Birch Aquarium director reflects on a decade of ‘desire to make a change’

When Harry Helling, who is celebrating his 10th year as executive director of La Jolla’s Birch Aquarium, first set foot on the grounds more than 30 years ago, it was a very different place.

Helling recalls how his initial time there changed his career path — and not in the way you might think.

When Helling was an undergraduate student in the 1990s at UC San Diego — which oversees the aquarium as the outreach center for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography — the facility was known as the Wayland Vaughan Aquarium-Museum. Helling was a “wannabe oceanographer,” he said, and worked in the aquarium as a curator behind the scenes.

But soon after his arrival, and having seen the work of science-based museums and institutions and what they could be, he found himself drawn to education-based non-governmental organizations and museums. So he pivoted his career path.

After decades in the “new” field, Helling had the opportunity to return to Birch Aquarium as its director in 2015. But even then, it was nearly unrecognizable compared with what it is today.

“It was in a bit of a holding place,” Helling said. “It wasn’t in the best condition and there were plenty of challenges when I got here: financially, discontent staff and a lot of repair work that was needed. That was the start of my journey.”

He spent the next two years developing a five-point plan for what needed to be done and how to do it and launched an effort to get new exhibits and upgrade the facility. Under his leadership, and after securing funding for the renovations, the first of the five phases in the plan began.

Then came the COVID-19 pandemic in the early 2020s, causing reduced attendance and added challenges at many institutions, including aquariums.

In response, the Birch staff, with “raw intelligence and the desire to make a change,” came together to create “resilient and innovative” ways to operate until COVID restrictions were lifted, Helling said.

“We ended up with the strongest team in our history,” he said. “That is something that, for me, is really a big accomplishment.”

But financial instability and outdated exhibitions that were not drawing new guests were challenges even before the pandemic.

So first came construction of the Seadragons & Seahorses exhibit, which opened in 2019.

“That was an accomplishment on both sides of the glass,” he said, because it offered a unique viewing experience for visitors and an opportunity for scientists to work on a breeding program using conditions that match seadragons’ native habitats. In 2023, 70 baby seadragons were hatched following what was considered a first-of-its kind egg transfer in the public eye.

In 2022, the Beyster Family Little Blue Penguins exhibition opened “with incredible success,” Helling said, becoming the only exhibit west of the Rockies to feature little blues — the smallest species of penguin, generally less than a foot tall and weighing about 3 pounds.

Almost 10 new exhibits were rotated in and out of the aquarium over the past decade.

“This was an organization that was not financially sustainable when I arrived, and there was a lot of deferred maintenance that had built up,” Helling said. “Now we have a solid business plan and are often recognized as one of the top 10 aquariums in the country and compete with culture centers around town. We developed a lot of guest experiences that are resonant with audiences that don’t typically come to aquariums.”

This year brought the Living Seas exhibit, billed as the aquarium’s largest capital improvement project since its current facility opened in 1992.

The new exhibition, which replaced the 30-year-old Hall of Fishes, features expanded viewing windows, immersive projections and next-generation digital displays, plus an exploration of the Pacific Northwest, a reimagined Scripps Pier experience, a section dedicated to corals and reefs, a mangrove habitat and a giant Pacific octopus habitat with jellies. The tropical coral habitat is four times the size of its predecessor.

The display’s larger enclosures “remove the fourth wall and invite guests into those habitats,” Helling said. “We find that is where the empathy for these animals and the journey to wanting to protect the ocean begins.”

Living Seas has a nighttime component on select dates in which the lights are dimmed as if to answer the question “What happens in the ocean when the light goes out?”

Helling said he sees the importance of conveying cutting-edge science to those who visit Birch. One of the ways the aquarium does that is by having digital text displays next to the exhibits that can be updated whenever there is new information.

“There was a recent research project that [studied] coral goo, which is something that can be put on reefs that have been damaged and they will restore four times faster,” Helling said. “When that was published, it was immediately part of the guest experience through these displays. As soon as new knowledge comes forward, we can communicate that.”

Looking to the future, Helling said there will be added emphasis on conservation, connecting with students in kindergarten through high school and finding ways to link Birch’s exhibits to mindfulness and wellness.

“We see the tumult in the world, and as we seek to redefine what an aquarium can be, [we see how] the more empathetic spaces and the way we use them and programs can help enhance community wellness,” he said.

Birch recently tested the concept of yoga on the grounds for Scripps Oceanography faculty. Down the line, there are plans to launch “octopus meditation,” with details to be determined, Helling said.

And in November, a new exhibit called Meditation Ocean will bring in videos to give viewers the impression of being underwater and encourage meditative practices.

Next year, an exhibit called Changing Minds will bring “an extraordinary adventure,” Helling said, taking the complex research topic of neurology of marine animals in the changing ocean to “play with this idea of how animals’ minds change as ours might change, too.”

The exhibit still is being designed.

“We have lots of work to do,” Helling said. “That excites me.”

“I feel like I worked my entire career to be in a place so I could help shape the direction of this organization,” he said. “It has been extraordinarily rewarding and a privilege to work as part of Scripps and this ecology of incredible thinkers and ocean optimists. I have been filled with gratitude every day to be a part of that. It’s been a gift the entire time, even with the challenge. This is a remarkable place to work and it has been a great journey to be a part of Birch as it matured to what you see today.”

For more information about Birch Aquarium, visit aquarium.ucsd.edu.