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.

Putting Pollution in Its Corner

This is the final installment of a four-part series on the many changes the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium has undergone since March 1, 2003, when Heal the Bay took over management and ownership of the marine education center. This blog was authored by A…
Pollution exhibit at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium

Tumor Found in Local Fish

A group of scientists at the Cabrillo Aquarium in San Pedro is analyzing the presence of a tumor on a White Croaker captured in the port of Long Beach. Historically, the existence of tumors in this fish has been associated with contamination from tox…
Tumor found on White Croaker fish

They Get the Message

Ulices Ramirez and Yahaira Arenas, seniors at Santee Education Complex, a high school near downtown Los Angeles, didn’t like the litter they saw in their community, so they decided to document the problem in a short video as a class project. With h…
Two Santee high school students document litter in their communities

The Changing Face of Our Aquarium

This is the third installment of a four-part series on the many changes the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium has gone through since March 1, 2003, when Heal the Bay took over management and ownership of the marine education center. Today's blogger, Aquari…
UCLA Ocean Discovery Center, Heal the Bay, Santa Monica Pier Aquarium

Ms. James Goes to Washington

Today's guest blogger is Kirsten James, Heal the Bay's water quality director. Last week I had the unique opportunity to look beyond Santa Monica Bay, California and the nation and learn about water resource issues in Latin America. Focusing outside…
Ms. James Goes to Washington

Cool, Clear Water App

Your kid just downed the entire contents of his reusable water bottle and you’re far from home. Where can you safely refill it? Now there’s a free app to help you find the nearest drinking water fountain. Developed by the Center for Embedded Netw…
WeTap App allows users to find working water fountains and report broken ones

Celebrating Nine Years at the Aquarium - Adding a Kids' Corner

This is the second installment of a four-part series on the many changes the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium has undergone since Heal the Bay took over management and ownership of the marine education center.  Aquarium Director Vicki Wawerchak shares…
The Santa Monica Pier Aquarium celebrates nine years
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