DESCRIPTION DEPARTMENT OVERVIEW Birch Aquarium at Scripps (BAS) serves as the outreach center for Scripps Institution of Oceanography and provides the public a lens into cutting edge ocean, atmospheric and earth sciences. Birch Aquarium at Scripps’ mission is to ‘connect understanding to protecting our ocean planet.’ BAS’s growing portfolio of services and outreach programs currently serve over 500,000 public visitors and 50,000 K-12 students. BAS is a recognized industry leader in animal care and conservation and in innovation in science communications. Birch Aquarium is distinguished from other public aquariums by its deep association with a world-class ocean research and teaching institution and its commitment to pre-college pipeline devel