A lifeline for sea creatures

Some high-profile aquariums search the world over for certain species of sea creatures, trading and bartering with other institutions, coordinating with accredited breeders and working with certified collectors.

But the Sea Lab in Redondo Beach obtains its critters quite differently: Almost all sea life on display at the ocean-side facility has been rescued from doom by a cooperative effort between the lab and local power plants.

Saltwater intake systems from generating stations can suck in, trap and injure various sea species. For more than eight years, power plants from El Segundo to Long Beach daily collect hapless aquatic creatures and deliver them to the Sea Lab. Here they get a second chance.

“Let’s see what we’ve gotten today,” says director Giancarlo Cetrulo, walking over to one of the numerous outside holding tanks scattered in an industrial-like setting. A handful of rays and shovel-nosed guitarfish slither and swim in an acrylic tank. “It’s like Christmas every day,” he says, poking at the steely-eyed beasts. “You never know what you’ll get.”

The constant turnover of creatures -- most stay at the center for a few days before being released back into the ocean -- makes every visit to the Sea Lab a new one. Cetrulo remembers once receiving an endangered sea turtle and a very disoriented seal. “That’s pretty unusual,” he says. “We usually get not the fastest swimmers in the world -- the ones easy to catch.”

Cetrulo joins a preschool group that’s exploring a tank full of sand dollars, sea urchins and sea cucumbers. Kids roll up their sleeves as they work up the courage to touch a giant mass of brown jellied goo, better known as a sea snail. “It’s squishy!” cries one kid. “Can I touch it again?”

Touch as much as you want. Kids are encouraged to satisfy their tactile needs as a way to learn more about ocean life. Educators pick up spiny lobsters, decorator crabs and sea stars for closer examination while kids run two fingers over shells, scales and slime. This is how marine biologists are born.

Later, the students are led to a volcanic-rock tide pool tank full of kelp bass, halibut and scorpion fish. Cetrulo hands out bits of fish food to the kids, who eagerly toss them to the particularly hungry fish. Fins powerfully slap the water, and kids squeal with delight as they are splashed.

Though school groups fill the lab’s schedule on weekday mornings, the public is welcomed daily for tours. On weekends, families can also take part in the fish feeding frenzy. Once a month the lab hosts “Fishtivities” (arts and craft projects, games and puppet shows), as well as beach exploration walks.

While public education is top of the list at the lab, research and habitat restoration are also important. There’s an ongoing program to remove ice plant from surrounding coastal areas and replace it with native plants propagated at the lab’s nursery. Public and private marine researchers also have projects based at the lab.

Indeed, the facility was once completely devoted to research. Founded in 1974 as the Edison Marine Research Laboratory, it developed state-of-the-art fish protection systems for generating stations.

In 1994, the lab was turned into a newer, larger marine education center as a result of a settlement reached by Southern California Edison and an environmental advocacy group. The group sued a local power plant for possible long-term environment damage because of warm water discharge.

Avoiding costly litigation, both parties agreed that the public would best be served with more research and the creation of a marine facility -- thus was born the Sea Lab.

Since then, the 1-acre facility has been turned over to the Los Angeles Conservation Corps, which continues to manage the lab as one of its youth opportunities programs. Most Sea Lab staffers are ages 18 to 24 who are furthering their formal education with a yearlong internship program.

Today, Shannon Penna, who’s been both a volunteer and an intern for three years, helps shepherd the schoolkids inside for a lesson on sea stars. The Cal State Long Beach student of marine biology says she enjoys all aspects of her job.

“This has been really a great hands-on experience,” she says. “You learn how to teach a class and handle the public, especially kids of all ages. I enjoy the research, and working with the animals is priceless.”

Inside the lab there’s plenty of sea life to discover, including a tank of moon jellies, a moray eel and newborn horn sharks whose corkscrew-like eggs were recently rescued.

Another wall features an ocean supermarket display with products on a shelf: When kids scan a can of soup or a cleaning product, they discover what ocean organism is used in its creation.

Brown kelp in toothpaste? You bet. Seaweed in ice cream? All the time.

“Kids in urban environments can be so disconnected from nature, but we want them to learn how connected we are with the ocean,” Cetrulo says. “We eat from it, we use it every day, it helps us breathe. We want kids to protect the ocean, not just because Mom and Dad say so, but because they know for themselves how important it is to have an ocean that’s alive and healthy.”

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Brenda Rees can be reached at weekend@latimes.com.

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Sea Lab

Where: 1021 N. Harbor Drive, Redondo Beach

When: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday

Price: Free

Info: (310) 318-7438