Here’s your chance to meet a sea...

Here’s your chance to meet a sea mouse, touch a whale’s “teeth” or try shark “sandpaper.”

At the Cabrillo Marine Museum Discovery Center workshop today, from noon to 3 p.m., families will be introduced to these and other secrets of the underwater world. Through hands-on activities ranging from fish dissection to mackerel painting, the workshop is guaranteed to take some of the mystery out of marine life.

“This is an opportunity to be slimed and spined,” said Steve Vogel, museum education curator. “In the workshop, participants can immerse their hands and minds in marine biology.”

Visitors can dig into some of the museum’s saltwater holding tanks to touch tide pool animals and examine microscopic beach creatures that inhabit the ocean. The workshop will give young museum-goers the opportunity to:

* Get up close and personal with snails, sea urchins and other tide pool animals by viewing them under a microscope. Youngsters may also select and examine other creatures from some of the museum’s displays. “Whatever we got is available for close examination,” Vogel said.

* Make personal slides using plankton samples.

* Use a magnet to discover hidden iron filings in everyday beach sand.

* Meet a sea mouse, a 4-inch long beach worm.

* Discover how a pelican’s wings work.

* Feel whale baleen, the mustache-like material along the mammal’s upper jaw.

* Touch sharkskin, “the world’s first sandpaper.”

Linda Chilton and other museum staff members will be on hand to share such oceanic advice as: “If and when you ever pet a shark, pet it from head to tail because it’s too rough from the tail to the head.”

The Discovery Center may also include an environmental station--an exhibit of trash pulled from the ocean to demonstrate the importance of protecting the sea and its inhabitants.

Budding marine biologists may find that the workshop helps set their career paths or discover that shaking hands with a sea anemone isn’t as easy as they’d hoped. The workshop should broaden everyone’s knowledge about the ocean and should help children realize that slippery sea creatures are fragile living things that need as much care as the cuddliest kitten, Vogel said.

The Cabrillo Marine Museum is located at 3720 Stephen White Drive in San Pedro. Tickets are $1. Beach parking is $5. Regular museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call (310) 548-7562.