Monterey Bay: California's Hidden Blue Serengeti
Jon Anderson Photography
One of the hidden secrets of NOAA's Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary is its vibrant marine ecosystem with extraordinary biodiversity, situated off the Central Coast of California.
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The Monterey Bay and surrounding Sanctuary waters has a unique structure that starts with the deep Monterey Bay Canyon. Seasonal winds blow north to south and create strong upwelling currents close to shore. This brings rich nutrients into the shelf waters and kelp forests of the bay and nourishes thriving populations of forage fish, diverse marine mammal communities (seals, whales and sea lions) and predators such as the white shark.
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This underwater realm teems with life, forming a complex web of interactions that sustains both marine species and the communities that depend on them.
The Monterey Bay and surrounding Sanctuary waters harbor large predators including many apex predators. White sharks play a crucial role in this marine sanctuary as a keystone species, regulating pinniped populations and maintaining the delicate balance of the oceanic food web.
Jon Anderson Photography
The role of the pelagic ecosystem of Monterey Bay, the Sanctuary waters, and the Blue Serengeti that thrives here is a hidden gem that is not well understood. Like the plains of Africa and Yellowstone National Park, large predators roam beneath the sea, and hidden interactions between predator and prey occur on a daily basis. Join us as we use high tech tags and cameras along with ecological observations to create the scientific story that helps us understand how sharks, seals, sea lions, and whales share these waters.
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Jon Anderson Photography
Help us champion Monterey Bay as California's hidden Blue Serengeti. Together, we can illuminate the importance of this remarkable marine environment and inspire a collective commitment to safeguarding it for years to come.