Docent Led Public Tours

Please note: there will be no public tours Friday, 3/27/09.

Since 1976 Bodega Marine Laboratory volunteer docents have led interpretive tours for all ages.

Public Education features at BML include numerous marine aquarium displays, some of which shatter the notion that local marine life is drab. Upon entering our West Wing, visitors experience a 24-foot-long display, containing many colorful local fishes and invertebrates, and a small kelp forest. Past that is a predator aquarium with large, charismatic hunters. Next to that is a round aquarium that displays anemones and other organisms. Elsewhere around the facility are smaller display aquaria featuring local and, occasionally, exotic marine creatures. A Tidal Mesocosm display allows visitors to experience the biodiversity and dynamic energy of the northern California coast.

Group Tours:

Group tours are scheduled on other weekdays up to four times a week. Group tours must be reserved and scheduled in advance. Tour size is limited to 45 adults or 30 children. A minimal fee is charged for group tours. For more information about arranging group tours please contact (707) 875-2211.

We thank our volunteer docents:

Our docents introduce BML to over 12,000 people annually. We are extremely grateful to our docents for their dedication to BML and enthusiasm for marine science interpretation.

Bea Brunn, Trevor Davey, Jim Dunwoody, Mike Gottlieb, Charles Greene, Homer Malaby, Bob Merwin, Diane Perry, Mike Pettibone, Daryl Schloss, Phyllis Schmitt, Barbara Shubin, and Marcus Sugihara.

Seminar Series:

Bodega Marine Laboratory hosts a weekly scientific seminar series at 4:00 p.m., Wednesdays, in the BML Lecture Hall (unless otherwise noted). These talks are open to the public. Join us for coffee and cookies at 3:45 p.m. in the BML Great Hall. More

“Meet The Scientists” Open House:

BML scientists opened their labs to the public in 2005, for our third Open House. Over 1,300 people attended the event, receiving demonstrations and information from 120 enthusiastic scientists, staff, students and volunteers. Thirty-one exhibits provided visitors with answers to questions ranging from blacktailed deer behavior to endangered salmon to the ecological importance of eelgrass beds. Hands-on experiences included tidepool animals, quizzes, microscopic identification of plankton and crafting kelp mobiles. As they exited, many visitors expressed that it was a fabulous event including a comment from one visitor who said, “This was the best day of my life!”

BML’s exhibit at UC Davis Picnic Day continues to connect BML to the campus community. For some students, Picnic Day has led to coursework and study at BML as part of their education. Picnic Day is the largest student-run event in the United States and is the annual Open House for UC Davis with over 50,000 visitors annually.

Bodega Bay Fisherman’s Festival:

BML contributes to the Bodega Bay community by volunteering assistance at the annual Bodega Bay Fisherman’s Festival, a two-day community event that hosts 25,000 visitors annually. In addition to providing the children’s touch tidepool and offering shuttle tours of BML, faculty, staff and students manage and sell beverages with proceeds going to the community. This year’s theme, Rock Around the Dock, provided the aquatic stage for BML’s reggae-themed floating vessel called “BML & the Whalers,” which won winning trophies for fastest and best-decorated “bathtub!”