Have you noticed the somewhat official looking cottage (is that an oxymoron?) standing at the south end of the Crystal Cove Historic District beach? Actually, it's quite official!

The cottage (#22) has been painstakingly retrofitted as a state of the art beachfront marine research facility. Made possible by an innovative partnership between Crystal Cove Alliance, California State Parks, and the University of California, Irvine, the research station will be used by faculty and students, State Parks scientists, and a consortia of peer institutions.

The Park and Marine Research Facility included modern lab amenities such as a wet lab with tanks, dry lab with benches, and microscope stations.

This unique lab will provide opportunities to conduct a wide-range of small-scale projects in the flexibly designed and situated lab. The facility's ideal location means most of the scientists' work can be done at the research site.

The goals are simple and clear. "Our first priority is to protect the park's most sensitive resources," say State Park Environmental Scientist David Pryor. "We will encourage diversity in the types of research by emphasizing the importance of studies related to water and air quality, subtidal and intertidal ecosystem health, climate change, marine and terrestrial habitats, cultural resource protection, and coastal geology just to name a few."

 

 

 

Generous help from the Samueli Foundation, The Marisla Foundation, Tricia Nichols and The University of California, Irvine made this facility possible.