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Location
Visitor tip
Don't miss the octopus and jellyfish exhibits on your first visit. Staff members are known for proactively showing visitors these highlights and sharing the creatures' names and facts, so ask if you haven't spotted them yet.
Best time
Visit Wednesday through Saturday between 11am-5pm. Staff enthusiasm is notably high here, so arriving when staff can engage with you (rather than during off-hours) enhances the educational experience significantly.
Visitor tip
Take advantage of the touch tanks and interactive displays where permitted. These hands-on experiences with starfish and sea urchins, combined with staff who are passionate about marine education, create memorable learning moments beyond typical museum observation.
Quick Facts
- Type
- Aquarium
- Location
- Charleston, Oregon - on the harbor edge
- Hours
- Wednesday-Saturday, 11am-5pm
- Highlights
- Touch tanks, whale skeletons, marine habitat exhibits, harbor seal and sea lion viewing
What visitors say
Highly recommend this gem!!! They have touch tanks, a wealth of information about local marine life, interactive displays, and live ocean creatures!!! It overlooks the little harbor and you can spot seabirds and harbor seals swimming…
What a great little stop. Some of the employees are so passionate about this place and it shows. We were just about to leave and they asked if we had saw the octopus and the jellyfish (which we hadn’t) and they showed them to us and…
Awesome little place with incredibly knowledgeable staff. I highly recommend these smaller museums and institutes. There are places to touch sea life as well as many educational kiosks. We sat and watched a fishing boat unload along…
From 488 Google reviews Read all reviews
Did You Know?
- Charleston Marine Life Center is part of the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology field station, combining public education with active marine research
- The facility features exhibits of underwater videos from Oregon's marine reserves and undersea vents, providing rare access to deep-sea environments
- Visitors can watch live harbor activity and daily fishing boat catch unloading from the aquarium, with opportunities to observe seals and sea lions in their natural habitat
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