Contact: Nick Wilson

805-756-7236; nwilso28@calpoly.edu

SAN LUIS OBISPO — Cal Poly’s Center for Coastal Marine Sciences cordially invites the community to tour the Cal Poly Pier in Avila Beach from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 28.

The Cal Poly Pier is just over a half-mile long (1.2 miles round trip). Event activities will be held at the end of the pier located on Avila Beach Drive, just west of the San Luis Creek Bridge. Visitors will enjoy 360-degree views of San Luis Bay and interact with touch tanks full of live marine creatures.

Guests will have the opportunity to view tiny marine species through microscopes and learn about whale migrations and the recent red tide and bioluminescence phenomena. Interactive displays will offer insights into local marine environments and scientific studies conducted by Cal Poly researchers and students on protection of Morro Bay’s ecosystem, sustaining local fisheries, mapping ocean currents and much more.

Cal Poly professors and students will be on hand to answer questions.

Attendees may take the tour at their own pace and are encouraged to bring cameras to take photos of seals, pelicans, sea creatures and the incredible coastal views.

To best prepare, guests should be aware of the following:

• 

  Pets must be left at home.

• The event is a walking tour on a pier with grating — closed-toe walking shoes are required (safety rules prohibit flip-flops or heels).
• Visitors should bring their own water bottles.
• All visitors will be required to sign a safety waiver prior to entering the pier.

Parking is very limited near the pier. Tour attendees are encouraged to park in the public parking lots in Avila Beach and walk to the pier.

For more information about the event, go to marine.calpoly.edu or call 805-756-6777 (recorded line). Rain will cancel the event.

About the Cal Poly Pier

Built in 1984 by Unocal Corp., now Chevron Corp., to facilitate oil transport on the U.S. West Coast, the corporation donated the pier to the university in 2001. Cal Poly Pier operates as a marine research facility. At 3,000 feet long, it provides students, faculty and researchers with unrivaled access to the marine environment of the Central Coast. The pier boasts a classroom/dry lab facility, a second-floor conference room with 360-degree views of San Luis Obispo Bay, a flowing seawater system with wet-lab and aquarium space and many other resources. The pier supports field research for Cal Poly’s Center for Coastal Marine Sciences program within the Bailey College of Science and Mathematics. Nearly 3,000 students use the pier each year for classes and research activities.