AVILA BEACH - A year ago, for his biology labs, Cal Poly student Mike Strupp examined old sea creatures preserved in glass jars. Now he simply pulls them from the ocean -- a few feet from his seaside classroom.

Baby octopi, algae, oysters -- he can find them all below the former Unocal pier in Avila Beach.

"Everything here is fresh," Strupp said. "It gives us a chance to do hands-on experiments we couldn't do on campus."

Out here, where seals bark and kelp forests bloom, Poly students have a living laboratory to conduct marine science experiments. The university in April began offering classes on the pier, which is now called the Cal Poly Marine Science Education and Research Center.

The pier -- roughly six-tenths of a mile long -- is the longest in the county, more than double the length of the Pismo pier. Once the largest crude oil shipping port in the world, the former Unocal pier was destroyed in a 1983 El Niño storm and then rebuilt.

Unocal Corp. donated the $18 million pier to the university two years ago, along with a $4.5 million endowment to pay for maintenance and operation costs and two professorships.

The facility is the sole marine research center between Santa Barbara and Monterey and the only one in the nation with a marine education program that focuses on undergraduates.

Picturesque pier

It's a sunny spring day on the pier, and a visitor can see scores of midsize boats moored near Port San Luis. Sunbathers can barely be seen on Avila Beach. The brown-and-green hills that shape the bay peek up to the Windex-blue sky.

At the end of the steel-and-concrete pier sits a two-story building that houses a classroom and conference room.

But it's in the water where the magic happens.

Students in Dean Wendt's marine biology class spread out along the platform at pier's end, inserting algae into tubes they'll soon lower into the water.

They're testing how light energy at different ocean depths affects photosynthesis -- the process by which plants convert sunlight into chemical energy.

"It's the same way we eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and use that metabolism to grow," Wendt said.

Hours later, students grab ropes to pull up their specimens from near the ocean's bottom, then use digital equipment and laptop computers to measure the amount of oxygen the algae produced.

Fancy equipment

Even for this emerging facility, Wendt said, the algae lab assignment is quite mundane.

Professor Mark Moline often uses a self-guided torpedo-shaped device bristling with detectors to collect data on microscopic sea plants called phytoplankton. He then plugs it into a computer to analyze the information.

This summer, pier manager Tom Moylan said, Cal Poly will unveil more than $100,000 worth of more sophisticated marine biology equipment.

The state Regional Water Quality Control Board, Cal Poly and Tenera Environmental of San Luis Obispo chipped in to buy the gear.

The equipment package includes a "hydrocarbon sniffer" -- a small refrigerator-sized water pump that will allow students to test seawater and find if boats are leaking oil or gasoline in the bay.

The students will share their findings with the water board and other agencies.

Extending more than a half-mile from shore, the pier allows students to study a greater variety of species than what they would find in tide pools. While standing on a platform below the pier, Moylan said hundreds of species -- including barnacles, crabs and sea urchins -- attach to each of the pier's piles.

"It's like a buffet table for the larger animals," he said. "We've even seen gray whales that will rub up against the pier to scratch their backs."

Long-range plans

Cal Poly's master plan calls for adding on to the current 2,000-square-foot building at the end of the pier. The school would like to increase the structure's size by five times, adding more lecture space and computer labs.

In a couple of years, the school plans to offer academic boating and diving programs.

"I predict our marine science program is going to become huge because of this pier," said Mike Holmes, a senior studying biology.

This summer, the school plans to add a high-speed Internet connection at the facility, allowing students and faculty to use wireless Web connections on boats and upload data in real-time to the main campus.

About 200 students have used the pier for classes this quarter, and Moylan said he'd like to see even more use it daily. Some of those students will likely be from nearby Cuesta and Hancock community colleges.

Donning a hat and sunglasses and fresh from her algae lab assignment, student Alexis Lewis summed up why she enjoys studying at the pier.

"It's way better to be out here," she said, "than cooped up in a (campus) lab for six hours."