The Aquarium's Penguins Come Home to a Gallery Built for Its Smallest Visitors

On Saturday, Nov. 7, the Monterey Bay Aquarium opens Ocean in Motion / La Danza del Mar. The African penguins come back with it, and they come back as the centerpiece of a bilingual gallery the Aquarium designed with children ages two to six in mind. As of this week, the species page for the birds still reads "Not on exhibit."

That pairing tells you how the room works. The most anticipated animals in the building are back, and the gallery around them asks visitors to waddle, hop and hold on before it asks them to read. Every station is set up for an adult and a small child to do something together. A grandparent who shows up expecting a glass wall and a placard will find a floor marked for hopping.

The return the members were invited to celebrate

The Aquarium's invitation to its member previews didn't announce a new exhibit so much as a homecoming. It asked members to "be among the first to celebrate the return of African penguins, big-belly seahorses, and more of your favorite ocean animals." The Aquarium scheduled those previews for Oct. 31 through Nov. 3, plus a separate adults-only Member Morning on Nov. 1 from 8 to 10 a.m. While the work was underway, the Aquarium took its Penguin Cam offline "as we renovate our exhibits."

The new habitat is described as "much-expanded." In the Aquarium's own words it is "the centerpiece of the gallery," where visitors can watch penguins dive in for a swim while others preen, waddle and rest on a rocky beach. The species page adds a detail that makes these birds a natural fit for this coast. African penguins live in cold currents off South Africa "in a climate similar to that of Monterey."

A design that started with how toddlers move

Ocean in Motion began with children rather than animals. Vice President of Exhibitions Emily Saich told the Aquarium's press office that the team "engaged with young children and their adults to ground our design in the movements and words children would intuitively express in relation to each animal."

So the animals were chosen for the way they move. Cuttlefish flutter. Clownfish nestle among anemone tentacles. Bluespotted ribbontail rays ripple their fins. Penguins waddle, and big-belly seahorses wrap their tails around seagrass. CEO Jenny Gray explained the reasoning in remarks carried by KSBW and the Mercury News:

"By inviting children to move their bodies like a penguin or a leaping blenny and mirror their behavior, we're activating their brain's empathy engine through play and creating a deep and joyful connection with ocean life."

Gray took over as CEO earlier this year, and the Monterey Herald covered the gallery under the headline that the exhibit "will aim to build empathy in kids." The approach rests on research the Aquarium cites showing that empathy is a critical driver of long-term environmental engagement.

Walking the gallery in the order it asks you to move

Each station follows the same pattern. First the visitor's body copies a movement, and then the animal doing it comes into view. That sequence only works if someone is there to start the game.

1. Big-belly seahorses. Oversized clusters of seagrass rise toward the ceiling, and visitors are encouraged to grab one the way a seahorse would. A little farther on, a living exhibit holds dozens of seahorses doing exactly that, twisting and wrapping their tails around bright green strands.
2. Leaping blennies. Shapes on the floor cue visitors to hop from rock to rock. The path ends at a large open-top exhibit with dozens of blennies at eye level, where water washes over the stones and sends them leaping, hopping and sometimes flopping.
3. The coral community. This is one of the gallery's largest individual exhibits, a 20-foot-long reef where a custom-built wave machine sends ripples through the water. Rays glide over the coral and clownfish peek out of anemones. Next to it, a coral-themed play area lets children climb up, over and through as if they lived on the reef.
4. African penguins. Projections of waddling and swimming penguins lead into the expanded habitat. To the right of it, digital interactives show penguin silhouettes in motion and invite children to waddle, flap and shake their tails along with them.

A new water play area adds splashing to the mix. The primary pathway through the gallery is fully accessible, which matters for strollers and for grandparents alike.

Labels written to be read out loud

The text panels give the clearest sign of who the gallery is for. They are written in the tone and style of a children's book, with the animals as the main characters, and the Aquarium says outright that caregivers can read them aloud so a child can "consider the world from the animal's point of view." Because the gallery is bilingual, those read-alouds work in English and Spanish, and the Spanish name, La Danza del Mar, appears on every official reference to it.

The penguin habitat carries a heavier lesson underneath the play. The Aquarium describes African penguins as critically endangered, and the gallery is built so that visitors come to care about how a changing climate and overfishing affect them, and what people can do to help. In practice, the adult reading the label is the one passing that lesson along.

The gallery was paid for by members and donors, with major leadership gifts from the Acton Family and Connie and Bob Lurie. The Susie and Gideon Yu Family sponsored the penguin exhibit.

Planning around opening weekend

Opening weekend falls on the same weekend as the Monterey Bay Half Marathon, whose start line on Sunday, Nov. 8 is on Del Monte Avenue in downtown Monterey. If you're driving to Cannery Row that morning from the Del Monte side of town, plan for that.

A few details from the Aquarium's own visitor pages help with timing:

• Tickets. The Aquarium recommends buying in advance for smooth entry, and guests can arrive any time up to an hour before closing.
• Pricing. The Aquarium's FAQ says it offers no general admission discounts. The Monterey County resident free-admission window ran Sept. 8–20 and is over.
• Museums for All. An adult SNAP/CalFresh EBT cardholder and up to three guests get in free at the Main Entrance with a matching photo ID. SUN Bucks and P-EBT cards are not accepted.
• Membership. Members get unlimited visits all year, which suits a gallery built for repeat visits by small children better than any single ticket does.

The rest of the season downtown

A morning at the penguin habitat leaves plenty of afternoon, and Monterey's calendar fills up as November goes on. The Monterey Museum of Art is showing Rex Ray: We Are All Made of Light, which it calls the first retrospective of Ray's work, through Jan. 17, 2027. The museum's participatory Rooms of Possibility, part of its Iluminado season, runs through Jan. 24, 2027, which makes it a good indoor follow-up for a child who just spent an hour hopping like a blenny. Born of the Bear Dance: Dugan Aguilar's Photographs of Native California is on view through Dec. 20.

Later in the month, Ice Skating by the Bay returns to Custom House Plaza from Nov. 20 to Jan. 3. Del Monte Center lights its tree on Nov. 21, and Cannery Row lights its own on Nov. 27, a few blocks from the penguins. Small Business Saturday comes to downtown Monterey on Nov. 28.

If a Saturday morning at the penguin habitat, a few blocks from Cannery Row, is part of how you picture your own Peninsula calendar, Michelle Hammons would be glad to help you find the right setting for them. Request a private consultation.