Staying power is often hard to come by these days, and it\u2019s even harder for a nonprofit organization. That\u2019s why this month, Birch Aquarium is celebrating a milestone as the aquarium turns 20 years old on Sept. 16. With two decades of educating the public about the ocean under its belt, Birch is looking forward to the next 20 years by reflecting on its contributions to the community and to ocean science and conservation. “We feel full of achievement for what we\u2019ve done in 20 years, and what we want to do in the future,” said Nigella Hilgarth, executive director of the aquarium. “We\u2019ve reached over 6 million people, and over a million children in our education programs.” Birch Aquarium wasn\u2019t always equipped to achieve such lofty ambitions. Prior to 1992, the aquarium was housed in a much smaller facility on La Jolla Shores Drive. It contained a fraction of the fish, employed a fraction of the staff and saw a fraction of the visitors that today\u2019s Birch can boast. Then, in 1986, a $6 million donation from the Delaware-based Stephen and Mary Birch Foundation made it possible to replace the existing Scripps Aquarium \u2014 founded in 1951 \u2014 with the current larger facility on Expedition Way. The mission of Birch Aquarium, Hilgarth said, is threefold: connect people to the ocean, teach people about the science research performed at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) and contribute to ocean conservation. All three are equally important, and all three present unique challenges. Interpreting science and presenting it in a way that is easily digestible for the layperson presents obvious challenges \u2014 especially when it comes to presenting that information in a way that children can understand but that still holds an adult\u2019s attention \u2014 but one that Hilgarth feels the aquarium readily overcomes. “We do really well interpreting and communicating science to the general public,” Hilgarth said. “That\u2019s really the role of any zoo or aquarium or science museum. We have our classroom programs, and then we have our public programs. We do walks on [Scripps] pier and we\u2019ve had so many different exhibits. We have an exhibit on climate change right now, and it\u2019s told through the scientists researching it.” Connecting people to the ocean and contributing to ocean conservation, meanwhile, present different challenges, and the two often go hand in hand. One of the greatest difficulties in protecting the ocean comes from the fact that many people don\u2019t realize how their everyday behaviors contribute to the ocean\u2019s degradation. “One thing we\u2019re trying to do is make people understand the need to protect our watersheds,” Hil-garth said. “Most people don\u2019t realize that everything drains into the ocean, and their basic behavior impacts conservation efforts.” Apart from illustrating the association between us and the ocean, Hilgarth said the aquarium tasks itself with educating the public on the various issues like overfishing, pollution, warming oceans and the danger to coral reefs. The aquarium\u2019s work with other conservation programs also helps secure its place in the world of environmental stewardship. Birch, for example, has bred seahorses for years and sends the animals to more than 60 other institutions \u2014 aquariums, zoos and research facilities \u2014 so there is less of a need to take seahorses from the wild. All of those challenges have to be addressed under the added pressure of the biggest one of all: money. “The obvious challenge for a nonprofit is funding,” Hilgarth said. “And it\u2019s affecting everyone, not just us. We have to figure out how to continue with the parts of our operation that are dear to us, like education in underserved communities, without charging way too much at gate. Another big challenge is that the ocean is facing so many challenges itself, and just trying to get the breadth and depth of that across to the public can be difficult.” Hilgarth is herself celebrating a milestone anniversary. This year marks her 10th as executive director of the aquarium, and as Birch reflects on its history, she, too, reflected on her time there. “I\u2019ve loved every minute of it,” she said. “It\u2019s been a time of growth and change, and we\u2019ve seen a lot of new exhibits. I\u2019m proud of being a part of making the aquarium more of an asset to the community and beyond, to Southern California in general. Our programs have had a lot of impact all over the region.” The most impressive way the aquarium has managed to have such an impact is with its educational outreach. Through formal and informal classes, Birch sees about 40,000 children walk through its doors every year, each one learning more about the ocean and its inhabitants and, hopefully, carrying that with them to the future. It also engages in professional development for science teachers, helping them improve how they impart know-ledge to their students and setting them up with resources they might not otherwise have. It\u2019s that educational component that sets Birch apart from many other aquariums. Because of its connection to the university, it is intrinsically linked to the research and education happening at SIO, making it hard to compare it to other big aquariums like Monterey Bay. As for the next 20 years, keep an eye out for more exciting exhibits and programs (Hilgarth mentioned a deep ocean exhibit, which may be in place in the next two or three years). So what is Hilgarth\u2019s favorite part about going to the office every day? “I love our seadragons. Sometimes, just after closing, I\u2019ll sneak in to just look at them,” she said. “Or I like to go and just watch the kelp forest. It\u2019s very relaxing.” Birch Aquarium will celebrate its 20th anniversary on Sept. 16 with a members-only reception from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Tide-Pool Plaza, complete with visits from staff and volunteers, a look back at the last 20 years in aquarium history and a sunset vista over the ocean the aquarium works so hard to protect. For more information on Birch Aquarium or its programs, visit aquarium.ucsd.edu.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Staying power is often hard to come by these days, and it\u2019s even harder for a nonprofit organization. That\u2019s why this month, Birch Aquarium is celebrating a milestone as the aquarium turns 20 years old on Sept. 16. With two decades of educating the public about the ocean under its belt, Birch is looking forward […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":264956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"Birch Aquarium celebrates 20 years bringing ocean education to San Diego","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-264955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}