Oregon Coast Aquarium

Often listed as one of the nation's top ten aquariums, attractions include the octopus cave, a seabird aviary, viewing pools with otters, seals and sea lions swimming. The Passages of the Deep exhibit takes visitors through a suspended underwater acrylic tunnel, surrounded on all sides by sharks, bat rays, and other creatures of the deep. The arrangement of the Aquarium exhibits were designed to guide our visitors from one ecosystem to the next starting with the habitats closest to shore and ending in the blue vastness of the open ocean. The Sandy Shores begins your journey in the spot where most people experience the ocean, on a sandy beach. Next is Rocky Shores, a gallery of all kinds of marine life that live in tide pools, including invertebrates to colorful reef fish. Then visitors reach Coastal Waters, specimens close to land like colonies of Moon Jellies or Sea Nettles drifting on the cold currents and fish living in symbiotic communities among kelp forests. The Sea Otter and Seal & Sea Lion exhibits show habitat and how these marine mammals wander through these narrow passages where waves crash through the rocks where you can spot California Sea Lions, Harbor Seals and the endangered Sea Otters at play. Finally exhibits like the Giant Pacific Octopus Exhibit and the Passages of the Deep let you explore the ocean's most fascinating and dangerous creatures from a series of connecting underwater tunnels.

Oregon Coast Sights