NEWPORT BEACH

City, state and Orange Coast College officials want to build an artificial tide pool, an aquarium and educational exhibits at Big Corona State Beach. They hope the proposed center will draw thousands of students each year, keeping them away from the real, but fragile, tide pools at Little Corona.

Environmentalists have warned city officials that the thousands of students who visit the tide pools each year are destroying the fragile ecosystem. The City Council has yet to vote on the plan, which Tony Melum, the city’s deputy chief of marine and environmental oversight, said is “very preliminary and vague.”