Bodega Marine Laboratory and Bodega Marine Reserve
Explore the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory and Reserve in this virtual, self-guided tour.
Check back often! This tour is updated regularly. Last update: July 2023
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Welcome
Welcome to the Bodega Marine Laboratory (BML) and its home, the Bodega Marine Reserve (BMR). Just 65 miles from one of California’s largest urban centers, BML and BMR (part of the statewide UC Natural Reserve System) lie at the heart of one the most pristine, diverse, and productive coastal systems in the world. Choosing the site over 60 years ago for a major northern California marine lab was easy: Bodega Bay is located in one of only four upwelling regions of the world.
An aerial view of the coastline shown from a drone over the ocean. A long projection of coastline extends along the water, with the sprawling white and reddish-brown buildings of the Bodega Marine Laboratory along the edge of the coastline before it drops off into rocky intertidal.
Here, cold, nutrient-rich waters seasonally rise to the ocean’s surface and nourish one of the richest and most prolific assemblages of plants and animals in the world’s oceans. Our kelp forests, diverse fisheries, and abundant seabirds and marine mammals represent an ecosystem that defines and sustains the lives of millions of Californians. The status of this stretch of coastline as both a State Marine Protected Area (Bodega Head State Marine Reserve) and its inclusion in the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary bears witness to its importance to our state and the nation.
Inside the great hall at Bodega Marine Laboratory, a large blue and yellow banner reads "Celebrating Marine Science!". At the end of the hall, two glass doors lead to the Bodega Marine Reserve, and on the walls are images showcasing BMLs history and natural beauty.
BML and BMR are the coastal research and teaching home for the Coastal & Marine Sciences Institute (CMSI). Since their founding in 1960, the lab and reserve have supported thousands of research projects at the land-sea interface, providing an unmatched long-term record of how humans and coastal systems interact. Just as importantly, BML and BMR have provided immersive coursework during the spring and summer that has enriched and transformed the lives of countless undergraduates from the University of California system.
Before and after images show how the Bodega Marine Laboratory has grown, from a single white building in the 70s to a multi-wing building in the 90s.
In 2013, in recognition of the growing importance and challenges of sustaining coastal systems in California, the nation, and the world, we established a new cross-college undergraduate major in Marine & Coastal Science - the first of its kind at UC Davis - to provide undergraduates with a new kind of educational experience. The curriculum crosses disciplinary boundaries and offers a wide menu of options for its students, ranging from ocean chemistry to marine policy. A defining feature of the major is the requirement for an immersive research or internship experience, often at BML or in the state capital, Sacramento, just 15 miles from the main UC Davis campus.
In addition to supporting diverse academic programs, Bodega Marine Laboratory and the Bodega Marine Reserve welcome the public, through outreach and educational programs that touch over 10,000 K-to-grey visitors from across the US, and a third of those being from schools across Northern California.
The diverse intellectual community at BML and BMR includes resident faculty and staff researchers, faculty from the main campus in Davis, undergraduate and graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows. These scholars use the state-of-the-art laboratories and seawater system at BML and natural field sites at BMR, supported by a staff deeply engaged in all of the lab’s activities and programs, and in an atmosphere enriched by weekly seminars, visiting scholars, and reading groups.
Research programs at BML and BMR span nearly every aspect of coastal marine science and policy, including climate change impacts (ocean acidification, marine heatwaves, sea-level rise, species loss and expansions), biodiversity, fisheries assessment and management, conservation and restoration of threatened and endangered species (including current work with abalone and past work with salmon), physical oceanography and the land-sea interface (estuaries and land run-off), pollution and toxicology, and sustainable seafood and aquaculture.
Bodega Marine Lab and Reserve
Visit some favorite spots around the Bodega Marine Laboratory and Bodega Marine Reserve, starting with a 360° view of the tidepool display at the entrance, our Great Hall, and one of the wet labs, all featured on the UC Davis College of Biological Sciences virtual tour.
Bodega Marine Laboratory Entrance and Tidepool Exhibit
Bodega Marine Laboratory Entrance and Tidepool Exhibit. Click to expand.
Just outside the front entrance is a large tank exhibit that showcases some of the creatures found in the intertidal zone on the Bodega Marine Reserve. On either side of the entrance, coastal prairie gardens offer a glimpse of some of the native vegetation in the area.
The Great Hall
The Great Hall. Click to expand.
Stepping into the Great Hall, you'll be greeted by three large aquaria, each representing a different local ecosystem. From kelp to rockfish to sea stars, many of the creatures found in this area and studied by researchers at the laboratory are represented. Look closely enough in the porthole-shaped aquarium and you may even spot a white abalone!
Cadet Hand Library
Cadet Hand Library. Click to expand.
BML’s centrally-located library and community room is a favorite hangout for students, who enjoy its oceanfront tables for collaborative study amidst the specialized resources that inform their research. Maintained for local relevance, the library’s data-rich assets include several unique Special Collections, with recorded species observations along the Northern California Coast dating from the 1920s. The on-site academic librarian provides student instruction and data management services.
Boating and Dive Safety
Boating and Dive Safety. Click to expand.
Located at Bodega Marine Laboratory and serving all of UC Davis, the boating and dive safety team helps researchers stay safe on and in the water. In this video, meet James, Jason, Greg, and Shelby and learn more about the boating safety courses and scientific dive training available.
Intertidal Zone
Intertidal Zone. Click to expand.
Step into the rocky intertidal zone of the Bodega Marine Reserve to meet some of our resident harbor seals, then join Dr. Eric Sanford to learn how echinoderms like sea stars, sea cucumbers, and urchins use their tube feet to hold on to rocks, move around, and even catch prey.
Horseshoe Cove
Horseshoe Cove. Click to expand.
Along the sandy, crescent-shaped beach of Horseshoe Cove, Maddy Frey is busy untangling the diversity of ribbon worms. In her award-winning undergraduate research video, Maddy surveyed the ribbon worm species around Bodega Marine Reserve and even found several previously undescribed species. This work provides baseline data about nemerteans given ecosystem shifts occurring with climate change.
Bodega Marine Laboratory Housing
Bodega Marine Laboratory Housing. Click to expand.
The CMSI Bodega Marine Laboratory Housing enclave is an 85 bed, full-service student, faculty and visiting researcher facility. We have three dorms that serve up to 54 people, a faculty Lodge that serves up to 12 people and duplex apartments that can house up to four people in each side, these are appropriate for families. There is also the cozy Pakuna bunkroom that has 16 bunkbeds in it that are very reasonably priced. We have onsite laundry facilities, a half basketball court, and a volleyball net!
Research Vessel Mussel Point
Research Vessel Mussel Point. Click to expand.
The 42 foot research vessel Mussel Point is a unique solution to a complicated problem: how to get students and researchers up and down and off our rugged northern California coast with exceptional safety, comfort and economy. The 42-foot Mussel Point, a remarkably fast, stable and maneuverable vessel answers this need ideally.
Bodega Marine Laboratory Entrance and Tidepool Exhibit
Just outside the front entrance is a large tank exhibit that showcases some of the creatures found in the intertidal zone on the Bodega Marine Reserve. On either side of the entrance, coastal prairie gardens offer a glimpse of some of the native vegetation in the area.
Last Updated: 8/2021
The Great Hall
Stepping into the Great Hall, you'll be greeted by three large aquaria, each representing a different local ecosystem. From kelp to rockfish to sea stars, many of the creatures found in this area and studied by researchers at the laboratory are represented. Look closely enough in the porthole-shaped aquarium and you may even spot a white abalone!
Last Updated: 8/2021
Cadet Hand Library
BML’s centrally-located library and community room is a favorite hangout for students, who enjoy its oceanfront tables for collaborative study amidst the specialized resources that inform their research. Maintained for local relevance, the library’s data-rich assets include several unique Special Collections, with recorded species observations along the Northern California Coast dating from the 1920s. The on-site academic librarian provides student instruction and data management services.
Last Updated: 1/2022
Boating and Dive Safety
Located at Bodega Marine Laboratory and serving all of UC Davis, the boating and dive safety team helps researchers stay safe on and in the water. In this video, meet James, Jason, Greg, and Shelby and learn more about the boating safety courses and scientific dive training available.
Step into the rocky intertidal zone of the Bodega Marine Reserve to meet some of our resident harbor seals, then join Dr. Eric Sanford to learn how echinoderms like sea stars, sea cucumbers, and urchins use their tube feet to hold on to rocks, move around, and even catch prey.
Last Updated: 3/2023
Horseshoe Cove
Along the sandy, crescent-shaped beach of Horseshoe Cove, Maddy Frey is busy untangling the diversity of ribbon worms. In her award-winning undergraduate research video, Maddy surveyed the ribbon worm species around Bodega Marine Reserve and even found several previously undescribed species. This work provides baseline data about nemerteans given ecosystem shifts occurring with climate change.
You can always check out what's happening in the cove on our webcam, too!
Last Updated: 8/2021
Bodega Marine Laboratory Housing
The CMSI Bodega Marine Laboratory Housing enclave is an 85 bed, full-service student, faculty and visiting researcher facility. We have three dorms that serve up to 54 people, a faculty Lodge that serves up to 12 people and duplex apartments that can house up to four people in each side, these are appropriate for families. There is also the cozy Pakuna bunkroom that has 16 bunkbeds in it that are very reasonably priced. We have onsite laundry facilities, a half basketball court, and a volleyball net!
The heart of the enclave is the kitchen and dining hall that serves a highly acclaimed, three meal a day menu throughout the summer. The kitchen also serves groups and conferences throughout the rest of the year at Housing and the Lab. We have communal kitchens in the Oolok Dorm and the Lodge. The Tokau and Miwok dorms and the Pakuna bunkroom share facilities in The Kitchenette.
Housing has beautiful sweeping views of the bay and marsh with easy access to dune and roadside walks. Housing is kept safe by a coded gate and live-in RAs.
The 42 foot research vessel Mussel Point is a unique solution to a complicated problem: how to get students and researchers up and down and off our rugged northern California coast with exceptional safety, comfort and economy. The 42-foot Mussel Point, a remarkably fast, stable and maneuverable vessel answers this need ideally.
Research is at the heart of what we do, using collaborative, interdisciplinary approaches that engage stakeholders and work to solve local, regional, and global challenges emerging in coastal systems. Below, you can meet the research labs located at Bodega Marine Laboratory and learn more about what they're working on.
Toxicology, Physiology and Conservation Lab
A person in bright orange waders stands on the deck of a boat holding a large, vibrantly orange rockfish.
Two people on the deck of a boat. One holds a large rockfish, while the other does a "thumbs-up" at the camera.
Two people in masks and safety gear working in a lab.
A scientists leans over an experiment next to an open laptop.
Photo 1: Grad student and co-lead scientist for the BML CCFRP chapter, Francine DeCastro, with a Vermilion rockfish (Sebastes miniatus). Fish are identified, measured, tagged, and returned to their habitat.
Photo 2: Grad student and co-lead scientist for the BML CCFRP chapter, Jordan Colby, and a volunteer angler with a huge canary rockfish (Sebastes pinniger).
Photo 3: Dr. Pasparakis and grad student Jordan Colby introducing a largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) predator cue to endangered juvenile delta smelt (Hypomesus transpacificus) to investigate their stress response.
Photo 4: Dr. Pasparakis using microscopy to investigate the sublethal effects of crude oil exposure on the early life stages of mahi mahi (Coryphaena hippurus).
A side view of a sea star grasping onto a rock.
The rocky intertidal zone is among one of the most highly variable environments on Earth and organisms that inhabit this environment have adapted to unpredictable and rapidly changing conditions. The response of intertidal organisms may serve as early warning systems for future impacts of climate change.
The Toxicology, Physiology, and Conservation Lab investigates the combined effects of toxin exposure and multiple environmentally relevant stressors on local invertebrate and fish species as well as the molecular and physiological mechanisms these organisms employ to cope with stress. We are especially interested in how stressor exposure on the vulnerable early life stages of aquatic organisms translates to sublethal effects at later life stages. We are part of the California Collaborative Fisheries Research Program (CCFRP) which is a collaborative effort between six universities in California, volunteer anglers, boat captains, scientists, NGOs, and charter companies with a shared goal of promoting sustainable fisheries and investigating the effectiveness of local marine protected areas.
A person standing in a bright teal sweater standing ankle deep in a seagrass meadow.
A group of four people posing for a photo outdoors.
A person in field gear standing ankle deep in a seagrass meadow.
The Brown lab focuses on marine ecology, including both microbes and macroscopic communities. We are particularly interested in microbes associated with hosts and the role that these host-microbes play in populations, communities and ecosystems. Some of the questions we are interested in are: how do host-microbial systems respond to stressors and can microbes influence their response? What role does cryptic variation (e.g., intraspecific differences in ntraits or cryptic species) play in ecosystems? And what role do microbes play in macroscopic species interactions? Currently, we are working in seagrass systems on seagrass wasting disease; in coral reefs, on cryptic and intraspecific variation in responses to stressors; and in temperate coral systems, on the role of microbes in coral dormancy (cold stress response).
A group of eight people and a dog pose for a photo in front of white building with a large fountain. The group is wearing badges around their necks and smiling at the camera.
A Venn diagram shows overlapping circles that say "Ecology, Evolution, and Biogeography" In the overlap of Ecology and Biogeography it says Invertebrate Biology. In the overlap of Ecology and Evolution, it says Local Adaptation. And in the overlap of Evolution and Biogeography it says Species' Ranges. In the overlap of all of them it says Climate Change.
Evolution at a Not So Snail's Pace
Live from the Field: Climate Change at the Land-Sea Interface
Our lab integrates ecology, evolution, physiology, and biogeography to understand the processes that shape marine communities over large spatial scales and in an era of accelerating global environmental change. We share a passion for interdisciplinary research, experimental field ecology, invertebrate zoology, and the natural history of marine communities along the Pacific Coast of North America. We are also dedicated to preparing the next generation of marine scientists through hands-on undergraduate courses, mentored research experiences, and training in science communication.
A set of instruments used to analyze seawater chemistry.
A person in purple clothes and rubber boots stands on rocks, holding a device to collect data on seawater chemistry.
Three people in bright orange life vests and hard hats stand on the deck of a boat.
Photo 1 - Instruments used to analyze seawater chemistry in the BOAR laboratory. The spectrophotometer and the pH/conductivity meter (left) measure pH, and the robotic titrator (right) measures alkalinity.
Photo 2 - BOAR junior specialist Sarah Merolla collecting seawater chemistry data including temperature, dissolved oxygen, salinity, and pH in Horseshoe Cove, Bodega Bay.
Photo 3 - Graduate students Hannah Palmer, Carina Fish, and Kate Hewett on a NOAA Applied California Current Ecosystem Studies (ACCESS) oceanographic cruise to collect water samples for seawater chemistry analyses.
California Seagrass Meadows: Can they Combat Ocean Acidification?
In 2008, co-PIs Brian Gaylord, Tessa Hill, Eric Sanford, and Ann Russell (now Emeritus), established the Bodega Ocean Acidification Research (BOAR) program at Bodega Marine Laboratory. BOAR is an interdisciplinary research program that focuses on how changing seawater chemistry impacts ecologically, culturally, and economically important coastal species.
Since 2018, the BOAR research group has used a multi-pronged approach to study the emerging problem of ocean acidification and related multi-stressors, including: oceanographic instruments and data syntheses to understand spatial and temporal changes in seawater chemistry, laboratory culturing and field-based investigations to determine impacts of ocean acidification on key coastal species, and synergistic research with social scientists to understand the impact of these changes on coastal communities.
Shot from ground level, three people walk away from the camera across a wet, muddy surface.
A person in a life jacket and orange hardhat holds a tray of samples on a boat while waves crash in the background.
A person in a gray jacket and knitted cap leans down on the rocks to collect samples of mussels.
Photo 1 - Hill lab students heading into Bodega Bay for a day of sediment sampling in the mudflats and seagrass meadows.
Photo 2 - Graduate student Carina Fish collecting seawater samples for carbonate chemistry analysis on a NOAA Applied California Current Ecosystem Studies (ACCESS) oceanographic cruise.
Photo 3 - Graduate student Veronica Padilla Vriesman conducting fieldwork in the intertidal at BML as part of her work exploring changes in shell structure, morphology and growth rate in mussels over the past 100 years.
What Ocean Time Machine Experiments Predict About Oysters
The Ocean Climate lab at UC Davis is interested in broad questions of how climate change impacts marine ecosystems in the past, present and future, including temperature, ocean acidification, ocean productivity, and calcification.
The Stachowicz lab focuses on marine community ecology in northern California and around the world. Research in our lab concerns the ecological causes of patterns of biodiversity, and the consequences of variation in diversity for populations, communities and ecosystems.
The vast diversity of life forms in the marine environment (many of the animal phyla are exclusively marine, or nearly so) makes it a rewarding system for addressing these sorts of issues. We study organisms from all over the tree of life, including vascular plants, algae (seaweed), bacteria, and a range of invertebrate taxa including corals, hydroids, crabs, echinoderms, polychaetes, ascidians, bryozoans, and snails.
A white abalone held upright so that its face is visible under its shell.
A small white abalone peeks out from under its shell as it's held by a human hand.
Photo #1: The September 2022 White Abalone Culture Lab members (Alyssa Frederick, Nora Frank, Leela Dixit, and Audrey Deutsch).Photo #2: Dr. Lauren Ashlock watches white abalone broodstock for spawning behavior during a late-night spawning event in February 2023.
Photo #4: Shellfish Health Lab white abalone health expert Blythe Marshman checks a broodstock animal for any health concerns and applies wax to the animal’s shell to smother any unwanted epibionts.
Photo #5: Team White Abalone conducting a spawning event in spring 2022.
Abalone are marine snails that once supported rich commercial and recreational fisheries. So rich, in fact, that overfishing reduced white abalone populations to less than 1% of their historical abundances. The white abalone fishery was closed in 1996, with closures of commercial fisheries for all other abalone species in California following within a year. In the span of a few decades, an ecologically critical group of species nearly disappeared from waters off of California, bringing with them a way of life for Indigenous people, colonizers, and immigrants. Because abalone are broadcast spawners and so few of them remain in the wild, the recovery of this iconic species relies on captive breeding and outplanting.
After disease hampered early breeding efforts, the program headquarters moved to UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory in 2011. Between antibiotic cleansing baths and exfoliating, coconut oil and beeswax treatments, our white abalone healthcare plan now reads like a relaxing spa retreat. With healthy animals and a great deal of collaboration among scientists, aquarists, and aquaculturists to help get the animals “in the mood” for spawning, captive production skyrocketed, from just a few dozen produced during the 2012 spawning season to tens of thousands annually.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration now lists white abalone as one of its eight “Species in the Spotlight,” those species most at risk of going extinct in the near future. Happily, captive breeding efforts bring new hope to recovery efforts, and we are excited to start pilot outplanting work in the next few years. By replacing overhead pipes with towering kelp forests and swapping out submersible pumps for steady ocean swells, we hope our precious baby snails might save their species from the verge of extinction. Captive-bred white abalone were released into the wild for the first time in 2019.
The White Abalone Captive Breeding Program integrates research, mentoring, and outreach among lab groups within UCD BML and among state and federal agencies, aquariums, and commercial aquaculture facilities. Our research focuses on reproductive conditioning, improving post-settlement survival, and enhancing the genetic integrity of our broodstock. Our goal is to crack the code of white abalone gametogenesis, and help the program make as many babies as possible each year. We use tools that span nutritional physiology, reproductive physiology and hormone manipulation, molecular biology, and more to improve reproductive output of white abalone. We collaborate closely with the CDFW Shellfish Health Lab to conduct research on and maintain the health of captive white abalone.
A panoramic view of two people working on the edge of a coastline.
Two people working in a lab.
The SubMERG Lab focuses on addressing processes that impact marine populations and communities then applying these findings to fishery management and marine conservation issues. We work primarily with benthic marine invertebrates inhabiting nearshore rocky-reef ecosystems. In this work, we integrate field, experimental and modeling approaches to understand and examine theory related to population and community-level dynamics. We are currently working on projects investigating (1) the potential role of climate change on fished intertidal populations, (2) modeling approaches to describe growth, survival and reproduction in red abalone, (3) quantifying baseline abundances of depleted abalone species, (4) indirect effects of fishing ecosystem engineers, (5) the role of marine reserves as control areas for fishing impacts and (6) sensitivity analyses of matrix population models for fished and endangered species.
The Coastal Health and Nearshore Geochemistry (CHANGE) Lab at The University of California, Davis uses marine geochemistry to study changing coastal ecosystems, build climate resiliency, and serve others through science
Our mission is to provide science-based support to California’s aquaculture interests, including aquaculture producers, State, and Federal agencies impacting aquaculture, and the general public. Our primary efforts are to California, but our research and extension programs and collaborations extend to regional, national, and international partnerships.
The COG lab is a group of faculty, staff, and students based at the Bodega Marine Laboratory. We focus on issues of environmental oceanography and the role of transport in ocean, bay, nearshore and estuarine waters. Our work explores the transport of plankton, larvae, contaminants, pathogens, heat, salt, nutrients, dissolved oxygen, and sediment in the context of issues as diverse as marine reserves, fisheries, mariculture, beach pollution, wastewater discharge, wildlife health, desalination, river plumes, coastal power plants, kelp forests, wetlands, marine mining, coastal zone management and impacts of coastal development.
The Gaylord lab works at the nexus of marine ecology and ocean physics. Much of our current research explores responses of marine organisms to environmental change. We also have longstanding interests in the biomechanics and functional ecology of plants and animals in the sea. We often incorporate a combination of field, laboratory, and theoretical approaches in our science.
The Gold lab specializes in molecular paleobiology, meaning we use data from living organisms to ask question related to the fossil and geologic record. Most of this work is centered on the origin of animals, but Dr. Gold has worked on questions as ancient as the evolution of photosynthesis and as recent as DNA extraction from mammoth bones. Our work is highly interdisciplinary, touching on marine biology, genomics, biological regeneration, conservation ecology, and evolution.
My fields of interest include population dynamics and community ecology, invasion biology, conservation biology, biodiversity of marine and estuarine systems, and applications of ecological theory to coastal management problems. My approach involves field and laboratory experiments that answer basic ecological questions and provide solutions to management problems. I accept graduate students through the Graduate Group in Ecology.
Located at the Bodega Marine Laboratory in Bodega Bay, the CDFW Shellfish Health Laboratory monitors and diagnoses known and emerging diseases in wild and farmed shellfish throughout the State of California.
Summer sessions at Bodega Marine Laboratory offer students from ANY college or university a chance to get hands-on, research and field-based experience on the coast. Below, you'll meet two students who attended summer sessions in 2021:
Learn more about summer sessions, find answers to frequently asked questions, and submit an application on our website:
Learn more about the phenomenon behind Bodega Bay's foggy weather, robust fisheries, and some of the amazing research opportunities found here.
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What is Upwelling?
Coastal upwelling is a process by which strong winds blowing down the coasts of continents, in conjunction with the earth’s rotation, cause surface waters to be pushed offshore. Water from the depths is then pulled up - or upwelled - to the surface to take its place.
This slideshow is based on a story written by Jenna Quan
A view of foggy coastline, looking down from a cliff edged in coastal flowers to rocks jutting out of the water below.
Is Upwelling Unique to Bodega Bay?
The California Current, encapsulating Bodega Bay, is one of just four major upwelling-driven ecosystems in the world. The unique research opportunities created by this is one of the things that has made Bodega Marine Lab a magnet for researchers for over 50 years.
A map of the world shows multiple currents using colored arrows and labels. Near Bodega Bay the California Current, which runs down the side of the north west coast, is visible.
Why Is Upwelled Water Different?
So, surface water is pushed offshore and replaced by bottom water - why does that matter? Although at first, it may seem that all seawater is the same, water from the depths is actually much different in temperature, nutrient content, and chemical composition than surface water.
Rocky coastline disappears into the water along the shore.
How Does it Affect Ecosystems?
Bottom water tends to be colder due to a lack of sunlight, more nutrient-rich due to the decomposition of settling organic matter, and more acidic and less oxygenated. When this water gets pulled up to the surface and exposed to sunlight, the nutrients within it help fuel an ecosystem driven by high primary production.
Where Do We See Upwelling's Effects?
This increase in abundance of organisms at the lowest level of the marine food web allows for the consumers higher up in the food web to obtain the food and energy that they need to thrive. This is the reason for large populations of marine mammals and sea birds, as well as the abundant fisheries in this region.
Want to Dive Deeper?
Explore how researchers at Bodega Marine Laboratory are using upwelled ecosystems to learn more about the possible long-term impacts of climate change and ocean acidification: marinescience.ucdavis.edu/upwelling
Visiting the Bodega Marine Laboratory
We are open for public tours on Friday afternoons! Our 45-minute docent-led tours are free and open to groups of ten or fewer (for groups of more than ten, please reach out to ucdbml@ucdavis.edu), but require a reservation. Reserve your spot on an upcoming tour here:
From assisting with research projects to leading public tours, BML wouldn't be the same without these amazing ocean-loving volunteers.
A group of people standing in the hallway of the Bodega Marine Laboratory, admiring photos hung on the walls.
Meet two of our docents:
Allyson Stewart - Allyson is an Aggie alumna whose frequent visits to the Bodega Marine Laboratory and interest in the ocean led her to become a docent.
Roger Patton - Roger is a longtime docent and volunteer at the lab. An experienced SCUBA diver, Roger brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to his tours.
Virtual Docent-Led Tours
Seagrass and Sea Hares
Join Roger for a tour of the seagrass tanks and an up-close look at sea hares.
Habitats and History
Explore the habitats of the Bodega Marine Reserve and the history of Bodega Bay with Allyson.
A Whale's Tale
Learn more about the whale exhibit in the South wing with Roger, then keep scrolling to meet Lucy, our Cuvier's Beaked Whale.
Lucy, the Cuvier's Beaked Whale
A group of people gathered around a whale skeleton, preparing it to be suspended from the ceiling.
Pic Sangsana and Malcolm Clark preparing Lucy for installation.
In July 1985, Bodega Marine Laboratory received a report of a whale that had washed ashore on Bodega Marine Reserve property near Mussel Point. It was the body of a juvenile female Cuvier’s Beaked Whale Ziphius cavirostris (3 meters or ~9 feet long). Cuvier’s Beaked Whales are found offshore in depths greater than 1,000 feet, and it is rare for pelagic whales to wash ashore here.
The identity of the whale was confirmed by Robert E. Jones, senior museum scientist at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology UC Berkeley, and NOAA gave BML permission to display the skeleton.
We provided a summer internship to Kevin Couloures, a UC Davis undergraduate experienced in skeleton articulation (WFCB 191 Museum Science course). Kevin is now Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University. The skeleton was installed in the South Wing foyer in the 1990s.
4 years ago, in 2018, the fishing line suspending the skeleton from the ceiling broke. The skeleton would need to be re-glued, pieced back together, and reassembled.
A person shown from behind as he works on assembling a section of whale skeleton.
BML Docent Roger Patton met a neighbor who has assembled hundreds of skeletons. Roger brought Malcolm Clark, Ph.D., to view the skeleton and meet BML staff.
In June, Roger and Kitty Brown, BML's former Lab Manager, delivered the skeleton to Malcolm’s home so he could begin the assembly. Now retired, Malcolm is still active as Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board for Mycology Research Laboratories USA, which he co-founded.
Malcolm got to work on reassembling right away and completed it in August of 2022, naming her “Lucy.” The next week, the Physical Plant staff was on hand to complete the installation and Lucy is now back in her old spot overhead in the South Wing foyer. We could not have installed Lucy without the BML Physical Plant staff's assistance – Phillip Smith, Tim Sandwina, Chris Brown, Brian Myers, and Miguel Lopez.
Special thanks to Malcolm Clark, Pic Sangsana, and Roger Patton for bringing Lucy back to “life!"
And thanks to Kitty Brown for writing up this story.
A group of people standing under a whale skeleton, which hangs from the ceiling above them, smiling and looking at the camera.
Tim Sandwina, Roger Patton, Malcolm Clar, Kitty Brown, Pic Sangsana, and Chris Brown with Lucy.
Gifts can make a world of difference.
Support a sustainable future for the oceans and our coast by partnering with the Coastal and Marine Sciences Institute and the Bodega Marine Laboratory in advancing the understanding of marine science through innovative teaching and research, student scholarship in marine science, and community outreach programs.
The rocky intertidal zone is among one of the most highly variable environments on Earth and organisms that inhabit this environment have adapted to unpredictable and rapidly changing conditions. The response of intertidal organisms may serve as early warning systems for future impacts of climate change.
Pic Sangsana and Malcolm Clark preparing Lucy for installation.
Tim Sandwina, Roger Patton, Malcolm Clar, Kitty Brown, Pic Sangsana, and Chris Brown with Lucy.
