Glow Deeper!

Bioluminescence Experience at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s new exhibition is getting glowing reviews. Into the Deep: Exploring Our Undiscovered Ocean, is an unparalleled living exhibition that includes an immersive deep-sea bioluminescence experience. You’ll enter a dark room simulating the explosive light show that happens in the deep sea—far beyond where scuba divers can reach! This experience was created using never-seen-before video footage of animals bioluminescing.

Get Tickets!

Sea the Light

bioluminescence monterey bay aquarium

Witness a living light show like no other. Monterey Bay Aquarium’s deep-sea bioluminescence experience has you entering a dark room mimicking that of ocean depths not even scuba divers can reach!

As you discover which creatures use bioluminescence, you’ll feel as if you’ve been immersed in the abyss to experience a most fascinating living light show.

Get Tickets!

Seeing Red & Rainbows

blood belly jelly

red shrimp

Seeing red takes on a mesmerizing new meaning at the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s new Into the Deep exhibition. Discover how animals camouflage by using the color red, which actually appears black in the deep! This includes animals like the bloody-belly comb jelly, an extraordinary species that does not use bioluminescence but instead diffracts light that touches its fluttering cilia and gives an appearance of sparkling rainbow eyelashes. Colorful illusions, indeed.

Get Tickets!

Transparency & Trickery

snow globe jelly

common siphonophore

predatory tunicate

It’s not just the bioluminescent, red, and rainbow appearances that make the deep sea so fascinating. Into the Deep at Monterey Bay Aquarium also features creatures that are transparent in the deep, like jellies and predatory tunicates.

Meet the common siphonophore and the beautiful snow globe jelly, a delicate creature with a red gut that is camouflaged in the deep sea, thereby protecting it from danger. Then there are the predatory tunicates who make their homes on the seafloor and amid deep sea canyon walls, waiting for prey to swim right into their cavernous hoods.

Trending Stories NorCal

View all Stories
  1. Napa Valley Paddle kayaker and paddle boarder on the Napa Valley river

    Napa's Wild Side

    It’s wine country’s Amazon. The gentle Napa River is an ecological—and recreational—delight. And Napa Valley Paddle sets you up for maximum enjoyment of this experience.

    View
  2. Been There, Dome That

    Surrounded by granite domes, craggy peaks, and miles of hiking trails, the High Sierra landscape of Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park is famous for good reason. For a truly grand view, take a short hike to bold—and bald (except for snow at times)—Lembert Dome.

    View
  3. Wapama Wows

    Hetch Hetchy can be overlooked in Yosemite National Park because of its more remote location and limited facilities. But this is where you’ll also find one of the best day hikes in the park: Wapama Falls.

    View
  4. Hike Mount Tamalpais into Muir Woods

    Muir Woods Through the Backdoor

    A backdoor entrance into Muir Woods? Hike a tranquil trail that starts in Mount Tamalpais State Park and quietly leads into Muir Woods, letting you avoid the busyness of the main parking area.

    View

Trending Stories SoCal

View all Stories
  1. Inn-spiration Point!

    For more than a century, people have been hiking or mountain biking to West Point Inn for good reason. Perched at 1,785 feet on the southern slope of Mount Tamalpais, the historic inn has sweeping views from the Marin Headlands to the San Francisco skyline.

    View
  2. A Thousand Steps to Paradise

    A picture is worth a thousand words, but is a gorgeous beach in Laguna worth a thousand steps? The answer is yes, though the question is moot, because it’s only 223 steep steps down to the 400-yard stretch of sand known as 1000 Steps Beach.

    View
  3. Sponsored

    Take the Exit to the Best of the San Francisco Peninsula

    The San Francisco Peninsula is proof that some of Northern California’s greatest surprises are hiding just off Highway 101. All you have to do is take the exit.

    View
  4. Hike to the Sierra Buttes Fire Lookout in the Lakes Basin

    Lookout for This View!

    Sierra Buttes Lookout, at a lofty 8,591 feet, is a memory maker for its pucker-worthy stairway to the tower’s balcony. It's a 5-mile (round-trip) hike to reach it. And the reward? Epic!

    View