Aerial View of the Coastal Science Campus

The Institute of Marine Sciences research facilities include offices, laboratories and support staff on the UCSC Main Campus and at our Coastal Science Campus. The UCSC main campus is spectacularly located at the base of the Santa Cruz Mountains overlooking Monterey Bay, the country's largest National Marine Sanctuary and one of the world's most diverse marine ecosystems. Our 100-acre Coastal Science Campus, located on a seaside bluff a short distance from the main campus, is the site of the Joseph M. Long Marine Laboratory as well as the Coastal Biology Building that houses the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB), and is also the home for a number of affiliated state and federal marine agency programs as well as several non-governmental organizations focused on marine conservation. It is a major hub for research, teaching, and outreach. Additional operations are based at four UC Natural Reserves System field locations: Younger Lagoon, Año Nuevo Island, Landels-Hill Big Creek, and Fort Ord natural reserves. Our research teams travel the world, from the deep-sea scientific vessel drilling into the fault that triggered the massive 2011 Japanese earthquake to remote field research sites in Antarctica and Tahiti.