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The Oregon Coast Aquarium entrance is tucked in the natural setting of the Oregon Coast. Trees and water surrounds the walking path to the entrance of the aquarium.
Gift Shop: The aquarium gift shop and book store offers unique gift ideas and is always fun to look around.
Getting around: The gravel walking paths are great if you go on a rainy day so you won’t have to worry about getting all muddy. The Oregon Coast Aquarium offers good wheelchair access to the exhibits and plenty of places to take a load off.
Beware of the prehistoric shark exhibit, this makes “jaws” look like bait.
Passage of the Deep: The Passage of the deep is one of the most alluring exhibits in the park. Three tunnels provide a opportunity for visitors to walk in the middle of sharks, stings rays, halibut and many other fish species. Children and adults love pointing out the biggest fish as they swim overhead or beneath your feet.
An artist takes advantage of the quite early morning tunnel to capture her perception of the sharks swimming by overhead.
Halibut Flats: The second of the three tunnels, the halibut exhibit provides another chance to gaze at fishing swimming over head. At the end of the tunnel you can see some of the beautiful art that is displayed. Photo’s of the coast and wildlife capture the uniqueness and give visitors an even deeper sense of appreciation for nature.
Sea lions can be seen darting below the water or floating on their backs taking in the attention from nearby visitors. Line up early near the windows to get a glimpse of the trainers feeding these hungry underwater acrobats. We didn’t take this advice so we couldn’t get a picture worth sharing with everyone
Tufted Puffin: In the seabird aviary you can see many species including tufted puffins, common murres, pigeon guillemots and rhinoceros auklet. One of the tufted puffins was really showing off for the camera so we couldn’t resist posting a picture of him – or is it a her? I forgot to ask. The friendly staff and volunteers have great stories to tell and are always willing to answer any questions you may have.
Sea Otters: Most of the sea otters were hiding on our visit but this one was stretching out waiting for his 1:00 p.m. feeding.
Tide pools: Back indoors you can get hands on with tide pool exhibits and see what starfish, sea enenimies and sea cucumbers feel like.
The background on this jellyfish exhibit really makes them stand out.
Summing it up: This wasn’t our first visit to the Oregon Coast Aquarium but was still fun and worth the re-visit. All in all for the two of us we were set back about $31. It was well worth the money getting to see so much wildlife in the two and a half hours we spent visiting. I recommend three or more hours especially if you are traveling with children. The next time your in Newport, Oregon we highly recommend stopping at the Oregon Coast Aquarium.