Aquarium Tours

The OCC Dennis Kelly Aquarium offers private tours for anyone interested in visiting our facility during the normal semesters (mid-Feb through May, & Sept through mid-Dec). The tours are run by student aquarium managers and are designed to inform prospective students, visiting classes, educational groups, and community members about the diversity of marine life exhibited in the Marine Science Department. The tours highlight our diverse exhibits that are meant to replicate a variety of different habitats ranging from local marine communities, tropical reefs, freshwater planted systems, and stock restoration projects. This gives our student managers the opportunity to talk about the work that they do and gain experience with public speaking. 

Tours are generally about 30 – 45 minutes long and may include short feeding demos upon request depending on the time and day of the tour. Times are dependent on student aquarium manager schedules as well as the availability of the aquarium lab room since classes are held there throughout the week. As a relatively small teaching facility, we can generally handle group sizes of about 30 visitors at a time. Larger groups can sometimes be accommodated by organizing rotations coupled with a planetarium visit next door at the OCC Planetarium. One of the major things that makes our aquarium tours unique is that the OCC Aquarium is a student-run, working aquarium and there will likely be students working on various tasks ranging from feeding to water changes, and general system maintenance or construction while tours are ongoing.

If you have any specific questions about the aquarium, please contact us at occaquarium@occ.cccd.edu or if you would like to schedule a field trip or group tour, please visit the OCC Planetarium Field Trip website. 

The OCC Aquarium is located in the Lewis Center for Applied Sciences near the Library and the OCC Planetarium. For directions, see the campus map.

We look forward to seeing you at the OCC Aquarium.