Quick Take
The Seymour Marine Discovery Center unveiled its first new permanent exhibit in 15 years during a soft opening Friday, showcasing interactive, bilingual displays designed to connect visitors with local coastal resilience research and community science efforts.
Dolphins hear through their jaws and humans hear through their ears, Seymour Marine Discovery Center volunteer Cathy Novak said during a demonstration at the center’s new exhibit.
“Do you think humans can hear through their jaws?” Novak said as she held a tuning fork and striker. “Want to see what it’s like to hear through our jaws?”
Novak then tapped the tuning fork to the striker and placed the vibrating fork on the jawbone of a curious visitor, who plugged their ears and closed their eyes as instructed, to demonstrate that humans can indeed also hear through their jaws.
Novak and several of the center’s staff held a soft opening on Friday of the first new permanent exhibit at the center in 15 years – See More HQ. The bilingual exhibit was designed to build the center as a hub connecting local scientists, community groups and the public around coastal resilience.
With its digital focus, the exhibit presents a changing slate of local researchers and their projects and interactive games. The center will host its grand opening this weekend.
Operated by UC Santa Cruz, the marine center is a museum and education center located on the Westside at 100 McAllister Way. The new exhibit is in the first room that visitors engage with when they walk inside, and the center has three large adjacent rooms including the aquarium. The completion of the exhibit marks the first part of the center’s broader transformation.
Jonathan Hicken, the center’s executive director, said he’s “over the moon” to see this first part of the center’s multiyear transformation come to fruition.
“I’m so excited. This is the first step in our transformation to be this community hub for coastal resilience,” he said. “That’s really how I see us amplifying the science and the stories and the solutions happening in Santa Cruz … I’ve dreamed of this moment for years.”
Hicken said the See More HQ exhibit cost about $500,000, and that the center’s remaining renovation projects will cost about $5 million total. The project is community-funded, and Hicken said the UC Santa Cruz Center for Coastal Climate Resilience funded half of the new permanent exhibit. He said the remaining projects will begin when they reach their fundraising goal and they don’t yet have a timeline for that.
To celebrate the new exhibit, Seymour Center is hosting two days of activities Saturday and Sunday. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., there will be aquarium feedings, story time and guided outdoor tours. For more information on hours and admission, visit its website.
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