Urban Ocean

May 22, 2013

The Aquarium is featuring a new Science on a Sphere® show called Urban Ocean, presented daily in the Ocean Science Center. Urban Ocean uses Science on a Sphere, created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), to illustrate the characteristics of the world’s increasingly urbanized coastlines and to look at the future of the urban ocean as human populations grow.

More than 22 million people live within the Southern California urban ocean’s watershed, which stretches from Santa Barbara to the U.S.-Mexico border. It contains all of the state’s offshore oil platforms and oil islands, as well as the nation’s two largest container ports. Millions of gallons of treated municipal wastewater are released into this segment of the ocean each year. It is also home to some of the busiest beaches in the world, where Southern Californians and tourists from all over the world come to enjoy recreation and scenery. Marine life flourishes here in one of the most biologically productive areas of the entire Pacific Ocean, and large and diverse assemblages of whales migrate along this coast.

Solutions are needed to reduce society’s conflicts with coastal and marine ecosystems and to stimulate appropriate and compatible human uses. The Southern California urban ocean could provide a model for developing these solutions.

Visit the Aquarium’s Ocean Science Center to view Urban Ocean and learn about potential sustainable pathways to the future for Southern California’s urban ocean. See the theater kiosk for show times.

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