The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Sea Center, in collaboration with UCSB, will celebrate World Oceans Day by offering free admission, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, June 9, to the center on Stearns Wharf.

The World Oceans Day theme for 2018 focuses on preventing plastic pollution and encouraging solutions for a healthy ocean. Sea Center visitors will be able to:

» Explore a kelp holdfast that anchors kelp to the ocean floor and provides a home to numerous small marine animals.

» Speak with marine biologists to learn about the impacts of ash from the Thomas Fire on the marine food web.

» Walk through a kelp forest station.

» Learn about marine debris impacts on the ocean with the Sea Center’s Portal to the Planet program.

» Talk with outreach teams from UCSB, the Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

» Watch a Harbor Patrol fire boat water display at 2 p.m. (time subject to change).

» Immerse themselves with grey whales swimming the Santa Barbara Channel via a virtual reality headset in the Sea Center’s Channel Theatre.

World Oceans Day was first proposed in 1992 by the government of Canada at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. A petition was widely circulated to the United Nations, persuading the body to officially recognize World Oceans Day.

In December 2008, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution recognizing June 8 as World Oceans Day.
 
For more information, visit www.sbnature.org or www.worldoceansday.org.  

— Briana Sapp Tivey for Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Sea Center.