This microscope-based exhibit lets visitors experience an underwater world. Put a glass plate underwater in the Bay, and a variety of organisms will settle and grow there.
Almost any hard surface submerged in San Francisco Bay—from pier pilings to the sides of boats and ships—becomes coated in a variety of organisms. Known collectively as the fouling community, these organisms begin their lives as small drifting larvae called plankton, before eventually settling on a surface to grow.
