Pacific Marine Mammal Center reopens after 3-year, $20-million expansion
- Share via
A new era has begun for the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, as the canyon-based campus reopened to the public Monday following a three-year closure to facilitate a $20-million site expansion.
The center, established in 1971, had operated out of a temporary field hospital during construction, and it had not entertained visitors since October 2023.
A $5-million, 2,000-square-foot water recycling facility will allow PMMC to reclaim roughly 5 million gallons of water annually. The center previously cleaned and filled its pools three times a day, trailing only the municipal government in terms of its water usage citywide.
“It helps with the care of the animals, as well, because in the past, we had to keep dumping and filling, dumping and filling,” said PMMC water quality specialist Kelly Hawkins. “This is now essentially a closed-loop system, where the water we’re introducing is fresher and cleaner. It helps eliminate eye issues, health issues. If they have open wounds, it helps with that, as well, because we do have the UV sterilization.”
Hawkins noted the facility now has the ability to control the temperature of its pools, keeping the water within a four-degree range throughout the year. The temperature can also be isolated within specific pools to meet the needs of certain animals.
Pacific Marine Mammal Center expanded its pool count from seven to 10, increasing its animal capacity. That includes a 5,000-gallon pre-release pool, where team members can observe patients’ ability to forage for food before putting them back in the wild. It also features an underwater viewing window.
“It works because the eye line of the sea lion is lower than the eye line of people, so we can look down on them,” said PMMC associate veterinarian Kelsey Reames, calling the underwater viewing window a main attraction. “If we were eye to eye, we wouldn’t want that, so we’re not habituating them. It’s not a zoo ...
“When [the public] can understand what we’re trying to protect, and they can see what we’re trying to protect, it makes people more interested and engaged. I think it’s great for people to kind of have a little bit of a viewing area to see some of our animals.”
A 10,000-gallon rehabilitation pool was also added, giving the center the capability to treat larger marine animals such as dolphins.
The expansion enhanced educational opportunities in several areas throughout the campus. A new 1,600-square-foot classroom provides more space for on-site programs.
A media center and studio, funded by Laguna Beach residents Greg and Barbara MacGillivray, will allow the center to broadcast distance learning programs, speaker series and presentations.
Within its treatment suite, PMMC also installed a viewing window to provide more public education opportunities.
“This room can now accommodate a whole classroom,” Blair Contratto, interim chief executive of PMMC, said of the education center. “We also have a mobile classroom, which is Winston, the gray whale, life-sized inflatable. Kids have the classroom experience inside the whale and learn all about cetaceans [and pinnipeds]. Winston really gives us a chance to help kids realize size and scope, you know, what does it mean to be a mammal, life cycle, ecosystem, all of it.”
Contratto said a remote podcast studio was added to the facility to deliver a program called “Healing Seals” to children’s hospitals across the U.S., one of the steps being taken to help inspire the next generation.
“The first part of our mission statement: inspire ocean stewardship,” Contratto said.
The Center for Collaboration, a 2,000-square-foot building, houses PMMC’s new necropsy suite, development office and reception deck. It also shares space with the Laguna Beach Animal Shelter, the Laguna Beach Police and Orange County Sheriff’s departments
Several artistic additions can be found throughout the campus. Casey Parlette’s “In Pursuit” depicts marine mammals as part of a larger ecosystem, placing fish and kelp around a bronze sea lion.
Donors to PMMC painted tiles, used by local artist Mike Tauber to create the “Friends of the Sea Lion” tile wall.
Artist Chris Barela worked with Laguna College of Art and Design alumni Emma Crespo and Jordan Tacker on a dolphin and elephant seal pool mural.
Laura Frost, PMMC’s distance learning and after-school programs coordinator, designed and painted a mural illustrating underwater marine mammal scenes for the education center.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials, on Oct. 6, certified that PMMC met the facility, husbandry and veterinary requirements to rehabilitate stranded marine mammals.
“They had very specific minimum standards that we had to meet,” Julia Edwards, an animal care manager at PMMC, said of the NOAA visit. “Our permit application document was very specific about how we care for the animals, how we safeguard our animals … From a husbandry point of view, we want to make sure that the animals are safe, and fed, and rehabilitated according to the top standards.”
Pacific Marine Mammal Center did not have patients on site, as of Thursday, but it treats cetaceans and pinnipeds. It has responded to 146 stranded marine mammals this year: 102 sea lions, 16 fur seals, nine cetaceans, eight elephant seals, seven sea turtles, and four harbor seals. A toxic algae bloom resulted in the center caring for more than 500 animals last year, PMMC officials said.
“We’ve even had a lot of members of the public coming in when we have no animals because, I think, they’re so interested to see what we’ve done, see the facility, see it open up,” Reames said. “The docents have been amazing [at] educating them … I think it’s going to be great to be back under one roof, have our education programs up and running again, having our docents in the yard, having all the guests come in and see the animals when we eventually get them.”
