Monterey Bay Aquarium stands on the bones of Cannery Row's most productive sardine operation. The Hovden Food Products Cannery, which occupied this site from 1916, burned down twice, rebuilt twice, and survived the collapse of the sardine industry longer than almost any other plant on the row.

When Hovden finally retired in 1951, Stanford University bought the property. It sat largely idle until 1978, when David and Lucile Packard purchased it for nearly $1 million and began converting it into an aquarium. The original boilers and smokestack remain where Hovden left them. Opened in 1984, the aquarium now holds 35,000 animals across 550 species and draws around two million visitors a year.

VoiceMap's Cannery Row tours trace this transformation from sardine capital to conservation landmark, connecting the aquarium's kelp forests and million-gallon Open Sea exhibit to the fishing industry that once defined this stretch of the Pacific coast.