The Marine Mammal Center launched a pop-up centered on California sea lions and ocean conservation at San Francisco’s Pier 39 on Thursday.
The center said it hopes tourists and locals alike will visit the new educational exhibit to explore informational diagrams and speak with docents about the city’s most famous marine creatures.
“Hopefully, what they’ll do is come away from seeing actual sea lions and speaking with our educators, with an understanding of what sea lions are, why they matter, why their home matters, and why we all need to be better stewards of taking care of our bay and our ocean,” said Jeff Boehm, Chief External Relations Officer with the Marine Mammal Center.
The Marine Mammal Center is a Sausalito-based non-profit. Boehm says it’s home to the world’s largest marine mammal hospital, and is focused on rescue and rehabilitation, conservation, research and education.
The sea lion pop-up will remain open until the fall, but the center says it’s planning to set up a permanent exhibit by next spring.
Boehm said the non-profit’s goal is to teach the public about sea lions, as a means to understanding the larger ocean ecosystem.
“They’re sentinels, really,” he said. “When we find disease in California sea lions, or cancer in California sea lions, it causes us concern and it kind of rings an alarm bell for what’s going on in our ocean.”
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