Environment170′s Weblog

Community Service Event:

Earth Day at the SEA Lab, Redondo Beach, CA

Briana Fodor, April 25^th, 2009

The SEA Lab is a coastal science education center and aquarium in Redondo Beach, CA.  Every year they host an Earth Day celebration, where the public can come and learn more about coastal environmental issues and about what they can do to help our local environment.  The SEA Lab teaches the public both about our ocean and terrestrial environments.  They host bluff restoration projects at which they are replacing invasive plant species with native ones.  At Earth Day, the SEA Lab sells native plants, as seen to the right, and encourages people to plant these, since they use less water and help support native animals species.  People are also able to visit the aquarium’s many sea life exhibits, where volunteers can teach the public about the local animals.  Local environmental organizations participate in the Earth Day celebration through having booths where they can teach people about what their organization does and about what the public can do.

I volunteered at the SEA Lab when I was in high school and for a year while I was at UCLA.  This is the fifth Earth Day that I have participated in at the SEA Lab.  This year I spent most of the time working at the animal exhibits, such as the Halibut tank to the left, where I taught guests about the animals in that tank and about the SEA Lab itself.  Most of the animals at the SEA Lab are rescued animals that are saved from the local power plants.  These companies will take sea water from the ocean to cool down their machines, and with the sea water comes many animals.  The SEA Lab takes these animals, lets them recover, and then releases them again.  The most common animals brought in from the intake systems are lobsters and crabs.  The exhibits I worked at were the lobster, horn shark, sea star, and giant black sea bass exhibits.  The black sea bass is a very endangered animal, so the SEA Lab is very lucky to have one right now that can be shown to the public.  Their sea bass is still small, about a foot and a half long, but they can grow to be up to 8 feet long!  Other activities that volunteers can help out with are children’s games, fish feedings, or even dressing up as EGBAR (as seen to the right), the mascot for Simple Green, which is a major sponsor of the SEA Lab.                                                            

The Earth Day at the SEA Lab does a great job at teaching the public about local environmental issues and about what they can do to help.  When people are able to see the local animals that are affected by what we do, they seem to take a greater interest in being more environmentally conscious.  Also many of the booths gave great advice on how to be more environmentally friendly.  In all I feel like I helped the environment, even a little, by participating at this Earth Day Celebration.