Cost and Funding

A Sea Perch with a plankton net

In total, a basic Sea Perch costs about $75, the tools, battery and charger that can be used for multiple Sea Perches (and reused year after year!) costs about $250. We've made every effort to find the cheapest, most accessible parts for everything on the Sea Perch. We wanted to make every bit of a Sea Perch easy to find, and easy to replace; this allows it to be used in classrooms that have very little money in their budget to schools that receive outside funding from supporting groups.

Among the virtues of the Sea Perch program is the available leverage to spend as little or as much as you want. Some teachers borrow tools from the wood shop or get help from parents for the construction. Some teachers reuse every part from year to year. The program lets teachers be creative and figure out how Sea Perch best fits into their classroom.