Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium will host “Whale of a Weekend,” a family event celebrating the annual migration of the Pacific gray whale, on Feb. 15-16.
In addition to watching for whales from the pier’s west end observation deck, the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium will facilitate hands-on learning activities, crafts, film screenings and interactive presentations.
From 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, aquarium naturalists and representatives from the American Cetacean Society will be on hand with binoculars and field guides to help identify local marine life and sea birds. They will also help to spot any whales that may swim by on their migration.
Other scheduled weekend events include a presentation on whale migration, “Whale of a Tale Story Time” on Saturday and a shark feeding and presentation on Sunday. Kids will have the opportunity to have their faces painted and to make whale visors to take home with them.
According to the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, a record-breaking number of whales have been spotted off the coast of California this year as they make their migration from the arctic seas in the north to Baja California, Mexico.
The Aquarium is Heal the Bay’s education facility, located at beach level beneath the Santa Monica Pier. Heal the Bay, a nonprofit environmental organization with a mission to make California’s coastal waters and watersheds safe, healthy and clean, has run the Aquarium since 2003.
For details about the “Whale of a Weekend” event, go to its webpage.
For more information on Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, check out its website.