Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Sea Center

It looks small but there is more than I expected. Fun little aquarium with plenty of interactive exhibits that children will love. If you have a WIC or SNAP benefits card with matching ID, tickets would only be $3 a person.

It felt small, but the kids got so into the experience, we spent an hour and a half there! They have touch pools and specimen collection on the bottom floor, the kids literally pulled up buckets of "sea pork" and other sea life to study under microscopes! The top floor had tanks, and a room where they could simulate swimming under water. And of course, the kinetic sand was a huge hit! I enjoyed the views from the top floor and the staff that clearly love what they do there. We will be back!

It's a cute little Aquarium. Very little Its comparable to my old high schools Aquarium program. No, it's nothing big or anything major. I just like to support local businesses and this type is close to the heart. It's got touch tanks and some people giving educational speeches about the wild life that live on our coast.. We took our baby for his birthday and he loved it! (He's 1), my husband asked "this is it? " 😆 🤣 😂 Guys, it's nothing fancy. If you want to just waste some time or take the Littles then sure why not! Only 15$ to get in and that goes towards the Aquarium so I'm all for it. It's got an upstairs too with some more tanks. The projector room it also up there so it made the whole room look like you're under the sea. With our baby, it took us 45 min to see everything. I think 20 min would be pretty standard for the average visit. It's not the Aquarium of the Pacific or Monterey Bay Aquarium.... it's a tiny but cute Aquarium.

The Sea Center is small but perfect for toddlers and young children. My two toddlers loved the little aqarium tunnel and being able to touch the sea creatures!

What a cute little museum and aquarium here in SB on the Wharf. For a small building, they had quite a few impressive and unique sea creatures and exhibits. A lively, two-spot octopus, the cute seahorses, and the formidable mantis shrimp. All really cool and fun, great for kids and adults alike.

We came so randomly as we walked on the pier and we are glad we did . It was a nice thing to do if you have kids or simply if you are on a date or with family or friends . Definitely was worth it ! We walked and took pictures and enjoyed all the fun things Inside ! Come and take some nice photos!

Fun place to take the kids. Not too big. Not to elaborate. But it’s out on the wharf and that’s pretty cool. There are other shops out on the wharf and you can have a nice little time walking out there. Parking is free for 90 minutes. Santa Barbara is pretty good about their free parking for 90 minutes scene. You can get free parking for 90 minutes almost everywhere. It’s also quite fun to drive your car out on the wharf. I like the novelty of it who else do you get to drive your car out on a wooden pier goes out into the ocean? It’s very rare.

My boys and I had so much fun. The staff was amazing, they took time answering every single questions my boys asked. Small place, upstairs was interesting but the touch tank is where the kids had a blast.

It's a nice little museum on the wharf. The people staffing the exhibits were eager to explain what was going on in the exhibits. While it is small, there are still some interesting interactive exhibits where you can touch rays, sea urchins, sea stars etc. Our little one actually liked it better than the zoo for this reason. The part where they dredge up a bucket from the sea floor by the wharf can be interesting too.

Small Museum, but very cool. Loved the "pet a shark" tank. The museum docent for the shark tank was full of fun facts about the sharks and very friendly. I got to pet a tiger shark and a sting ray. They also had a really interesting shallow waters exhibit with star fish, sea anemones, sea snails, sea cucumbers, and sea urchins. The museum docent for that exhibit was fantastic. She gave a lot of information about the animals and thier habitats. For a small Museum, there's a lot for people to see.

Know before you go: This is not a large aquarium, so put those comparisons to the Monterey Bay Aquarium aside. We took our three year old and she loved it. I enjoyed that it was small too! Their shallow water exhibit was fun for her since they allow you to touch the starfish and sea anemones. They also had a small shark petting pool that she enjoyed. The staff were all very kind and friendly. They also has a number of other observation tanks so she was able to see an octopus, lobster, jellies, and sea life that we don't have access to in Arizona. I think this center is perfect for young children, it's not too overwhelming and offer just the right amount of hand-on experiences for the curious ones who like to get their hands in everything!

It looks small but there is more than I expected. Fun little aquarium with plenty of interactive exhibits that children will love. If you have a WIC or SNAP benefits card with matching ID, tickets would only be $3 a person.

A small museum and aquarium located on Stearn's wharf. We had a loose agenda and plenty of time so we came in. Tickets were $15 each, dropped $60 for a 20 minute visit. This is a very small attraction with two floors with not much to see. The price point is just too high for what you get. Two stars.

Good investment and information for kids and adults. $15 per person to walk through the museum and learn about fish and creatures of the sea. They are not pet friendly, service dog ok.

Great spot to visit with the family on the pier! This is a beautiful space with great views and lots of learning opportunities for young children. My daughter and I really enjoyed all the exhibits and the friendliness of staff on site. This is definitely a must visit destination.

We had a great time! The staff and volunteers were inviting and made the experience. It is a small museum/aquarium on the SB pier.

Wonderfully curated. Great interactive activities. Very educational. Excellent location. The staff is AHMAZING!

It's great! Lovely little aquarium to kill a half hour or an hour with kids. Little expensive for how much there is to do, but that pier real estates a killer.

Great place to take family. Site in somewhat small so don't expect a place where you can spend the entire day. But great staff and very informative.

This place is underwhelming and way too expensive for what it has to offer. Adults are $15 and kids are $11 each. You only get 90 free parking, and it's $4 per hour afterwards. Only 2 floors and first floor is mostly a touch the sea life experience with some sharks, rays, starfish, anemones, whelks and others. Upstairs are some more sea life exhibits, including fish, lobster, jellyfish and more. You can finish within 30 minutes. Disappointed by the lack of exhibits and the high cost for what they have to offer. Public restrooms are available outside. Likely will not be back again.

Perfect little aquarium for littles! We recently got a membership and go with our toddler all the time. The admission prices are a bit steep if you don't have a membership for the size of the museum/aquarium. If you have little ones this is the perfect spot for them to run around and see lots of fish! They have a little tunnel aquarium that is the perfect size for toddlers. Upstairs there are different fish exhibits and a big room where a virtual aquarium is projected onto a wall which kids also love! We have made and will continue to make lots of memories here!

My friend and I both grew up in SB, but she wanted to go to the Sea Center and we both hadn't been in years. $15 admission per person and the staff is very friendly and knowledgeable. The touch tank is fun and don't forget to go upstairs to see more aquariums. There is an open area that they use to scoop out water, shells, etc. and I saw the largest sea star I've ever seen on one of the wooden posts in the ocean.

This aquarium is smaller than it looks. You can be in and out in 30 minutes. For $15 for an adult I felt the price was a tad steep but I guess it is donating to the conservation of the animals. The one cool thing is the first section, they let you touch the animals such as small sharks, sea urchins, starfish, sea cucumber and more. I definitely freaked out at the soft texture of the cucumber haha. Overall idk if it was worth IMO but nonetheless cool place to check out once.

Hanging out in SB and found ourselves on the Pier. Literally stumbled upon this place. My son and I decided to check it out. It was tiny and took us a whopping 30 min or less to check everything out. And a gift shop. Glad we stopped in.

An obligatory visit to Stearns Wharf is required whether one is a visitor or a local. We had tickets for the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum's Sea Center and were so excited to explore the museum! We were greeted warmly by Helen at the front desk (who remarkably, after a couple minutes of conversation, we discovered we literally attended the same high school in the Midwest despite living in Santa Barbara for years now, both seemingly as far away from our home state as we could get in the US, ha! A delightfully small world indeed!) I was so stoked to find their pressed penny souvenir machine in the gift shop as I collect these fun, affordable mementos which take up little space inside my designated collector's booklet. (Nerd Alert!) Upon entering the Sea Center, we came upon the shark tank (not the tv show, a better one!) with beautiful sweet little sleepy sharkies who didn't mind my petting their rough skin. Next, a touch tank of Sea Squirts, Sea Cucumbers, Sea Urchins (Echinoderms), an array of Anemones (Cnidaria), and Bat Starfish (Echinoderms), and Clams (Mollusc/Bivalve). The next tank revealed the largest living lobsters (Arthropods, Crustaceans) I've ever encountered along with the cutest curmudgeon of a Scorpionfish. The second floor presented a gorgeous interactive topographical map projection where folks can try to recreate the Santa Barbara Channel/Islands. In addition was a seagrass habitat, mesmerizing Moon Jellies and the most incredible Pacific Giant Seahorses where the male was almost ready to give birth (yes you read that correctly!) A marvelous day was had- full of wonder and the astounding artistry and diversity of nature that exists on this planet we need to learn about and protect. Parking was available on the wharf, including disabled parking. The Sea Center was thankfully accessible with an elevator to the second floor. Some of the volunteers were not very knowledgeable about the live or wet specimens they were presenting to adults/students/children for learning. I found myself being an insufferable know-it-all and informing/correcting them on species names/functions etc. After leaving we sat on a bench in the breeze on the Wharf and watched the sunset. All in all it was the perfect ingredients for a spectacular and satisfying day!

We (2 adults and 2 kids (4y, 6y)) went on a Friday from around 1:30-2:30 and it wasn't very packed at all. Plenty of room for us to look around and not feel as though we were on top of another group. Which is saying a lot because this is a very small two story building. I was surprised at the price of admission giving the size of the center, but I do feel our kids enjoyed themselves and it was with the money. They have one room with touch pools, one room where you can drop down a bucket and collect sand from underneath the center and use microscopes to see what you found. Then upstairs they had some fish tanks, and sand topography box which was really fun. We spend an hour and did almost everything twice.

My toddlers loved exploring this museum. It's on the pier, parking on site is free for the first 90minutes. There is several unique exhibits but overall the place is small. You'll need at most 60minutes. Cost is 15$ per adult. Come support and have fun!

I absolutely love sea life so when our plans for the afternoon didn't work out wet we're happy to visit here! This is a small museum with some cool little creatures to check out. My favorite to see were the seahorses. Would be a really good place to take kids too with the touch pools.

My adult son was interested in checking this out. When we came to visit the wharf in 2020 during the pandemic, it was closed. So we decided to give it a try. If you have been lucky enough to experience the Monterey Bay Aquarium then this is quite the bore compared to it. So if you are a little more open minded and appreciative of the effort of the city of SB to incorporate sea life education to people while on a wharf, then you would find this center to be a neat daytime leisure activity. It took us less than 1.5 hours to experience this museum. They tried to make things a bit more inactive with a mini aquarium tunnel for kids to crawl through, a touch pool where you can touché sea anemone, sea cucumbers and starfish. The rest of the 10 or so aquarium displays are small tanks of 2-3 sea creatures. They have a wet deck which a staff member will drop a clamped rig down into the water directly below the pier to scoop up small sea life animals like clams and crabs. Then they put them under a microscope so you can see them. A good 1/3 of the displays are bones and photos of marine animals. The gift shop is cute with a lot of sea themed gift for kids and adults. The price is a bit cheaper than Google says. It was $13 for adults and $11 for seniors. This place is a nice activity to hit if you plan on visiting Stearn's Wharf. It's the main highlight of visiting the wharf. The views from the 2nd floor windows of the shoreline with mountains behind it is pretty fantastic!

This aquarium is out on the pier in Santa Barbara! And you can actually drive on the pier and park close to the sea center if you need to. It is so fun to drive on the pier! I can't believe they still let us do it. The aquarium is small yet mighty. I can tell there is good management as employees seem happy and joyful doing their jobs. There is some great interactive displays along with lots of touch tanks and a really fun gift store. This is a great aquarium to support and a fun place for families to visit. The views are outstanding of the Santa Barbara Harbor area. There was a really cool exhibit upstairs about the channel Islands. And the aquarium is not afraid to talk about hard topics like climate change or sea level rise.

The museum/aquarium is a nice location to spend time while you're at Santa Barbara. It is located near the end of the pier with beautiful views of the views and the surrounding landscape. However the museum itself is very short, I would say you would spend maybe around 30 mins at the museum. For $15 I would not say that it's worth it but if you're in the area and have nothing else to do I would go.

We love going to the Sea Center. The upstairs section has been renovated in the last decade, and we really enjoy the exhibits of some of the local underwater wildlife, such as moon jellies, sea horses, and (my personal favorite) the California Two-spotted octopus. I especially like knowing that all of the animals are on display only temporarily and are eventually returned to the wild. The abalone nursery is a great example of conservation at work, and the touch-tanks and wet deck on the lower levels really give a hands-on experience that my kids really enjoy. My daughter gets to touch a shark! Extra thrill if there happens to be a sea lion swimming close by outside!

As a family we recently had the absolute pleasure to visit the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Sea Center located on Stearns Wharf, which is open daily from 10AM to 5PM. Although it is substantially smaller than some relatively close Aquariums (Monterey Bay Aquarium, Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach and the Aquarium of the Bay in San Francisco) it does bear up in size to others, such as the Central Coast Aquarium in Avila Beach and the Cabrillo High School Aquarium in Lompoc. Regardless of size, the aquatic life displays and exhibits are immensely interesting and really amazing to observe. Enter the facility and look to your left..take a picture w/a friendly looking Polar Bear. Then look up to see a life sized model of a Grey Whale and her Calf...continue inside and get ready to interact with "sea life" in the attended "touch pools", really an amazing attraction for all, but especially for the kids. Wander further in (and up to the second story) to see some really neat animals that all live right here in the Santa Barbara Channel's varied habitats. We were able to view Lobsters, Stone/Rock Fish, Jellyfish, Crabs, Abalones, Giant Pacific Seahorses and Octopuses. In addition there were some other interesting displays and a gift shop to wander through. I believe we spent almost an hour here and we're just thrilled with our experience. Post visit, it is easy to say, that on this occasion...in this Yelper's opinion, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Sea Center truly deserves this "highly recommend" 5 Star review.

This is such a fun place to visit with kids! Finding parking on the pier usually isn't too hard and it's free for 90 minutes. The Sea Center takes about 30-40 minutes to walk through. I appreciated how many touch tanks there are and how friendly the staff are! My boys are very enthusiastic about our visit and the staff engaged them in age appropriate education about sea life and guided them to safely touching the sharks and other marine creatures. There is an area at the end of the first floor where visitors can pull up baskets that could contain sea life and the staff put them under microscopes for viewing. So cool! Upstairs has a few tanks for viewing creatures and a room playing a video of what happens in the ocean. There is also a cute gift shop area on the way out.

What a gem! My 4 and 2 year olds had the most amazing time. It's not large, but lots of great opportunities to interact with sea life. Parking was easy and there's an ice cream shop next door. Highly recommend!

I'm extremely into marine creatures. We got to have an educational trip to learn about the various animals living under the sea such as sea stars, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, various sharks and rays. The people who work there were so passionate about explaining how each animal serves a purpose in the ecosystem. My favorite was the sea mammals exhibit. The tour guide, I believe his name was Harry or Henry, was extremely passionate in explaining to us the different types of whales and we got to learn a lot! Definitely would come back. It was a fun and educational experience even for 2 adults.

Great cause and fun to talk to the birds. The cockatoos were fun to watch and talk to. Parking is limited though but we got lucky.

A must stop when visiting Stearns Wharf. We spent a couple hours here but mainly because my youngest is a very curious soul and if any of the staff or volunteers could answer their question with enough information for them to surmise that this person knows what they are talking about, then they would ask a million and one questions to which I was grateful for the staff and volunteers patience. All of the volunteers seemed to really enjoy sharing their knowledge and pulling out neat artifacts. It is small in comparison to many aquariums but alot of information is jampacked within the space. Several touch pools and interactive areas.

A cute little area life center on the Santa Barbara Wharf. We had a great time visiting with our 2 and 4 year old, the whole thing took about 35 minutes. There are some great touch tanks which are a lot of fun for the little ones. It's great to have free parking on the wharf and the reciprocal ASTC program.

Awesome experience! A little small but really neat. My 6 year old son loved the touch tanks and seeing the different animals. The staff were the best part and very involved

This place was a great time especially for the price! I think it was approximately $13 for adults. The employees were friendly and helpful. Theres an upstairs section at first I didnt see there was and was thinking... this is it..? Lol i loved the first section where you can touch sea urchin! They hug your fingers and are more gentle than you think. Great place for kids as well

This is a great place to explore while visiting Stearn's Wharf! It's small but the exhibits are very fun and interactive. You can touch leopard sharks, star fish, sea anemones and more! Admission for adults is $14, kids are $11. The only thing that was disappointing was the staff wasn't very friendly and seemed bored/annoyed at times. Other than that, we enjoyed our visit and will definitely be back.

This place is smaller than I thought, but super fun to explore!! The staff was super sweet and there's a lot to do here. Definitely great for a date or a family day!

I was very interesting , it's very good to visit this small museum specially if you have kids that would be very interesting for them too

I can't say enough about this wonderful Sea Center. The location is perfect (on Stearns Wharf) and the admission price is incredible for this hands-on learning experience for the whole family. I visited with my 15-year-old teenager and she loved every minute of it. Social distancing was carried out perfectly here, and I learned so much. There was an adorable "kid-sized" cave that my teenager forced herself into... (see picture) LOL It was really a great experience. You won't regret bringing your family! The only note I wanted to suggest is to let people know that visitors can park on the actual wharf (right next to the Sea Center). I had no idea this was an option, so we parked at a pay lot quite far away.

Found myself in Santa Barbara for the day with no plans or agenda. So, decided to wander in here while walking around the wharf. It's relatively small, but it's packed with lots of exhibits run by friendly and knowledgeable staff. First part features a small shark and tide pool exhibits that are for the most part interactable. The staff at each were friendly and answered my questions (or were honest when they occasionally weren't sure), this goes for all the staff in the museum. Past that, there was a mock research lab with lots more interactive displays including microscopes. From there, you can go upstairs with lots of tanks featuring creatures like sea horses, a small theater. There was another interactive exhibit past here, you'll find that any exhibit that has interaction also has their passionate staff alongside. By now, you're reaching the giftshop and the end, but the desk staff also took a moment to chat with me about my visit and to ask me if I needed any recommendations or directions on my way. This was a perfect stop that I'd recommend to anyone, especially those with young kids, but even a lone man like myself had a blast.

Great museum! I love to travel to different natural history museums and this has to be one of the best. Friendly and knowledgeable staff and volunteers and the exhibits were very well done and polished. Be sure to check out the marine biology lab!

Nice little spot to visit if you are at Stearn's Wharf . It's a little museum but has some very cool exhibits . It has a couple touch tanks where you can see Sharks and Rays and touch them. Also has a couple touch tanks with sea anemones, starfish and sea cucumbers. Pretty neat. Also has more exhibits on other types of sea life and you can see how the crab fish and different types of marine life. It cost $10 for admission and the staff is friendly and knowledgeable. I just wish it was a little bigger but it's a nice way to spend an hour of your time and definitely worth the money. It's only open for certain hours so double check to see what they are but I enjoyed myself !

It's small but the kids really liked it. They got in free with our tickets to the natural history museum and adults got a discounted admission price. Downstairs there are touch pools that are fun and upstairs there are more creatures to see. We were greeted very warmly by a female employee there and we had a large group so it was probably overwhelming but they were great. I think they make the most of the space they have. There are bathrooms around the outside of it too, which is really convenient.

I have to say that I felt like a kid again walking into this museum. I love sea animals, and found this place fun, educational, and intriguing. I enjoyed being able to touch some of the pools with starfishes and slugs. Also, I was amazed when I was able to see an octopus up close! From all the photos I took, the octopus one is my favorite. Highly recommend this place

We visited the Sea Center today and it was amazing! All the exhibits were so interesting and for a small aquarium they pack a lot in. All the employees were incredibly helpful and friendly, especially to my son who was very excited about the shark tank. They gently scooped a shark up 2 times so he could attempt to pet it, he was too nervous but he loved to see them. It's so important to have this place to bring our kids so we can spark an interest in the ocean and it's creatures. That way the love of the ocean and it's importance is ingrained at an early age to hopefully have a better future for the environment! And it's also just so much fun to see the joy on their face :-) We will definitely come back in the future and probably will purchase a Santa Barbara museum of natural history membership because the little ones had so much fun! Thank you SB Sea Center!!!

It's $8... and probably a fun place to go if you have a kid or two. But for adults... been there, seen all that before. Of course my SO, who adores all critters, still got into the action with the "touch pools" and the interactive exhibits. It won't take you more than 30 minutes or so to walk through everything (exhibits on two floors - elevator available for ADA and of course, strollers - lots of strollers). Tiny unexciting gift shop as well. Probably a stop on the Wharf you could skip unless you love sea creatures or are packing some bored kiddos. For the rest of us, this is at best an optional stop on your SB itinerary.

Small but of high quality. The Sea Center is indeed a small children's museum but I can say from experience that what they do have is pretty cool. The best part of this experience was the hands of research at the east side of the museum. You can toss over a crab net, or scoop up some sand and put your findings under a microscope. Lots of hands on activities all through this Center. Probably better if you buy the 2 museums for 1 price deal. You'll also get admission to their other, larger Natural History museum next to the Santa Barbara Mission. Total time - An hour Avoid Char West Fish and Chip on this same Wharf... - Terrible fish tacos and fish and chips

Stopped by in SB along the way to SoCa. Checked out the sea center and the family had a great time. Not really a big place but had great little exhibits. I would say if you love sea life and /or have kids this is a great option for an hour or so to learn and interact with our precious sea animals Staff was helpful and friendly

A fun place to stop if your in Santa Barbara. Great location on the Wharf. Suronded by lots of fun things to do and see. They also validate your parking. Not very big but you will learn a lot. The volunteers are very knowable and helpful. Very hands on. We got to touch a shark! I know we will be back!

Pretty small, but still a great little spot for kids to see some marine life. We got in for free for having reciprocity with other museums.

A great adventure to share with my granddaughters. We enjoyed the indoor exhibits, the animated dinosaurs, the beautiful butterflies and the solar system program. It was a fun time!