Education & Camps

A lifetime of Learning

Education is a top priority of Heal the Bay. Whether you visit our public, marine education center on a school field trip, attend a free evening lecture on a marine science related topic, send your budding young scientist to our Micro Biologist classes or bring a group to one of our school year education programs, you will leave the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium with a new sense of wonder and appreciation for the amazing marine life of the Santa Monica Bay.

Getting Started

The Aquarium is a premier field trip destination for school groups and an educational resource for the entire Los Angeles region. Located at the historic Santa Monica Pier, with the Pacific Ocean just outside its doors, we exhibit more than 100 species of plant and animal life native to the Santa Monica Bay.

The moray eels that are the centerpiece of the Rocky Reef exhibit greet each student; touch tanks teeming with animals of the tide pools – sea stars and sea urchins, anemones and hermit crabs, snails and sea cucumbers, to name a few - invite hands-in-the-water exploration; the majestic sea jelly exhibit beckons from an interactive pollution exhibit.

Our marine science center uses every square inch to support Heal the Bay’s mission and engage, inform and inspire conservation and stewardship. Students learn how they can help keep Southern California’s coastal waters and watersheds, including Santa Monica Bay, safe, healthy and clean.

Misinformation About MPAs

It has come to Heal the Bay’s attention that some kayaks in the Malibu area have been tagged with a notice that states they are not allowed to be moored or placed on the beach within the newly established
marine protected areas, mpas, point dume

Military Personnel Get In Free to Aquarium This Summer

Heal the Bay's Santa Monica Pier Aquarium joins more than 1,800 museums nationwide in offering free admission to military personnel and their families this summer. In collaboration with the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families and the …
Blue Star Museums Program

Reclaiming L.A.’s Beaches as Communities of Color

Most surfers know Bay Street beach for its easily-accessible, often fun waves. But on June 1 we’ll be celebrating more than just a sweet surf spot. We’ll be honoring the memory of Nick Gabaldon, an ocean pioneer, the first documented surfer …
Bay Street Santa Monica surf spot Nick Gabaldon Southern California

Thank You Thursday - 5.9.13

Compton Creek runs 8.5 miles through the neighborhoods of South Los Angeles, traversing its last 2.5 miles as one of the few remaining natural bottomed urban waterways in the area. The creek contains water (and trash) that flows from just below Expos…
Compton Creek education TreePeople Rails to Trails Eastside LA River

Lunch ‘n Learn Introduces Kids to the Sea

“Best…fieldtrip…ever!” So go the reviews we at Heal the Bay receive from the students who’ve accompanied us on one of our Lunch ‘n Learn fieldtrips. And we have to agree. Lunch ‘n Learn trips are our favorites too, as we get to spirit t…
beach field trip Valor Academy Arleta Duke's Malibu science education

Thank You Thursday - 1.31.13

Free Bird! You might be grateful to hear your favorite band cover this song...or not. At Heal the Bay, we can say without irony that we are grateful to Freebirds in Agoura Hills for teaming with us to restore the Malibu Creek Watershed in January. No…
Thank you thursday mommy poppins freebirds bodega gesso foundation frank moore
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