In Newport, Oregon, a family-friendly thing to do is visit the Oregon Coast Aquarium, located at 2820 Southeast Ferry Slip Road. Locals and tourists enjoy visits to the Aquarium drawing families together around the wonders of the sea. 

Oregon Coast Aquarium is not just for the kids. There is plenty for adults to explore too. Spending a day at the Oregon Coast Aquarium is sure to make lasting memories and become a highlight of your next family vacation when vacationing in Newport, Oregon.

When visiting the Oregon Coast Aquarium, you may navigate underwater glass tunnels in search of sharks, feed the sea lions, or explore an array of sea life with the many different sea animals and ecosystems to discover.

Throughout the week, the aquarium offers opportunities to get behind-the-scenes for a closeup look at how the animals live. To experience an in-depth look, book a behind the scenes tour. 

In addition to the tours and exhibits for adults and older children, there is plenty for small children to enjoy. Littles will find the underwater exploration areas, complete with play boat and fishing activities, a great way to get hands-on play.

Sandy Shores exhibit recreates the awe-inspiring feeling of standing on the seashore. This exhibit mimics the feeling of toes in the sand, soaking in the vast ocean with mesmerizing waves. From this vantage point, visitors experience the awe and mystery of the ocean and ecosystems where land meets water.

In this ecosystem, surf zone animals bury themselves to escape the drying sun, shorebirds and marine predators. The animals of Sandy Shores are so tiny they may almost escape observation, but even the smallest still play a vital role in nature’s constant cycle of life. One of the highlights of Sandy Shores is a freestanding pier exhibit. A 4,730-gallon tank replicates the unique habitat formed by docks and piers where anemones, mussels and Dungeness Crabs scuttle along the ocean floor. Nearby, a separate exhibit replicates the ebb and flow of the Pacific surf against a tide pool filled with anemones, sculpins and oysters.

Rocky Shores exhibit challenges us is to keep an eye out for hard shelled marine animals with defensive camouflage abilities such as sea stars, gumboot chitons and anemones. The centerpiece of Rocky Shores is a touch-pool. Staffed by volunteers, this exhibit lets all visitors gently interact with tide pool residents. Other galleries highlight tide pools, cut-away's raked by waves, and a deep pool in which a visitor-operated video camera has been mounted for close-up investigation. Rocky Shores holds a total of 15 exhibits, including habitats for the fearsome looking but gentle Wolf Eel, brightly colored rockfish, and a wide range of sea stars, limpets and other invertebrates.

Coastal Waters includes 16 exhibits spotlighting coho, chinook salmon and sturgeon, including their life cycles, challenges and journey from streams to the ocean and back, along with other animals. Extending into the Aquarium’s courtyard, the 35,000-gallon exhibit includes a wall-to-wall viewing window to see impressive basalt boulders and habitat of the Yaquina Bay jetties, where salmon pass during migrations. 

Coastal Waters features a moon jelly exhibit and considered one of the most popular animals at the Aquarium. A second jelly exhibit in this gallery features sea nettles in a 5,000-gallon kelp forest harboring offshore fishes and invertebrates in a large coastal reef exhibit. 

When visiting the Sea Otters habitat, visitors will be looking at the largest population of sea otters in the state of Oregon. This species was hunted to extinction in the Oregon wild over a century ago, with the last known individual killed just off the Newport Beach in 1907. 

Sea otters were widely targeted by trappers throughout the United States and Canada. Their unique pelts, which contain up to a million follicles per square inch, provide such good insulation that the otter does not require a layer of blubber to retain body heat as you would find in whales, sea lions and seals. Within decades, otter’s survival was seriously imperiled along the entire Pacific coast. This decline in sea otters throughout Oregon resulted in far-reaching environmental impacts. As otters control the population of sea urchins, which in turn feed on the giant kelp forests offshore, otters maintain ecological balance. As a result, the sea urchin population has managed to destroy many of the underwater forests and the habitat they provided for innumerable species.

Although trapping or poaching of sea otters is now illegal in the United States, various other factors impact species survival such as habitat destruction such as competition for food, pollution and natural predation which has challenged the species return. Today, sea otter conservation and recovery efforts, particularly in California and Alaska, are underway.

To catch the sea otters frolicking in their pools or to enjoy public feedings, plan to visit during at one of the feeding scheduled times, occurring every day at 10:30 am, 1:00 pm and 3:30 pm.

The Seals and Sea Lion exhibit is also a great way to enjoy interaction with sea life as sea lions particularly enjoy interactions with human beings, often swimming right up to the acrylic barriers for a closer look.

Considered the two largest marine mammals at the aquarium, they share a sprawling exhibit containing up to 90,000 gallons of sea water at the depth of fifteen feet deep in some areas, allowing the animals to dive, twist, twirl and leap as they would in the wild. To get a close up look, there are multiple view stations for visitors. 

The the Giant Pacific Octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini), or GPO for short, is the largest ever caught weighing in at nearly 600 pounds (272 kg). Octopus can be found all along the western coast of North America, from Alaska to southern California. 

When visiting the Giant Pacific Octopus habitat at the Aquarium, be patient and look carefully. The shy animal will often hide herself in the dark nooks and crannies of the exhibit and you may have to work to find her.

The open-air, walk-through aviary at the Oregon Coast Aquarium allows visitors the rare opportunity to see some of these species up close. The aviary is one of the largest of its kind in North America.

The Aquarium’s Passages of the Deep exhibit allows the visitor to literally immerse themselves in the ocean realm that exists right off the Oregon coast. A series of underwater walkways leads the visitor from the dark, quiet canyons of the Orford Reef, through the sparkling and teeming waters of Halibut Flats, and finally into the vast blue expanse of the Open Sea. As you pass through these three ecosystems, you symbolically move further into the Pacific Ocean, encountering vastly different animals along the way.

In Halibut Flats, ocean life finds shelter among a sunken skeleton of a long-forgotten ship with an ecosystem of a tremendous number of interconnected species which form a vibrant underwater community. Aside from the sturgeon, lingcod, halibut and flounder that constantly patrol the shipwreck, the sandy ocean floor is a resting ground for skates, a disk-shaped species of fish related to sharks and rays. You may have to look carefully, however, as the skates’ mottled coloring is the perfect camouflage for this region of dappled sunlight.

One of the highlights of the aquarium is Passages of the Deep, a series of underwater tubes leading through three different ocean ecosystems. Safely under the water, you’ll see hundreds of different species of fish, from halibut, to bat rays, to anchovy, to sharks.

Greenery lines the outdoor walkways of Oregon Coast Aquarium grounds forming a lush naturescape with many native species. More than 100 different native plant species are found on the 30-acre property, with many labeled with placards for easy observation. Smaller species continue to be added each year, but the greenery reflects the age of the Aquarium itself. The majority of this flora is native to the Oregon coast, but the occasional exotic can also be found throughout the display. Be on the lookout for a rough-skinned newt coming up for air in the lily pad pond, ringed with marsh grass and sedge.

On your next day out in Newport, visit the Aquarium to view galleries, exhibits and presentations, and also plan to wander the beautiful grounds. Stop and smell the native wild rose, the red-flowering currant, and the vibrant Oregon grape, Oregon's State flower.