Conservation & Research Initiatives

The Marianas Avifauna Conservation (MAC) program started in 2004. This project is intended to provide the birds of the Mariana archipelago with the best possible chances for long-term survival. Its objectives are preserving, maintaining, and establishing self-sustaining populations of native birds secure from the threat of the brown tree snake.

The Great Lakes Piping Plover (GLPIPL) population was listed as federally endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act in 1986. Historically, Piping Plovers nested throughout the Great Lakes (estimated population 500 to 800 pairs) but declined to about a dozen pairs, all within the state of Michigan, by the mid-1980s.

The Urban Forest Program is special initiative of the Earthwatch Institute in partnership with local non-profits and managers to connect people with nature in urban communities through community science.

The Aquarium of the Pacific actively participates in the Association of Zoos and Aquarium’s (AZA) Magellanic Penguin Species Survival Plan.

In addition to participating in the AZA’s Species Survival Programs (SSP), the Aquarium of the Pacific has an extensive breeding program.

The Aquarium of the Pacific partners with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Sea Otter Research and Conservation program (SORAC) at the Monterey Bay Aquarium to help conserve and protect threatened southern sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis).

The Aquarium of the Pacific is part of a conservation network committed to recovering the population of white abalone by breeding them and releasing young abalone into the ocean.

Since 2009 the Aquarium’s staff veterinarian, Dr. Lance Adams, has been studying the feasibility of artificial insemination to help with the management of captive shark populations.

Many sponges, corals, and other marine organisms produce chemical compounds or harbor colonies of microorganisms that contain biologically active compounds.

The Aquarium is a participant in the SECORE (SExual COral REproduction) Coral Reef Reproduction and Restoration Project that is taking place in Guam.

The Aquarium is an institutional member of the American Academy of Underwater Sciences, and its divers participate in local data and specimen collection projects.