Doheny Tide Pool and Aquariums

If he wasn’t careful Brian Lane was going to fall face first into the Doheny tide pool display. Or, at least that’s what it looked like as I walked by. Brian was straddling two rocky interpretive perches. He was leaning on another rock with his free hand in that precarious “aquarium park aide” sort of way. Brian was vacuuming what can best be described as recycled sea cucumber snacks. My next thought was “Boy, am I glad I don’t have that job.” Then it hit me…I did…or used to.

Later that week, I was reading an old issue of Doheny Nature Notes dated December 1981. In the notes it read “The 100-gallon Doheny aquarium has over 15 animals on display.” Today, December 2002, we have over 50 different varieties of fish and probably that many species of invertebrate life as well. Our tanks hold over 3,000 gallons of chilled sea water. It wasn’t that long ago that I was feeding the animals, cleaning, repairing, doing water changes and specimen collection by myself. Eventually, in 1993, I was able to convince my supervisor to hire a park aide dedicated to working solely on the aquariums. After that I was more like a consultant to the park aide.

Let’s start at the beginning. I’ve heard so many stories about when the aquariums started that I’m not sure what is true and what is “Doheny Lore.” Just last month, long-time Orange Coast Ranger Jim Long told me it was his idea to start an aquarium at Doheny. Seems there was an old aquarium in the back office that was gathering dust and Jim had the idea to buy a goldfish. As they say, the rest is history. I will add Jim’s name to the list of the many others who claim credit. Officially, the Visitor Center opened its doors in 1988. But even that should be taken with a grain of salt, as we have made many additions and upgrades in the past 12 years.

In September 1991, fresh from a June graduation at Mott, the ranger in charge asked me if I would be interested in taking over the aquarium duties. Being new, I jumped at the chance with no idea of what lay ahead. On any given afternoon my day could go like this: Enter the Visitor Center; spend a few minutes searching the tanks for sick or injured animals – or, more likely, if a fish had been eaten by its tank mates -- do a water quality test, clean skimmers and filters, feed the animals, scrape aquarium glass, perform a routine water change, order supplies, give an educational talk, procure algae from the “real world”, release animals that have outgrown their exhibits, or pump water from the ocean for future use.

This list or “normal” duties was frequently supplemented by something that had never come up before. For example, while we strive to put compatible animals together accidents do happen. We once put five freshly caught grunion in our tide pool exhibit, only to have all five eaten within a couple minutes by other tide pool inhabitants. One was eaten by a treefish that was actually shorter than the grunion. The grunion’s tail stuck out of the treefish’s mouth for several days until it was digested enough to be swallowed. It made for lively discussions around the tide pool.

In another instance of the unexpected several years ago, our park aide and I had spent nearly an entire shift cleaning the tide pool. This was in anticipation of a crowd of over 1000 people that were going to be visiting the following night for a fish feeding show and grunion run program. We finished around 11:00 PM. I returned around 11:55 PM, astonished at what I saw. As I entered the Visitor Center I stared, mouth agape, at a tide pool that appeared to have been filled with milk and laundry detergent. Foam was more than a foot high and spilling over the edges onto the floor.

What had actually happened was that the sea stars and mussels had all decided to spawn for some unknown reason. Theories still abound, but for the moment, they had completely destroyed our hard work. We spent the next six hours taking care of that problem so that the next day’s visitors would have a great experience. Never the wiser, 1,500 people showed up and enjoyed the fruits of our labor.

Yet another time, after a small earthquake during the night, we came into the aquarium to find the drains had shifted ever so slightly. This resulted in hundreds of gallons of sea water being pumped onto our Visitor Center floor. Yikes! Our walls also took a beating on that one.

For all the hard work and problems we’ve had, it is still worth the effort to see a person’s eyes light up when they walk into our Visitor Center and see the tide pool and five large aquariums. The tanks represent different underwater life zones, from kelp beds to pier pilings to rocky reefs. The aquarium allows us to get the interpretive message out to visitors no matter what the conditions are outside -- rain or shine, day or night, high or low tide. It really is the “hook” we use to help explain the mysterious ocean and the need to protect it. The aquariums also give ranger Brian Kummer and I a great excuse for collection dives. We are able to keep some animals, such as leopard sharks, for about a year before they become too large and must be returned to the wild. Others, like the moray and scorpionfish, have been living with us here at the aquarium for nearly 12 years. Our morays love to have their bellies rubbed, much to the amazement of our visitors at the fish feedings.

It’s also great to watch our aquarium park aides grow into their positions. It takes a lot of responsibility. We have been extremely fortunate in the people we have chosen for the position. Ranger Scott Elhert (of Saddleback Buttes fame) started his state park career in this capacity. His nickname was “Aqua Boy.” Sorry Scott, I had to let that one out of the bag. Others have gone on to be Fish and Game biologists, State Park Interpreters, American Humane Society monitors for the motion picture industry and our present aide, Brian Lane, is going through the ranger hiring process as we speak.

The point is we probably would not have progressed to such a high level of interpretation at Doheny without our aquariums. Every ranger, interpreter, park aide and even office assistant can talk endlessly on the different animals we house. This knowledge also translates to our real tide pools and helps on our many fish and game contacts. The aquariums are extremely popular with visitors. These visitors in turn, some 60,000 annually, spend money in our gift shop. The Doheny State Beach Interpretive Association operates the gift shop. They, in turn, funnel the money back into the park by funding many of our interpretive projects, equipment and programs. It’s a win-win situation, the resources are better appreciated and hopefully protected, the public is happy and the Doheny staff is exposed to opportunities they might not have had access to in your average high visitation beach park. Hooray for us!