Long Marine Lab in Santa Cruz

In my book A Very Typical Family, which is set in Santa Cruz, CA, two of the characters work at the real-life Long Marine Lab. In fact, they have their own lab there. (At least one reader, who identified themself as a marine biologist working in Santa Cruz, did not appreciate this, but that’s why authors aren’t supposed to read those reader comments.)

The Joseph M. Long Marine Laboratory is a marine research facility operated by UC Santa Cruz’s Institute of Marine Sciences. There is a public arm to it, mainly housed via its Seymour Marine Visitor’s Center. Situated on the cliffs with a pretty breathtaking view of the ocean, this is a wonderful place to visit to get away from the largest crowds on a hot summer day in Santa Cruz.

I have been visiting Long’s Marine Lab since I was small, when the blue-whale skeleton sat in a field of oat grass,
forlorn and weather-beaten. When I was eleven, I was a docent at Long Marine Lab and featured on the old PBS show Bay Area Backroads as a result, with host Jerry Graham. It was really cool. I can’t find footage of that episode, alas.

But I do have a beautiful old photo of the road leading to the lab. This is from the 1980s.

Long Marine Lab plays a big part in my book. I set Jake’s lab, the Walker Lab, here, and Natalie visits the lab numerous times. It serves as the backdrop for a big gala (I imagined it taking place inside the visitor’s center).

What to do at Long Marine Lab

Visit the Seymour Marine Visitor’s Center. There are several major aquarium tanks and a large seawater touch tank and a shark pool. An extremely diverting gift shop is on the premises, and I have to admit that I find something to buy every time I go in there.

Take a docent-led tour outside where you can learn more about the blue whale skeleton and the gray whale skeleton, as well as the research that goes on with dolphins on site. The dolphins, as far as I remember from my docent days, are former US Navy dolphins. Spy dolphins, if you will, now living out their retirement in a lovely tank. (Actually, I don’t know if they are any more. But they were! The last time I was there, I interrogated a docent about them being Navy spy dolphins and he admitted they were.)

Take a walk around the grounds. There’s a lovely and very easy path to walk the perimeter of the grounds and along the cliff on. Look in the bushes for rabbits!

Here’s a nice video. Not NEARLY as nice as my appearance on Bay Area Backroads, but I believe that tape has been (thankfully) lost to time.

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