Aquarium of the Bay
San Francisco's Aquarium of the Bay on Pier 39
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| Date opened | 19 April 1996 (21 years ago) |
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| Location | San Francisco, California, United States |
| Coordinates | 37°48′32″N 122°24′33″W / 37.8087548°N 122.4092956°WCoordinates: 37°48′32″N 122°24′33″W / 37.8087548°N 122.4092956°W |
| Land area | 65,000 sq ft (6,000 m2) |
| Total volume of tanks | 700,000 US gal (2,600,000 l) |
| Annual visitors | 600,000 |
| Memberships | AZA |
| Website | www |
Aquarium of the Bay is a public aquarium located at Embarcadero and Beach Street, at the edge of Pier 39 in San Francisco, California. The Aquarium is focused on local aquatic animals from the San Francisco Bay and neighboring waters.
The Aquarium of the Bay is an affiliate of The Bay Institute and is an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).
The aquarium was originally scheduled to be opened in the summer of 1988, but construction on the aquarium was delayed due to protests from merchants on Fisherman's Wharf and San Francisco Bay environmental groups, and ground was not broken until July 1995. Specific objections included the amount of fill required (an additional 24,000 square feet (2,200 m2) would need to be reclaimed from the Bay) and a potential violation of the city's 1990 Proposition H, which prohibits nonmaritime use of waterfront property. The aquarium was privately owned by a partnership of Questar of New Zealand, Aquabay Inc., and Pedersen Associates (The Chronicle Publishing Company, which owned the San Francisco Chronicle, was a minority partner in Pedersen).
Original estimates for attendance in the final environmental impact report ranged up to 28,000 daily visitors on the weekend in its inaugural year, and the aquarium was forced to limit attendance to no more than 12,600 visitors per day to gain approval. Some of the conditions imposed by the Bay Conservation and Development Commission when it issued the permits included requirements to use only species found in San Francisco Bay and to provide educational and outreach programs. In addition, the aquarium was forced to rent overflow parking spaces at Levi's Plaza and pay subsidies to Muni to fund additional buses to Pier 39 to handle the expected crowds. Together, these traffic abatement measures would cost the aquarium US$100,000 (equivalent to $153,000 in 2016) in 1996. In addition, the California Academy of Sciences (CAS) was to receive annual payments of US$200,000 (equivalent to $298,000 in 2016) for eight years, starting in 1997, to compensate for the projected decrease in visitors to Steinhart Aquarium, but the payments were never made.Willie Brown was involved in the negotiations leading to the annual payments.
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