North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores, We Got Turtles

The mascot for North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores

Shawn, Jerry and I decided to take a trip up the coast of North Carolina for one of our road trips. The North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores was one of our stops on the trip. The aquarium was better than I expected. The reason I had low expectations was due to the fact North Carolina has three aquariums along the coastline and figured that they would spread out key exhibits among themselves. The aquarium admission cost us about $8 a piece, which isn’t bad for what the North Carolina Aquarium has to offer. The North Carolina Aquarium has a variety of different fish from fresh water to salt water. They even has otters, snakes and an outdoor bird walk. My best advice is to check out the otter feeding around 11am for some fun play between the otters.

When you first walk in the North Carolina Aquarium has some fresh water fish along the walls leading you into the next room which has part of floor (interactive play) that looks like you are stepping on water which causing ripples and goldfish to swim away. The otters in the next room were not that active due to being stuff with food. We decided to come back later after their power nap to see if any of them were causing some curious fun. Only one of the three were awake after our second attempt, we caught him on video (video at bottom).

One of the otters at play

Moving on along, you will come to the reptile area which I love snakes and other reptiles, they fascinate me. They have small crocodiles, different kinds of snakes and a turtle tank. The turtle exhibit was filled with turtles, I had to estimate about 50 of those swimming critters. The aquarium created a pond environment for them to hangout in with couple of the old-timer turtles on the surface sunbathing to the heat lamps. When you walk to the next room there is a sting ray tank that you can stick your hand down in and touch one as is swims by. In this same area they have a nursery for baby loggerhead sea turtle. One of the turtles kept hitting the bottom of the tank trying to get either food or saw his reflection on the bottom. The North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores does extensive work and take great strides to help the loggerhead sea turtles.

Sunbathing out of the water.

The next room was the Shipwreck Tank. This is their biggest tank in the aquarium and the call it the shipwreck tank because of the sunken submarine creating the habitat for the fish.The North Carolina Aquarium had many different fish in with the sharks in the tank. They feed the sharks very well so they do not get the urge to digest the smaller fish in the tank. The North Carolina Aquarium probably had only 3 different types of sharks but they were cool to watch. One of them was laying on the bottom with its head next to a vent looking like a dogs cheeks when its head is out the window. They also had an adult loggerhead sea turtle on exhibit in the tank. The North Carolina Aquarium has a couple smaller tanks behind the shark tank. These tanks were filled with lobster, octopus, and jellyfish. The shipwreck tank was the best part of the aquarium and was excellent way to close out the aquarium.

This was the shipwreck tank with an assortment of sea life

All in all, North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores is very nice for the price. My favorite part was watching the otter run around in the tank. The shark tank was pretty cool too. If anyone is in the Atlantic Beach area, this is a must do.