The Ocean Institute in Dana Point runs educational cruises aboard its vessel R/V Sea Explorer for 5th-12th grade students from throughout the southern California region. The standard cruise track goes about five miles offshore and runs parallel to the coast. One experiment the students perform is to deploy a drifting buoy on the outbound trip and retrieve it on the return trip. The students then plot the track on a map to get an idea of how the surface currents might move passive materials in the upper ocean. Students, depending on grade level, explore the relationship between the properties of seawater, layered structure of the ocean, the generation of horizontal and vertical currents and the distribution of marine organisms. In addition, the work helps build up a data base of transport pathways in the Dana Point region for resource management and potential search and rescue activities.

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