Seymour Marine Discovery Center prepares for biggest exhibition update since its opening 25 years ago: See More HQ

For the first time since opening 25 years ago, the Seymour Marine Discovery Center will have a new permanent exhibit this coming spring. 

Called See More HQ, the new exhibit will reflect the center’s shift toward becoming a collaborative hub for coastal resilience and connecting local scientists, the general public and community organizations focused on problem-solving, according to the center’s education director, Dana Neel. 

“The Seymour Center wants to be the place where you can get the pulse of what’s happening — in real time — and know who to talk to and what questions to ask,” she said. “There are so many people and organizations doing incredible things that it’s hard to keep tabs on it all.”

The marine center, a museum and education center operated by UC Santa Cruz, is located at 100 McAllister Way on the Westside of Santa Cruz. The center has three large adjacent rooms, the third of which is the aquarium. The new exhibit will be in the first room that visitors encounter when they walk into the center, where for the past several years there have been story booths or tables with interactive science exhibits. 

Neel said several other additions have been added to the center in recent months. The museum recently installed a 10-foot replica of its original 87-foot whale skeleton, named Ms. Blue, in the second room. Next to the replica, the museum installed a new jellyfish tank this past year. Construction of the new permanent exhibit is slated to start in May, with the aim of opening in June. 

The main part of the new exhibit See More HQ will be installed on the left wall of the first room. It will have three different sections to showcase scientists and community members who are involved in coastal resilience, such as Pacific Collegiate School student Hazel Campbell. The 16-year-old’s research into how kelp could prevent coastal erosion won third place at an international science fair for students. The exhibit will be digitally focused to allow a revolving gallery of local research and scientists. 

“My goal as the education director is that young scientists can come in and see themselves up there — and see what kind of actions they can take to make change in their community,” said Neel. 

The new exhibit will also feature a visual, interactive interpretation of coastal wave behavior. The wave model will be focused on the destructive storm event in December 2024 that caused the Santa Cruz Wharf’s partial collapse and severe damage in the Santa Cruz Harbor. 

Researchers from the UCSC Center for Coastal Climate Resilience created the model, which, Neel said, will allow people to see the storm on a smaller scale and better understand it. The model will be displayed on the screen, and the center will install its wave tank in the exhibit to show a live demonstration. 

“Scientists don’t always have a clear pathway to leverage their science. Solution-makers don’t always have access to the most current research. And community members want to help — but they don’t always know where to start,” she said. “We want to be the space where all three of those groups can come together and work together as a community.”

For more information about the Seymour Marine Discovery Center, click here. 

Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.