John Armor diving in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary

December 2017

This year, Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary celebrates its 25th anniversary. To celebrate, NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries director John Armor took a dive in the sanctuary. Find out what he thought of his first dive there!

Transcript

You see all the pictures of Monterey Bay.

You know, the classic otter floating on its back, munching on an urchin, and the giant kelp forests and the white sharks and so as a first-time diver in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, those are the images that are running through my head, of course.

And getting in there, you realize that that's not just what it is.

It's not just the iconic charismatic megafauna that you get on postcards.

The base of what makes this so special is the things that enable those those higher life-forms and the communities that depend on it to exist.

It really helped me appreciate what this place is all about and the ecosystem from top to bottom and how special it really is.