a thousand aquatic animals, you will learn about the creatures that make their homes in the Bay.

Exhibit highlights include:

- “Beauties of the Bay”: visit San Francisco Bay’s most colorful animals, including the bright orange Garibaldi (the California State Marine Fish), green Moray Eels and rockfish of varying colors, in the first exhibit on the right.
- River Otters
- Swirling school of anchovies – did you know that lateral lines on anchovies’ bodies serve as sensory organs? This enables the animals to sense where the school is moving, to help stick together and avoid predators.
- “Bay Babies” from newly hatched Skates to juvenile perch and other fishes, explore underwater newborns. San Francisco Bay is a nursery ground to many fish species.