BE ADVISED: On Saturday, April 26 and Sunday, April 27, nearby events at Exposition Park and the University of Southern California will impact traffic, parking, and wayfinding in the area. Please consider riding the Metro E (Expo) Line and exiting at USC/Expo station.

bioblitz near the ocean

Browse by Topic

Oceans

Exhibitions

Anglerfish - Pacific footballfish

New Discoveries

Learn more

Events

See all events

Child facing and holding a notebook up against a fish tank

nhm

Adventures in Nature Day Camp: Nautical Adventures

Learn more

weekly

through 07/18/25

12:00 am

Child facing and holding a notebook up against a fish tank

nhm

Adventures in Nature Day Camp: Nautical Adventures

Learn more

weekly

through 07/18/25

12:00 am

Child facing and holding a notebook up against a fish tank

nhm

Adventures in Nature Day Camp: Nautical Adventures

Learn more

weekly

through 07/18/25

12:00 am

Child facing and holding a notebook up against a fish tank

nhm

Adventures in Nature Day Camp: Nautical Adventures

Learn more

weekly

through 07/18/25

12:00 am

Child facing and holding a notebook up against a fish tank

nhm

Adventures in Nature Day Camp: Nautical Adventures

Learn more

weekly

through 07/18/25

12:00 am

Stories

View More

Bill Ludt

Science of SpongeBob: Micro Plastics, Major Problem

Pollution like microplastics is a major problem for our real-life sea creatures behind Bikini Bottom. Find out how you can help with fish expert Dr. Bill Ludt, NHM’s Curator of Ichthyology, and Rory Hu, Nick News Correspondent. Original video from 2023

Woman smiling on the right side of the image, Gary the snail on the right giving a slimy green thumbs up above logos reading 'Our World' and 'Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County'

Science of SpongeBob: Shell Yeah, It's Earth Month!

Gary the Snail has a posse! Discover just how many mollusks are sliming it up out there and what the shell is going on with NHM’s Curator of Malacology Dr. Jann Vendetti. Original video from 2023

A skeletal looking Vinciguerria mabahiss under a microscope and black background

The Lights Below

A new study shines a light on the mechanics of bioluminescence in the rare fish Vinciguerria mabahiss and we explore some of the other fish lighting up the deep

A paleoart rendition of Eupachydiscus sp. by Cullen Townsend.

Collections Staff Help Ammonites Come Out of Their Shells

Uncovering how digitization and collections management made a groundbreaking extinction study come to life

Adam Wall in the Age of Mammals for Science of SpongeBob

Science of SpongeBob: Ask the Experts!

Celebrate 25 years of SpongeBob with some sea-worthy science!

Tropical reef with fish swimming around it

Science of SpongeBob: Marine Protected Areas

How can we preserve Bikini Bottoms around the world?

Discover more

Marine Biodiversity Center

Most species on Earth are animals, and most animals are invertebrates, so most of the Earth’s astonishing biodiversity is in the invertebrate animals. The Marine Biodiversity Center is the museum’s core facility for the curation of these remarkable animals. Collections come to the museum from a variety of research projects and government agencies.

Read more

abalone cove beach southern california daytime

An ongoing program at the Natural History Museum aims to develop research and monitoring tools to enormously accelerate our ability to discover and investigate marine invertebrate biodiversity of California’s nearshore waters.

Read more

While NHM is not currently working on these projects, they have influenced our current community science projects.

Read more

Close up of Polychaetes, black background

Life in the Ocean

Our researchers are devoted to better understanding our coastal communities — both now and in the past — and the thousands of animals that live (or lived) there.

Read more

mobile museum ocean experience kids in bus NHM programs

An Ocean Experience

Read more