Seaside Aquarium, Public aquarium in Seaside, Oregon, United States.
The Seaside Aquarium occupies a 1920s natatorium building in Seaside, Oregon, where tanks are filled through the same seawater pipe laid to the tide line in the 1920s. It reports about 100 species, among them 20-arm sea stars, crabs, wolf eels, moray eels and octopuses, plus harbor seals that visitors can feed.
The building was constructed in 1924 as a swimming facility using heated seawater from the Pacific Ocean and transformed into an aquarium in 1937. The original pipeline system that drew water from the sea remains in use today.
The aquarium has run the first captive breeding programme for harbour seals, and visitors can buy fish to feed the seals by hand. The building's 1920s seawater pipe, still visible at the tide line, is the same one that fills the tanks today.
The facility sits on the beachfront promenade and is easily accessible on foot. Visitors can observe the animals, touch some creatures in designated areas, and participate in feeding activities with seals.
The facility once housed a fish that drifted across the Pacific inside a boat displaced during the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. This unusual journey demonstrates how major natural disasters can scatter marine life across vast ocean distances.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 92,936 contributors worldwide.
