Our Vision
Our Mission: To advance ocean conservation through education, exploration and experience.
Making our dramatic (and previously inaccessible) coastline available for innovative scientific research, hands-on education and natural resource stewardship.
A Three-Pronged Approach
The Noyo Center has a three-pronged approach to development, supporting an innovative research program, creating an integrated education program and building a world-class facility for research, education and tourism. Our research and education programs support activities that engage the community, the visitor, and the scientist in order to inspire connection, communication, collaboration and creativity. Our future Ocean Science Center facility will be a dynamic environment that showcases sustainability through its landscape, buildings and operations. This campus will unfold from the land with one element leading naturally to another as it grows and changes over time, transforming the former lumber mill site.
The Noyo Center strives to:
Place the Mendocino Coast at the forefront of marine research and education.
Engage individuals of all ages in scientific exploration of the natural world.
Exhibit a rare blue whale skeleton that washed ashore near Fort Bragg in 2009.
Facilitate collaboration among scientists, public agencies and private business in research and management of natural resources.
Support the restoration and protection of coastal and marine ecosystems.
Promote investigation of climate variability and education about improved resiliency.
Draw visitors to Fort Bragg and the Mendocino Coast.
Diversify economic development for Fort Bragg and Mendocino County.
The vision for our mill site property development:
The future headlands facility, the Ocean Science Center, will create a physical space for researchers, students, families and visitors to explore the Mendocino coast and investigate the dynamic relationship between humans and the natural world.
Physical features will include:
Marine Research laboratories, office space and a marine mammal triage center.
Public interpretive area that includes an aquarium, tidal exhibits, auditorium and cafe.
An exhibition space featuring a 73-foot articulated blue whale skeleton and other natural history exhibits.
11.5-acres of restored site that connects to shoreline and ocean habitats, the California Coastal Trail, and 90-acres of coastal park.
A campus designed for net-zero energy and zero carbon footprint.
The 11.5 acre Ocean Science Center site is situated adjacent to recently protected coastal lands. Together the Ocean Science Center and Noyo Headlands Park will lead the redevelopment of a 400 acre former timber mill site spanning more than three miles of Fort Bragg’s waterfront.
The site is ideal for interpreting a spectacular array of marine and terrestrial habitats. Colleges, universities, and other agencies throughout the region are eager to conduct research in this location due to the abundant and diverse species assemblages supported by:
Oceanographic features resulting in significant ecosystem productivity in zones of upwelling, river-ocean interface, eddy formation (the large Mendocino Eddy), and two large underwater canyons (Noyo Canyon and Vizcaino Canyon).
A diversity of accessible marine substrates (rocky benches, surge channels, sand and cobble beaches, many off shore monuments).
Please support our future Ocean Science Center! Donate today!