Plan Your Visit

Get Up Close and Personal with Marine Life of the Santa Monica BAy

Visitor Information

Schedule Notes

  • May 27: Aquarium open Memorial Day 12:30-5:00PM

Whether you’re from halfway around the world or from just down the street, we welcome you to a hands-on exploration at our Aquarium. Visit and be inspired to understand more about our amazing Santa Monica Bay marine environment, and learn how you can help to conserve it.

Visit during our public hours and you can:

  • Get a hug from a spiky sea urchin
  • Experience the salty spray from a swell shark
  • Examine microscopic sea life in our lab
  • Learn about the animals of the Santa Monica Bay on a marine-themed scavenger hunt
  • Make a sea star crown, an ocotpus puppet or a pirate's hat at the arts and crafts station
  • Stop by any Saturday for a whale of a tale - 3:30 p.m. is story time in the Green Room

 Feeding times:

  •  Each Tuesday and Friday, staff members invite visitors to help feed the sea stars in our touch tanks. Weekly feedings begin at 2:30 p.m.
  • Don't miss the shark's favorite time of day - feeding time! Learn about these often-misunderstood creatures while watching them eat a meal Sundays at 3:30 p.m.

Free Aquarium Admission for Military Families

Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium joins more than 1,000 museums across the country this summer as a member of Blue Star Museums, a program offering free admission to all active duty military personnel and their families from Memorial D…
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Schooling the Aquarium

Recently, to wrap up Earth Month, a class from the Laurel Hall School in North Hollywood took a visit to Santa Monica Beach to participate in a cleanup and learn how trash ends up in the Bay. Afterwards, the group toured our Santa Monica Pier Aquariu…

An Unusual Jackpot

Guest blogger Vicki Wawerchak, the director of the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, discusses hitting an unusual jackpot.

Domoic Acid and Marine Animals

Strandings of marine animals in Southern California have increased dramatically in the past few weeks. The mortality rate is up and rescue teams and care centers are overrun with a large number of ailing sea lions and birds. We asked David Caron…
CA Sea Lion at Anacapa Island

Celebrate Earth Month at the Aquarium

The benefits of cleaning the beach are obvious; a cleaner environment for all to enjoy, and less trash in the ocean to harm both the marine habitat and the animals that live there. But on April 16th and 17th, cleaning the beach brings an added benefi…

Mussel Beach

The yearly quarantine of all mussel species harvested publicly on the California coast came a month early this year and is now in effect. California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has found elevated levels of both domoic acid and paralytic shellf…

Register Now For Aquarium Field Trips

While many are preparing to take a field trip this spring, Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium is ready to help teachers plan their field trips for the 2011-2012 school year. Reservation books open April 1st and if past years are any indicati…
Teaching plankton net use
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