Institute Director: William M. Hamner (310) 825-9302; fax (310) 206-3987; hamner@biology.ucla.edu

Administrative Manager: Peggy Hamner (310) 206-8247; fax (310) 206-3987; phamner@ucla.edu

Diving Safety Officer: Frank DiCrisi (310) 206-5808; dicrisi@ucla.edu

Ship Operations: Willie McCarthy, Captain (310) 433-5008; capwilly@ucla.edu Dennis Weyrauch, Engineer & Deckhand

The UCLA Ocean Discovery Center (310) 393-6149; fax (310) 393-4839

Director: Dr. Steven Strand (310) 825-0376; strand@biology.ucla.edu

Introduction

The Marine Science Center, an informal research unit of the University of California, has the responsibility to encourage, develop, and support university endeavors in marine science research and education as well as public outreach.

The Institute of Marine Sciences is composed of 20 affiliated faculty, over 30 researchers and post-docs, support staff, and graduate students. Marine scientists from the departments of Organismic Biology, Ecology and Evolution, Atmospheric Sciences, and Earth and Space Sciences, and Environmental Studies conduct their research under the shared focus of the center.

Cruising Classroom is an outreach program of the UCLA Marine Science Center, conducted aboard UCLA’s ship, the R/V Sea World UCLA. Cruising Classroom allows teachers to supplement classroom instruction with field trips into Santa Monica Bay. Aboard UCLA’s ship, the Sea World UCLA, students learn about oceanography, marine organisms, and navigation. The primary goal of Cruising Classroom is to introduce students to the Santa Monica Bay ecosystem and to instill an appreciation for this complex, diverse and fragile ecosystem.

Marine Lab Education Programs- On September 14, 1996 we opened the doors to the UCLA Ocean Discovery Center – an innovative “ocean classroom” on the Santa Monica Pier, beneath the world famous Carousel. Over 1600 people visited the Ocean Discovery Center (ODC) that first weekend. The ODC was founded as the newest component in UCLA’s community education outreach efforts, offering one-hour educational programs for students in grades K-12.

The UCLA Ocean Discovery Center features 5 large marine aquariums, an “ocean laboratory” with touch tanks for hands-on classroom instruction and examination of sea life, a 50-seat multimedia auditorium, and a microscope lab.

The ODC is currently open to the public on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. fall through spring. Summer hours are Saturdays 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sundays 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Tuesdays through Fridays 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. For more information about the ODC call (310) 393-6149, or explore its Web site at http://www.odc.ucla.edu/

Diving and Boat Support- The UCLA Diving Safety Program’s focus is scientific diving and performing research tasks while underwater. Scientific training programs are usually about four times longer than recreational diving programs. UCLA diving adheres to the standards of the American Academy of Underwater Sciences (AAUS). AAUS provides universities with minimum standards for training divers to do scientific research and with standards and regulations for conducting university sponsored diving operations.

In January of 1996 we started renovations on our 65’ long, 60-ton Sportfisher yacht, Sea World UCLA. Sea World UCLA has functioned primarily as a marine science floating classroom (Cruising Classroom) for K-12 teachers and their students in and around the Los Angeles Unified School District. Besides our activities as a floating classroom we also collect marine animals for the UCLA Ocean Discovery Center’s classroom programs and aquarium exhibits. UCLA’s Diving Safety Program also uses the Sea World UCLA to transport divers to field sites for training, research and collections.