After six months of work, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Sea Center on Stearns Wharf will reopen March 12 with infrastructure upgrades and a refreshed upstairs exhibit.
The reinterpreted upstairs space, called Dive In: Our Changing Channel, will guide visitors through the underwater world of the Santa Barbara Channel while highlighting its unique marine residents and diverse habitats.
“We think the public will be excited and surprised to explore the underwater secrets of the Santa Barbara Channel, and discover how dramatically what we can’t see impacts the ecology of our entire region,” said Frank Hein, director of exhibits.
Upstairs, guests will encounter favorite Sea Center animals, like moon jellies, a two-spot pctopus, a California moray, and giant Pacific seahorses in an exhibit providing more information about the ecology of kelp forests, rocky reefs, and seagrass meadows.
The new interpretation emphasizes how the geography of the coast and channel affects relationships between animals, habitats and humans. Visitors can model the depths of the channel using an interactive augmented reality sandbox.
The reopening marks a new phase in the Sea Center’s history of bringing marine science and nature education to Stearns Wharf.
This year is the 150th anniversary of the wharf, which was a working industrial pier before the 1973 fire transformed its future. At that time, the city of Santa Barbara’s new plan for the wharf included space for nonprofit use, and the Sea Center was born in 1986.
Since its earliest days, the Sea Center has taken a strong and consistent approach of drawing on the expertise of museum scientists and Sea Center staff to share information about marine ecosystems as part of an effort to protect the resources of near shore habitats.
“In the face of both human and climate change impacts such as sea level rise, ocean warming, and acidification, the mission of the Sea Center to promote better understanding and appreciation of the Santa Barbara Channel’s rich but fragile diversity has never been more critical,” said Luke Swetland, president/CEO of the museum and Sea Center.
“We hope repeat visitors to the newly reopened space will enjoy their favorite activities and notice some of the improvements,” said Sea Center director Richard Smalldon. “Less obvious improvements, like a safe, waterproof, and energy-efficient building, will help ensure the Sea Center continues to serve in the decades to come, as it has for over 30 years,”
Those planning a visit can visit sbnature.org/seacenter and sbnature.org/visit/hours/ for more information.