Millions of visitors make this the anchor of their pilgrimage to Monterey, for a million reasons. Those include — but aren’t limited to — monkey-faced eels, penguins, jellies, sea otters, octopi, leopard sharks, hammerhead sharks and seven-gill sharks. They inhabit exhibits and habitats like “Beaches and Dunes,” “The Great Kelp Forest,” “Open Waters,” “Deep Sea” and rotating special exhibits including the current “Into the Deep” and the special-exihibit-turned-permanent “Tentacles.” The mission of the nonprofit MBA is “to inspire conservation of the ocean.” Mission accomplished, and then some. montereybayaquarium.org