Perched on this cliffside campus above the Pacific, the Birch Aquarium at Scripps is the public face of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, one of the oldest, largest, and most important ocean research institutions in the world. Scripps was founded in 1903 by marine biologist William Ritter, with funding from newspaper publisher E.W. Scripps and his sister Ellen Browning Scripps, and has been affiliated with the University of California since 1912. From this cliffside campus above the Pacific, Scripps scientists have mapped the ocean floor, discovered new species, and produced much of the foundational research on ocean temperature, chemistry, and circulation that underpins our understanding of climate change.
The aquarium itself opened in its current location in 1992, designed as a museum of ocean science and conservation as much as an exhibit of marine life. Its collection of Pacific Coast and tropical reef exhibits is excellent, but the view from the outdoor tidepools and the deck above the Pacific — looking south toward La Jolla Cove and north toward Torrey Pines — is the aquarium's best feature. The adjacent Scripps campus, with its historic pier extending into the Pacific below, is one of the most beautifully situated research universities in the world, its buildings descending through coastal sage scrub to the ocean's edge.