There had been a number of attempts to build an aquarium in the Monterey area dating back almost 100 years.
The aquarium was built in honor of the work of Edward Ricketts (1897-1948), a marine biologist who specialized in describing communities of organisms (which would also be the focus of aquarium tanks), and whose old laboratory (Pacific Biological Laboratories) (PCL) and home resides next to the present MBA site [REF].