EDITOR'S NOTE: As the Monterey Bay Aquarium celebrates its 40th anniversary Sunday, The Herald concludes its series of stories taking a closer look at the history, programs and behind-the-scenes management of the region's most popular attraction. Today we revisit that day when there was "magic in the air." To read previous articles in the series visit https://www.montereyherald.com/tag/aquarium/

MONTEREY >> A parade, a ribbon-cutting ceremony featuring top local officials, a boat parade and finally fireworks over the bay.

The grand opening of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, or as the Herald coined it the dawning of "The Age of Aquarium," on Oct. 20, 1984, was the biggest event the region had seen for a long time.

And there was then-Rep. Leon Panetta stuck on the wrong end of Cannery Row, wondering how he was going to navigate through all these people - police would later estimate more than 30,000 packed the Cannery Row area that day - to make it to the Aquarium to deliver opening remarks on time.

"I was having a hell of a time trying to get through," Panetta recalled recently, chuckling. But then a police officer on a motorcycle spotted and recognized him.

"OK, jump on," the officer told Panetta and ferried him to the Aquarium.

"Sure enough, I got there with plenty of time to spare," Panetta said. "So he saved me."

Preparations to throw the doors open to the $50 million project also were going down to the wire.

"The night before we opened (Aquarium Executive Director Julie Packard) was putting labels on exhibits," said Hank Armstrong, the Aquarium's first public relations director. "It was literally an all-hands-on-deck affair."

Armstrong remembers going up that morning to Packard's upper floor office and looking out the window down Cannery Row.

"We all felt such exceptional pride and excitement," Armstrong said. "Looking out Julie Packard's window and seeing the line (to get in) go as far as I could see."

It helped that the day "dawned clear and bright after a gray week of downpour and drizzle," wrote Ken Peterson, who was one of the reporters covering the event for The Herald.

It had been an all-out effort by The Herald as well in covering the event. A special section was published that week and several reporters were assigned to cover various aspects of the day. Regional and national media also had coverage.

"We saw it as a spectacular event," recalled Tom Walton, who was the editor of the Herald at the time. "The hope was it was going to be positive change. ... It's not one more golf course, it's an amazing new thing."

Clyde Roberson, who was Monterey's mayor at the time, recently recalled, "People were excited about the prospect of a world-class, environmental aquarium in Monterey."

President Ronald Reagan sent a congratulatory message that was read during the opening ceremony, saying of the Aquarium, "May it thrive for generations to come."

Donald Kennedy, who was president of Stanford University at the time, told the crowd the Monterey Bay Aquarium, "dwarfs all of the other accomplishments made in this area."

"Once the door is open," Kennedy said, "understanding can rush in."

The group of scientists - Steven Webster, Robin and Nancy Burnett, Julie Packard and Chuck Baxter - who had envisioned the Aquarium at the site of the old Hovden Cannery were acknowledged, as were the designers and engineers.

And there was acknowledgment of the generosity of David and Lucile Packard, who had funded the project and donated it to the community.

"From the start, and it's a really important message from the start, the idea of the founders was for this to be a community resource," Julie Packard recently told The Herald. "And on an opening day, when my father made the opening speech and we opened the doors for people to come in, his words were, 'Come enjoy your aquarium' when all those thousands of people were out in Cannery Row, in the street and had been waiting for years to be able to experience this new aquarium.

"So that idea of just the extent to which the Aquarium was so embraced by the community. It's just been amazing."

David and Lucile Packard spoke as well. And then the doors were opened to the general public.

The cost of a ticket for general admission was $7, $3 for kids from 3-12. There was no sophisticated ticketing system, Peterson remembers. Visitors just lined up in front of two windows, paid admission and were issued paper tickets.

Some of the first in were invited to visit the back deck where they could observe the boat parade or participate in events such as oyster shucking.

Peterson reported inside one visitor exclaimed, "My God, we're packed in like sardines."

Aquarium officials said more than 11,000 went through the exhibit halls that day, Peterson wrote. Walton, for one, was pleased by what he experienced.

"I remember just walking through the exhibits and feeling like I was in their (the sea creatures') world," Walton said. "I had never touched marine life before. ... It was enlightening and eye-opening."

Peterson didn't see the fireworks that night over the bay, he was busy typing out his story in the Herald's office near downtown.

Panetta, who grew up in Monterey, remembers walking with his parents through Cannery Row when it was bustling with business and people. He also remembers the changes that happened when the sardine catch disappeared and many of the people and businesses with them. When the Aquarium opened he could sense the renewed energy on Cannery Row.

"The (Aquarium) opening, you really had the sense that there was some magic in the air," Panetta said. "For those of us that live in this area, we understand that the ocean is very much a part of our life. And I think that because of that, and because people recognize how important it is, there really is a community coalition that has come together that's brought the business community and the research community and environmental community together to say, you know, what's happening on Cannery Row, what's happening with the Aquarium, is the right thing in order to not only remember what took place there, but to also do better in the future."

Peterson left The Herald in 1986. About three years later he joined the Aquarium public relations staff. Today he is the Aquarium's senior content strategist. As such he hears tales of marine scientists and others who were inspired by a visit to the Aquarium.

"We look back and we'll hear tales of somebody who says, 'Oh, I first came to the Aquarium as an 11-year-old and today I am doing this with my life. And that was a formative experience for me,'" Peterson said. "I think that's one thing that the visionaries always hoped for, the lasting impact."