The Ocean Institute has six new wood, concrete and steel frame buildings house learning centers, a conference hall, a bookstore, an exhibit courtyard, an auditorium, an administration building and a lobby. Cedar siding keeps the building in harmony with the surrounding area. The Campus Book Store contains a salt water aquarium built into the wood wall. The At Sea Learning Center has three floor-mounted salt water tanks. The Ecology Learning Center has clear acrylic tanks. The Surf Science Building includes a Leopard Shark tank and a 15′ x 9′-deep tank, the largest in the facility. The Salt Water Life Support Equipment Yard houses all salt water pumping, filtering and oxygenation systems for the entire campus. An extensive underground piping system draws salt water from Dana Point Harbor to the equipment yard to condition and transport throughout the institute’s salt water tanks.
