sea lab

Packed with information and helpful staff, great for young kids and the curious of all ages. Easily accessible on foot and a great end to a day at the beach.

My kids and I love to come here and see the latest sea life on display, what they are growing or saving, learning from the hands-on demonstrations, and the over-all presentation. For such small, hidden sea lab, they accomplish a lot!

We walked past it several times before we realized what it was. After we read about it in a brochure, we stopped in. It is not big but is very interesting.

This place is very close to my home. It is tiny compared to most aquarium type places. I think they do research here or maybe it's just to show the kids. Some days it's pretty open and empty and some days they have school trips etc and it's crowded. So check ahead. It can be seen and done in and hour tops. Some of the staff can answer the questions the kids have and some don't know. I think many are volunteers and still learning.This is a donation only so that is nice but do make a donation so this educational sea lab can stay open. Many times this got me through the hard part of trying to keep a toddler busy. I could walk here easily from my home and the beach is literally right outside the door, the Redondo Beach marina and King Harbor are right there and Hermosa Beach is a short walk on the strand. Manhattan Beach is a longer but nice walk as well. If you have little ones let them do the tour and feed the fish.

This must be the most 'compact' of sea-life centres in the US! To look at all the displays AND read all the captions and information panels takes less than 30 minutes. I asked a staffer a question about a display, she didn't know the answer but would find out. She didn't return!Outside is a small open air rock pool with several large sea fish. For $2 you can buy a cup full of chopped fish to feed them at around mid-day. The kids loved that! Otherwise there is not a lot on offer. Perhaps their work is mainly research work, out of the public view, who knows?

Bring the children and enjoy viewing all of the interesting sea creatures at this location. Lots of interesting sea life in tanks and outside pools of fish, sharks, and sting rays. Fun day!!!

I would highly recommend visiting this little place. It has a tour that is about 30 minutes long. Perfect educational piece for the kids and free. It is by donation only.

This was our first time at SEA Lab. We were very impressed with the tanks inside. My daughter loved the fish, seahorse, and even at 4 was able to understand their ecological displays. We arrived in time for the first tour of the afternoon. It will take a full hour. The kids had a wonderful time touching (1 finger please) the different sea creatures and fish. Some of the fish of course were not for touch but were all the more interesting to look at. The guides were so nice and ask all the questions from the kids with patience. The fee is a small donation but fill generous they do wonderful things at SEA Lab.

When I go on trips the rarest occurrence is when I stumble across something which is entirely new, interesting, un-expected and mentally fulfilling. That is what I came to encounter with Sea Lab. I had accidentally found it on the list of museums for the Los Angeles area on Wikipedia when I was seeking out new and interesting things to see in the L.A area. Knowing of the comments from TripAdvisor I was going to flip a coin whether to visit it or not, as it was in the wrong direction of travel for us. However, my said "yes" and off we went. There wasn't much traffic in the Redondo beach area and parking on the street was easy to find. The outside was very colourful, clean and attractive. As noted elsewhere, the main area holds a number of fish tanks and can be viewed in 5mins or less. Outside is a number of large holding tanks for which we were too late to catch most of the short tour and explanation, but it still looked interesting as the kids were able to touch star fish, etc. However, the real highlight of our 10 day vacation was to go on the tour of the water conservation area and test desalination plant of the Sea Lab building. We would almost have missed out on it had we not had another lady say she was starting a short tour with us + another family. The lady giving the tour + overview was very good, patient with us and well trained. It was in the back portion of the building where there are professional exhibits detailing the water conservation efforts of the state as well as how their desanlination plant works. The last 10mins had us put on hard hats and get a short tour, with explanations, of how their test desanlination plant works. Being engineering minded people, this was not something we were expecting to see at all and hence was quite satisfying to us to see and learn about. I'm sure we could have spent another 30mins at Sea Lab had we wanted to wait for the next tour of the holding tanks. All in all it would have been a shame if we had not visited Sea Lab and passed it over - as this was the very first thing we did on our 10 day vacation, we felt that we had accomplished everything on our trip just from this tour alone :-) After the visit, if you walk 30 seconds north of Sea Lab then you can get access to Redondo Beach without having to travel south to the Redondo Beach pier. We felt that our $5 of optional entry fee cost was well worth it.

Little research facility is a great place to stop by (be sure to call for hours as varies with volunteer staffing) Little tanks of SOCO sealife to observe...sometimes a "ray" petting pool!

We just happened upon this place. There are aquariums throughout and large tanks in which to view sea animals. They ask for a nominal donation, and it was worthwhile. The day we visited, there were few visitors. This is a great place to take young children.

My grandson loves the Sea Lab. It is informational and has touching opportunities. it is free but they ask for a donation. I found it crowded and the space tight so it was difficult to move with a stroller. It is worth the visit.

This was a fun attraction for my family. The tour guide you get will make a difference on how good is your experience. Our tour lady was super...I cannot recall her name though. This is a free attraction! There is a suggested donation of $2 per person or $4 per family, but they do not push this AT ALL. We got to pet several sea creatures and got answers to all our questions. There is parking behind The Sea Lab for $1 per hour and it uses honor system.

We made a trip to Redondo, but were disappointed with the beach. We were going to leave and return to the resort, but waited for a guided tour of sea lab. We all (inclusive of 2 kids, ages 11 & 13), found the free lecture both interesting and entertaining. Free and not crowded, so can be spontaneous with regards to choosing it. Several lecture times per day.

really interesting, you don't find things like this very often. Small, accessible, friendly and knowledgeable scientific staff makes it fun.