From the deep reefs to the wharves jutting from shore, the bay's a patchwork of habitats. And each nurtures communities of life adapted to conditions there. Blue sponges and orange cup corals flourish on the dark rocks in our Deep Reefs gallery. Pillarlike white anemones stand ghostly in the faint light. Clams and date mussels burrow through the soft shale reefs, opening up new territory for other tunnel dwellers.
Creatures crowd the shale's surface, too.
And floating magnifiers in the nearby Shale Reefs gallery take you closer, revealing reef creatures' innermost secrets, like the intricate gills of nudibranchs , or the bumpy orange skin of a sea cucumber. Closer to shore, hungry surfperches swarm around the wharves, picking barnacles and molluscs from among the soft masses of tunicates, gaudy feather-duster worms and twisted tubeworms ringing the pilings. Creatures from these communities share the Monterey Bay Habitats exhibit. The habitats blend together here just as they do in the bay. Rocky reefs tower over patches of sand broken by outcroppings of shale.