Bay Day Returns to the Exploratorium on August 1 With the NOAA Buoy Haul-Out

The Exploratorium holds Bay Day on Saturday, August 1, 2026, from 11am to 4pm at Pier 15. The centerpiece is the annual servicing of a NOAA carbon dioxide buoy that has been anchored between Piers 15 and 17 since April 2013. Servicing it means pulling it out of the water, which puts a year of accumulated bay life on the dock in front of visitors.

What happens

Researchers and ecologists lift the buoy, and visitors of all ages can look closely at the organisms growing on it and help clean it. The museum ties the day to what the buoy measures: water temperature, salinity, and carbon dioxide levels in the bay and in the atmosphere, and how that data is used in work on climate change and sea level rise. The San Francisco Examiner reported that the program also includes live demonstrations and hands-on workshops using the tools scientists use to study the bay, and described the buoy as weighing about a ton.

What it costs

Bay Day is free with museum admission, and free for Daytime members and donors, who need to bring a membership card and photo ID. General admission tickets are sold on the museum’s site. The Exploratorium is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10am to 5pm, so the event covers most of the open day.

Details

When: Saturday, August 1, 2026, 11am to 4pm. Where: Exploratorium, Pier 15, the Embarcadero at Green Street.

Cost: Free with museum admission. Free for Daytime members and donors.

Getting there: Pier 15 is on the Embarcadero at Green Street. The museum lists current transit and parking options on its visitor page.

The Exploratorium also runs After Dark for visitors 18 and over on Thursday evenings from 6 to 10pm, which is a separate ticket. More on the museum is in our Exploratorium guide, and for the rest of the month see things to do in San Francisco in August 2026.

Photo: Fabrice Florin, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.