Cannery Row Today – Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey, California

Cannery Row is the waterfront street in the New Monterey section of Monterey, California. It is the site of a number of now-defunct sardine canning factories. The last cannery closed in 1973. The street name, formerly a nickname for Ocean View Avenue, became official in January 1958 to honor John Steinbeck and his well-known novel Cannery Row. In the novel’s opening sentence, Steinbeck described the street as "a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream."

Today the area offshore from Cannery Row is the Edward F. Ricketts State Marine Conservation Area (part of the larger Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary) and is home to a large resurgent population of California sea lions. The Monterey Bay Aquarium (opened 1984) is located at the north end of Cannery Row, at the former site of the major Hovden Cannery. Norwegian immigrant Knut Hovden founded Hovden Food Products Corporation which opened on July 7, 1916. By canning squid at the end of its life, Hovden Cannery managed to outlast its neighbors, finally closing its doors in 1973 when it became the last cannery on the row to close.