Friends of Cabrillo Marine Aquarium

Everyone in LA deserves a chance to experience our coast! While LA is famous for its beaches, in reality there are only a handful within the City of Los Angeles including Cabrillo Beach, Venice Beach and Dockweiler Beach. This project increases equitable access to Cabrillo Beach Coastal Park by bringing families from throughout the city to participate in an evening of ocean fun, which includes watching grunions, small, silvery fish that hurl themselves on the sand as part of their fascinating mating ritual.

LA Family Night at the Aquarium is an event that brings underserved families from every LA City Council District to Cabrillo Marine Aquarium to experience a grunion run on Cabrillo Beach, which is part of our outdoor coastal park where we host many of our education and outreach programs. The event increases equitable access to parks by bringing families from throughout the city to participate in an interactive event that includes grunion egg hatching, a grunion movie, and grunion beach experience.

We invite families from every district in the City of Los Angeles to enjoy a special (and FREE) night at Cabrillio Marine Aquarium. We show off our four life-sized blowup whales, tour the Aquarium, dance and enjoy food trucks. Later, we hatch grunion eggs and go out to the moonlit beach to watch the silvery fish hurl themselves onto the shore by the thousands. It's a fun way to deliver STEAM education to children and encourage parents (especially those from underserved areas) to explore one of LA's most beloved educational institutions.

Cabrillo Marine Aquarium provides a variety of fun and educationally robust programs that inspire students of all ages to explore, respect and conserve the ocean environment. The Aquarium charges no general admission fee and provides a wide variety of programs at little to no cost to ensure that the Aquarium remains accessible to all who wish to learn. LA2050 Grant funds will support our education and outreach programs designed to engage all ages with our wet-hands-and-sandy-feet approach.