Major renovations to the Oregon Coast Aquarium (OCAq) indoor galleries have begun, paving the way for exciting improvements and new additions.
Beginning Sept. 5, OCAq’s Sandy Coast and Rocky Coast galleries will close to the public, but the Coastal Waters gallery will remain open until a later date, allowing visitors to continue viewing the gallery’s colorful tropical fish, always-intriguing sea slugs, and the ever-mesmerizing motions of sea nettles.
In the meantime, visitors can look forward to new exhibits, improved traffic flow, and updated interpretive signage in both English and Spanish once renovations are complete. Alongside the existing galleries, the Aquarium will also dedicate a corridor entirely to sea jellies, including Oregon-native moon jellies, Indo-Pacific blue blubber jellies, and more of the otherworldly invertebrates.
Visitors will continue to have access to the rest of the Aquarium’s exhibits and features, including its recently introduced Discovery Zone, the freshly remodeled Moon Jelly Café, and the kid-tested-and-approved Nature Play Area. During the renovation, many of the indoor galleries’ residents will be relocated to OCAq’s Passages of the Deep exhibit, an underwater tunnel snaking through three ocean environments, allowing returning guests to remain familiar with some of their favorite finned friends.
Renovations for all three galleries are expected to be completed for summer 2024 , with the Rocky Coast gallery featuring upgraded habitats, and Sandy Coast outfitted with a newly remodeled touch pool to increase its capacity and provide even more opportunities for visitors to meet and greet sea stars, urchins, and other intertidal creatures. However, the greatest change will take place in the former Coastal Waters gallery, now reimagined as Connected Coasts. The new gallery will feature a mangrove exhibit and other habitats highlighting how the Pacific Ocean connects the Oregon coast to incredibly diverse animals and biomes.
These projects comprise the second part of OCAq’s multi-phase plan for improvement. As a non-profit organization, ticket sales, memberships, and donations support our progress, the care of our animals, and crucial conservation and rehabilitation efforts.
Completion of these projects is thanks to contributions from major donors, including the State of Oregon, Al Gleason, M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, James and Shirley Rippey Family Foundation, Maybelle Clark Macdonald Fund, John & Nancy Dennis Family, Jim Pattison/Roth’s Fresh Markets, Marta & Ken Thrasher, Christine & David Vernier, Miller Family Holdings and Aquarium Volunteers.
To learn more about the Aquarium’s plans for improvement and to see the latest progress, visit our Plans for the Future page.
