We Need All the Kelp We Can Get: AltaSea Open House to Feature Floating Science Lab, Art Installation Sneak Peek, and Discussion on Kelp and Aquaculture

AltaSea’s third open house of the year will feature a discussion on aquaculture, with kid-friendly science activities including a floating research lab and art workshop

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles announced today that Dr. Anthony Michaels, a nationally-recognized leader in sustainability, innovation and environmental science, will be the featured guest speaker for its upcoming open house, leading a discussion titled “We Need All the Kelp We Can Get.” Dr Michaels, formerly the founding director of the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies, will discuss the benefits of aquaculture, food security, human health, biofuels, renewable materials and more as part of AltaSea’s unique open house.

The open house will be held from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 30, at AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles, Berth 58, 2451 South Signal Street in San Pedro. The event is free and open to the public. Registration is required at: https://altasea.org/event/open-house-we-need-all-the-kelp-we-can-get/.

“Our open houses are a fantastic opportunity for the community to come to AltaSea and engage with some of the brightest minds in sustainability like Dr. Michaels,” said CEO Terry Tamminen. “We’re proud to be able to open our doors to everyone to show them first-hand the scientific collaboration that AltaSea fosters every day that helps us all understand and benefit from our amazing ocean.”

In addition to the presentation by Dr. Michaels, the open house will include a variety of family-friendly science-related activities provided by local ocean science organizations and will offer the opportunity for attendees to step aboard AltaSea’s Ocean Research Barge, or “ORB,” a floating lab for student research and community science.

Assemblymember Mike Gipson, who has pushed for more employment opportunities in emerging “blue” sectors such as underwater robotics, aquaculture farming, and ecosystem health analysis, said the open house is the perfect way for young people to see what careers are available to them in the ocean economy.

“For black and brown students to see that there are real opportunities in these fields and to get excited about the science that is right in their backyards is inspiring,” said Assemblymember Mike Gipson. “It’s another opportunity for inclusion in a world that, without events like this, they might never know is available to them.”

State Senator Steve Bradford, who helped secure $6 million in funding towards AltaSea’s Center for Innovation, said the work being done at the site is critical.

“Not only do we want to build the emerging blue economy in our community by creating new jobs and launching new careers, but we also want to infuse this effort with the core value of inclusion so that students from under-served communities see this as a viable, rewarding and lucrative career pathway,” he said. “That is what makes events like AltaSea’s open house so important.”

The Open House will also include the creation of a community sculpture that will be shown at Angels Gate Cultural Center this fall. The sculpture “Long Lines” will consist of found fishing rope and small sculptures (“lures”) made by the community using ocean plastics collected from San Pedro. The goal of this sculpture is to create multiple spaces to facilitate dialogue around what we put into the ocean and how we extract from it.

Artist At Work Fellow Taylor Griffith will be hosting a “lure” making workshop during the Open House to guide participants in making these small sculptures that will be included in the final installation. A unique print will be made by each participant to be picked up at the show in October.

For more information, please visit: https://altasea.org/event/open-house-we-need-all-the-kelp-we-can-get/.

About AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles

AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles is dedicated to accelerating scientific collaboration, advancing an emerging blue economy through business innovation and job creation, and inspiring the next generation, all for a more sustainable, just, and equitable world.

For more information on AltaSea, please see our website: https://altasea.org.