ExplorOcean’s ‘school bus on steroids’ is ready to sail

With the pop of the cork on a large bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne and a quick pour onto the bow of the school-bus-yellow vessel, ExplorOcean’s new pontoon boat was welcomed to Newport Harbor on Wednesday evening.

ExplorOcean runs a nonprofit ocean literacy center in Newport Beach’s Balboa Village that focuses on science, technology, engineering and math. Its chief executive, Tom Pollack, said the boat, which seats 49 passengers in bench-style rows, will help the center’s teaching staff get more students out on the water for a hands-on experience with marine life that would be nearly impossible to replicate inside a classroom. The center serves about 75,000 students from across Southern California each year.

On Wednesday, more than 50 people filed onto the dock at the Balboa Bay Club for the vessel’s unveiling.

“We wanted it to be a school bus on steroids,” Pollack said of the boat’s design. “It’s an important arrow in our quiver.”

ExplorOcean has raised $140,000 since November to help purchase the 45-foot pontoon boat, which last year was estimated to cost about $160,000. The organization also has a $30,000 matching pledge by ExplorOcean board members Doug Pasquale, Tim Collins and Scott Calder, which will be in effect until the end of the year to pay the rest of the cost.

The twin-hulled boat will take children to the Newport Back Bay estuary and the California Institute of Technology’s William G. Kerckhoff Marine Laboratory in Corona del Mar, where students can meet with scientists to learn about the latest oceanographic studies.

It also will act as a floating laboratory for exercises such as studying plankton and launching student-made underwater robots to gather data about sea life and the ocean environment. Many of ExplorOcean’s students have limited experience with the ocean. Some have not been out on a boat, said ExplorOcean’s director of education, Wendy Marshall.

“This vessel is going to be the best classroom,” Marshall said. “Even though the students know there’s fish down there, they’re always so surprised to see them in person.”

Newport Beach resident Marian Bergeson, a former state legislator and California secretary of education who made one of the first donations to the project, emphasized the importance of interactive learning.

“This boat will provide kids with an opportunity to develop the passion needed to pursue education and careers in marine science and oceanography,” she said. “I don’t know where you’re going to be able to find a comparable experience.”