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Aquarium of the Pacific celebrates the coast at Urban Ocean Festival in Long Beach

by jeff in News

Sea lovers celebrated the Pacific Ocean and all its scaly, finned and winged inhabitants at the Aquarium of the Pacific’s 10th annual Urban Ocean Festival this weekend.

Serena Ren, 12, Coco Wen, 13, and Linda Cai, 12, from Blue Sky Academy, paint an ocean theme mural during the Aquarium of the Pacific’s 10th Annual Urban Ocean Festival in Long Beach on Saturday, March 30, 2019. (Photo by Ana P. Garcia, Contributing Photographer)
Children touch a Gopher snake from Lincoln Castro at the Bolsa Chica Conservancy booth during the Aquarium of the Pacific’s Urban Ocean Festival in Long Beach on Saturday, March 30, 2019. (Photo by Ana P. Garcia, Contributing Photographer)
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Nancy Hadley works on a mural during the Aquarium of the Pacific’s Urban Ocean Festival in Long Beach on Saturday, March 30, 2019. (Photo by Ana P. Garcia, Contributing Photographer)
Aquarium of the Pacific’s Seafood for the Future attraction features a tasting of Barramundi, a sustainable seabass, during the Urban Ocean Festival in Long Beach on Saturday, March 30, 2019. (Photo by Ana P. Garcia, Contributing Photographer)
Lucille Harpst from Bolsa Chica Conservancy talks about birds to Steven Vu, 7, Sophia Vu, 5, Julianne Vu, 7, Katherine Vu, 9, and Olivia Vu, 7, during the Aquarium of the Pacific’s Urban Ocean Festival in Long Beach on Saturday, March 30, 2019. (Photo by Ana P. Garcia, Contributing Photographer)
Yukiho, 9, and her brother Kousei Tamaki, 5, work on a mural during the Aquarium of the Pacific’s Urban Ocean Festival in Long Beach on Saturday, March 30, 2019. (Photo by Ana P. Garcia, Contributing Photographer)
Artist Felipe Ventura sits by his first place photographic art piece during the Aquarium of the Pacific’s Urban Ocean Festival in Long Beach on Saturday, March 30, 2019. (Photo by Ana P. Garcia, Contributing Photographer)
Ronny & The Classics perform during the Aquarium of the Pacific’s Urban Ocean Festival in Long Beach on Saturday, March 30, 2019. (Photo by Ana P. Garcia, Contributing Photographer)
Nancy Hadley and Alexandra Edwards, 17, work on a mural during the Aquarium of the Pacific’s Urban Ocean Festival in Long Beach on Saturday, March 30, 2019. (Photo by Ana P. Garcia, Contributing Photographer)
Rich Faugno, and his daughter Alicia, 9, stop to look at an art piece from Copeland Holt during the Aquarium of the Pacific’s Urban Ocean Festival in Long Beach on Saturday, March 30, 2019. (Photo by Ana P. Garcia, Contributing Photographer)
Siena, 2, paints with her father, Daniel, during the Aquarium of the Pacific’s Urban Ocean Festival in Long Beach on Saturday, March 30, 2019. (Photo by Ana P. Garcia, Contributing Photographer)

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The festival is designed to help locals learn about the connections between the city, the ocean and its wildlife. The two-day festival — on Saturday and Sunday, March 30 and 31 — explored the coast through an art exhibition, sustainable seafood tastings and live music. Among the participants was the Bolsa Chica Conservancy of Huntington Beach.

Both days featured education and art activities, including painting and viewing of the Urban Ocean Film.

But on Saturday, the festival got literary, with the Urban Ocean Poetry Awards Ceremony and the Poetry Cruise. And on Sunday, the Aquarium planned a Trashin’ Fashion Show, where contestants showed off clothing made out of recycled materials often found strewn on the beach.