Engage your senses and use scientists’ tools as you learn to explore the habitats of the Cabrillo Coastal Park. Examine your role in the watershed, get a worm’s eye view of the mud, use microscopes and more. Check out our Life Under a Kelp Patty exhibit, taxidermy birds, and shells and preserved specimens in the Naturalist’s Corner. Explore a life-size exhibit of the Los Angeles Breakwater and create in the Ecological Play Area. Friendly staff and volunteers are on hand to answer questions and guide you through areas of our
coastal park-themed Exploration Center.
Come on in and find out what programs are happening in the coastal park each day. Options include a guided Walk Cabrillo, Tidepool Walk, Salt Marsh Open House, and more!
Become a Watershed Warrior
Experience a hands-on look at the Los Angeles watershed--how it flows into local marshes and the ocean and the various plants and animals found throughout it. Visitors learn how the choices we make can have both positive and negative impacts on the environment. Commit to becoming a watershed warrior by adopting one small act to help reduce ocean pollution!
Under a Kelp Patty
Kelp paddy habitats are created when the holdfast of kelp is ripped from the rocks–often due to storms–and is left to float at the surface. This drifting structure is at the mercy of the currents but often provides shelter, protection and food for juvenile fishes that seek temporary refuge underneath–hiding from large open ocean predators. This floating habitat offers guests a connection to understanding the fact that even though the open ocean looks vast and empty, it is filled with life. Have fun and crawl under this exhibit to experience what it feels like to live under a kelp paddy!
Mud Tunnel
Visitors get a “worm’s eye view of the mud,” including simulated interaction with organisms found in the mud, as they move through a squishy, tactile tunnel. External exhibits provide insight into food chains and how organisms survive in mud.
Naturalist Corner
A naturalist’s/field researcher’s lab is open for visitors to study the organisms and habitats of Cabrillo Beach Coastal Park and beyond. Examine, touch and identify animals using microscopes and investigate published and on-line information on different marine topics.
Discovery Corner
Create artwork (food chain mobile, finger puppets, fish printing, biological sketching, and more) to take home, solve a puzzle or join a group lesson that illustrates a marine science concept. Browse through books, explore discovery boxes that contain a variety of specimens and activities on subjects such as sharks, food webs, pollution and animal adaptation.