In accordance with the L.A. City Municipal Code Ordinance mandate, beginning November 4, all eligible patrons are required to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test performed within 72 hours. Visitors 18+ must also show a valid photo ID. View our COVID-19 Safety Guidelines for more information. On October 23 the museum will be closing early at 2 pm.

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Oceans

Exhibitions

Anglerfish

New Discoveries

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Events

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a woman wearing glasses and a white shirt holds a young child while reaching out to touch an object in the hand of another individual

Welcome Day: New Offerings at NHM!

12 pm

There is always something new to discover at NHM! Join us for a fun-filled day celebrating all the new and exciting things the Museum has to offer.

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Stories

Preserving L.A.'s Urban Ocean History: Oil Spills and NHM Collections

Reflections on the recent disaster at Huntington Beach

The Great Shark Hunt

A community effort to uncover ancient L.A.

A Fishy Query

Why does this supersized shark’s mouth glow in the dark?

A Rare Deep Sea Gem Arrives at NHM

A Pacific footballfish, a type of anglerfish that typically lives thousands of feet underwater, and that washed ashore at the beach, is now part of our Ichthyology Collection.

Candy Darter – Etheostoma osburn for featured image

Fishes Across America: Last Stop, Roanoke

Say hello to a Hog Sucker (and a couple Darters)

Fishes Across America: Kentucky Is for Darters

Two darter fish, one Bluegrass State

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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.

abalone cove beach southern california daytime

DISCO

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.

Past Projects

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

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.