Seymour Marine Discovery Center Santa Cruz

Seymour Marine Discovery Center is located on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Santa Cruz, California. The center is part of the Long Marine Laboratory and is open to the public every day except Monday. Inside, the center offers a look at the marine world surrounding the Monterey Bay Sanctuary. One of the most striking exhibits at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center is a huge 87-foot long Blue Whale skeleton.
The Seymour Marine Discovery Center has four different exhibits: looking, testing, puzzling, questioning. These try to show the visitors what scientists do, and how they go about their research.

The Looking Exhibit: This exhibit “offers thematic interactive experiences and adventures in a wide variety of scientific fields for visitors of all ages, and in nine different languages.” These displays try to give the viewers a “hands-on” experience, and try to show how a scientist does his or her research out in the field. There are three different parts to this exhibit:

Elephant Seals field studies
Coastal Geographical Processes
Tidepool Ecology: Long-term Observations
The Testing Exhibit: At this exhibit there are three displays and instruments used by scientists to collect data and samples for a variety of things: investigating life on Earth, they are used in the depths of the oceans, with marine mammals in water and air, and to sample the environmental toxins that accumulate everywhere. The three displays are:

Ocean Drilling Project (ODP)
Pinniped Sensory Abilities
Heavy Metals in the Environment
The Puzzling Exhibit:

Marine Snow Studies
Otter and Killer Whale Interactions
The Questioning Exhibit: The questioning aspect of the center is incorporated with the aquarium. On each tank, which houses an animal, there is a question relating to that animal which the scientists have to ask themselves. Some examples of these questions are: “How smart is an octopus? What does this crab do when it outgrows its shell? What survival techniques do sand dabs use to escape hungry predators?”

Days and Hours:
Tuesday-Saturday, 10 AM to 5 PM
Sunday, noon to 5 PM
Closed Monday
Admission:
Adult $6
Student or Senior (64+) $4
Child (4-16) $4
First Tuesday of each month free admission

Located at the End of Delaware Avenue
100 Shaffer Road, Santa Cruz, CA 95060