In celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month and Mexican Independence Day, the Aquarium of the Pacific will host its 13th Annual Baja Splash Cultural Festival from 9:00AM to 5:00PM the weekend of September 27 and 28. Featuring live music, crafts, educational programs, ethnic cuisine and so much more, aquarium visitors can learn from bilingual environmental educational programs, including underwater presentations with divers, presentations with biologists from Baja, and sustainable seafood cooking demonstrations (all in Spanish and English).
Latin American folk dance performances, Aztec dancers, mariachi musicians, and other entertainers will perform in front of the Aquarium’s tallest exhibit, the Honda Blue Cavern—home to leopard sharks, giant sea bass, rays, and other deep ocean inhabitants. Colorful dances from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Peru, Panama, Columbia and Cuba will light up this ocean-like stage. During the festival, guests can win tickets to visit the Museum of Latin American Art and participate in crafts provided by the museum.
Baja Splash will also highlight Mexico’s Gulf of California, one of the most important havens for wildlife worldwide. Through specially tailored bilingual presentations with World Wildlife Fund Mexico in the Aquarium’s Ocean Theater (at 1:00PM each day of the festival), biologists traveling from Baja will share their stories and updates about this fragile underwater ecosystem.
Visitors can also learn more about this important ocean environment, the threats facing it, and how they can help by exploring the Aquarium’s Gulf of California exhibition created in conjunction with WWF Mexico. Screenings of the film Sea on the Edge will also encourage viewers to treat our oceans more wisely.
Seafood for the Future will be joining Trace & Trust, Catalina Offshore Products, and SAVOR… to showcase responsible seafood through the distinguishing flavors of Baja. The bilingual cooking program will take guests on the journey of the fish, from the responsible fishing cooperative that harvested them off the Pacific coast of Baja to the final presentation on the plate. Guests will learn how to ethically prepare this healthy seafood dish at home for their families during the program, which will take place at 12:30PM on both days.
To purchase tickets in advance and for more information, click here or call 562-590-3100.