Maritime Field Trips Offered to Students
The Ventura County Maritime Museum and the Channel Islands marine floating lab will combine resources to offer a maritime history and oceanography program to fourth- and fifth-graders.
The field trips, which will be booked over the summer, will begin Sept. 21 at Fisherman’s Wharf in Channel Islands Harbor, said David Leach, the museum’s operations manager since 1997.
The four-hour program will include a California or American maritime history unit and a hands-on session on the floating lab, the Coral Sea, Leach said.
Aboard the Coral Sea, small groups of students rotate among five stations to collect and analyze plankton samples, examine mud from the harbor bottom, measure water temperature, depth and clarity, and touch and handle live specimens, Leach said. Sea stars, spiny sea urchins and bat rays are common, Leach said.
“The lab offers an innovative approach designed to heighten awareness and understanding of the marine environment and allows participants to analyze the biological, chemical and physical properties of the ocean without having to leave the protected waters of Channel Islands Harbor,” Leach said.
Each program can accommodate two classes, or about 80 people, including adults. The cost is $12 per person.
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