Charlie Ferrero, a longtime board member of the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, organized this event at Cabrillo. He introduced Executive Director and Marine Biologist Mike Schaadt, who reviewed the Aquarium’s history and then led the tour of the frequently-updated exhibits (see Jon Caplan’s photo album on our Club website above).

The Aquarium, which belongs to the City of Los Angeles, began 81 years ago as a card table at the beach nearby at the lifeguard shack, displaying marine specimens collected in the area. The original public bathhouse was converted to a museum building, where Dr William Lloyd developed a Southern California marine life collection.

The Aquarium’s mission is to engage people in learning about Southern California ocean life, which is unique because it is the mixing zone at the northern limit of southern sea life and the southern limit of northern sea life. It now hosts about 1000 schoolchildren per day, many of whom have never seen the ocean before. The Aquarium has a staff of 100, assisted by 500 volunteers. (The Aquarium would benefit from the pending Los Angeles Measure A, which would fund parks and $7 million for the Aquarium’s master plan to redo exhibits and add a new building, assisted by $3 million from Friends of the Cabrillo Aquarium. The current building was designed by architect Frank Gehry.) See http://www.cabrillomarineaquarium.org/ for information on exhibits and how you can help this important community resource by volunteering or donations.