Kids on a field trip to the Roundhouse Marine Studies Lab and Aquarium on the Manhattan Beach Pier got an added bonus Wednesday (June 10) when the U.S. Coast Guard conducted an ocean rescue drill just yards away.

The unexpected interruption took the youngsters outside to witness a dummy being thrown into the water, followed by its rescue by a human, said Dawn Eyre-Martin, a Roundhouse staffer who was on hand at the time. The helicopter noise from the drill alerted onlookers in the pier area to the spectacle, the kids moving outside when their tour was momentarily drowned out.

While outside on the pier, the Culver City school kids also got to see dolphins, another added bonus, said Dawn.