Every so often at the Academy, we hear about how some of the equipment used at our temporary Howard Street home is now meeting other organizations’ needs in unexpected ways. When all the animals had been moved out of Howard Street, we donated aquarium tanks to a number of institutions, including the Tiburon Salmon Institute.

This week, we heard from them that the National Marine Fisheries Service has been deeply concerned about their coho salmon hatchery near Santa Cruz, ever since the area was hit by wildfire this summer. The first rains of the year (now upon us) are expected to wash ash, silt, and other debris into the creeks which feed the hatchery, changing the pH of the water, and potentially clogging the gills of the endangered coho. So, NMFS called the Tiburon Salmon Institute, and is borrowing several of the donated 500-gallon tanks in order to protect the hatchery’s coho population from those harmful contaminants. We wish them every success! Read more about the situation here.

The Academy’s “Chief Penguin” Dr. Greg Farrington is one of a handful of San Franciscans selected to participate in Google’s new Favorite Places campaign, which launches today. Unlike his cousins in African Hall, this “penguin” needs a dry cleaner’s help to keep his tux looking tidy…via the map below, you can check out his favorite spots in San Francisco (restaurants, venues, local businesses, etc.), all marked with custom penguin pins.

View Greg Farrington’s Favorite Places in San Francisco in a larger map