As festival-goers boarded the Discovery EcoVoyage ship on Saturday morning, their excitement to get out on the San Francisco Bay was visible.
The boat ride was part of the Marine Science Institute’s World Oceans Day Festival, a celebration of local waterways and marine life that brought families to Redwood City for hands-on lessons about the Bay.
The Redwood City-based nonprofit teaches students and adults about the Bay through hands-on marine science programs, including boat trips, field trips and summer camps.
For Marilou Seiff, retiring executive director, the Marine Science Institute is “the best unknown secret of the Bay Area.” MSI educates about 50,000 students and adults each year, according to the organization’s website, and this year hosted its first World Oceans Day Festival.
“Mainly, school groups would contract out, come and do our programs, but we wanted to get out more to the community on what we have here and what is in their own backyard, and how they can get involved with it,” Seiff said. “Earth Day seemed like a perfect start to that.”
MSI’s Earth Day festivities began around 2009, according to Seiff, but lost momentum during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year, the organizers decided to shift their focus to World Oceans Day, which they felt was better aligned with the organization’s mission and offered an opportunity to attract as many attendees and exhibitors as possible, said Community Outreach Coordinator Tiff Murzi-Moyce.
This year’s event featured live music, ocean-related crafts, experiments and over 10 exhibitors who partnered with MSI to educate children and the local community about the environment. But the Discovery EcoVoyage seemed like the main attraction.
“We teach kids through hands-on learning about what’s in the watershed around the Bay, … and talk about stewardship, so Earth Day obviously encompasses everything, but on World Oceans Day we can really focus in on our mission on the marine and aquatic environment of the Bay Area,” Seiff said.
The boat ride, a condensed version of their typical educational trips in the Bay, offered kids opportunities to touch fish and sift through mud samples and cast a fishing net, giving them an active role in their own learning.
For many local children and adults who grew up in the Bay Area, the EcoVoyage is a familiar part of childhood. About 30,000 students take field trips with MSI each year, and the summer camp brings them back for more. In fact, many instructors working on the boat once participated in MSI events as students. For Starr Ritchie, marine instructor, the most rewarding part of working on the boat is inspiring young people.
“Everyone was super excited, so I love to see that. The kids were so cute and so into it today,” Ritchie said.
Richie said the EcoVoyage gave students a preview of MSI’s summer camp, which began Monday, June 8, and was a memorable experience for many of them.
Back on land, organizations such as Silicon Valley Clean Water, Rethink Waste and more, offered activities for kids along with educational material about the environmental work they do. The festival appeared to draw a wide range of ages and interest levels.
“It’s really important to get out into the community, be face to face with the people that are in our service area, so that we can best educate them and provide the resources to them,” said Karina Hammoud, outreach and communications manager for Rethink Waste.
MSI leaders said they hope the festival helps more Bay Area residents feel connected to the marine environment around them.
“We hope (people are) coming here, they’re feeling engaged, they’re having fun, they’re getting to talk and see and do exciting things, and then hopefully when they go home (and) feel more connected with the Bay,” said Lisa Biasillo, executive director of the MSI. “That is our whole purpose.”
