Florida Oceanographic Coastal Center, Hutchinson Island, Stuart, FL

Traveling along the Eastern coast of Florida is a beautiful place to explore. One of our adventures led us to the Florida Oceanographic Coastal Center on Hutchinson Island in Stuart, FL. 🌊

We entered the 57 acre nature center for marine life to find one of the shows already in progress. No worries there, they had multiple shows to enjoy, so we set out to explore a bit on our own to find out what we would like to do and what shows to see. 😊

The following shows are offered: Stingray Program, Gamefish Program, Sea Turtle Program, and the Nature Trail. Each of these has very knowledgeable guides who were more than happy to answer all of our questions and they last approximately 30 minutes each. 🕧

Stingray Program–we love stingrays and the guides were so friendly and informative! Learning about the different kinds of stingrays and seeing them up close was awesome! No touching of the rays were allowed during the show, but between shows you can pet these amazing creatures! We spent a lot of time at the Stingray tank! 😁

Gamefish Program–this was a super cool program! Watching the gamefish swim and get fed in the 750,000-gallon Gamefish Lagoon was a unique experience. 🤩 We got to see tarpon, nurse sharks, stingrays, spadefish, black drums, black margates, red drums, snook, crevalle jack, pompano, snappers, triggerfish, sheepshead, and more! It was amazing to see them being fed and also to observe them so closely. 🦈

Sea Turtle Program–while we missed being able to see the live turtles (currently they are not in residence at the center) the program was educational and interactive. The guide gave us lots of information about the different kinds of turtles that live in Florida. Loggerheads, green turtles, and leatherbacks are some of the turtles that were part of the program. 🐢

Nature Trail–although we opted not to go on the nature trail due to a wardrobe malfunction (I wore super cute shoes that still had a bit of sand in them from the beach that didn’t come all the way clean, which gave me some nasty blisters!) it looked like a beautiful place to explore. We’ll head back there again sometime and we’ll be more prepared next time. 🥾

We were also given a guided tour around the lagoon that we thoroughly enjoyed! We learned about the air bladders on the drum, got to see a barracuda, and learn about the different fish habitats. 🪸

Next on our list was the touch tank! We like to have hands on learning, and the touch tank was very cool to explore! 🐚Touching sea cucumbers, crabs, horseshoe crabs, sea urchin, and other sea creatures was awesome! 🦀 My favorite was getting a hug from the sea urchin! 🤗

There was a picnic area and grounds with sculptures that we enjoyed, too. It was a nice place to sit and relax for a bit. 🥰

While we loved exploring the outdoor areas, we still had the Ocean Ecocenter building to explore! We appreciated the artwork and creativity used to make some interesting pieces of art from not so eco-friendly ocean plastics to raise awareness of saving our beautiful world. 🖼️

There were more hands on activities inside and the kids were off! They had so much fun looking through the 360 degree viewing scopes! There were cool reefs and fish to see in one of them. The other focused more closely on the ocean floor with more fish and aquatic life. Next we learned about Worm Reefs, so Juliana and I got to be worms! 🪱

There was an amazing aquarium, sea turtle nest display, and an estuary exhibit. 🐡

But wait, there’s more! 😉 There were microscopes to view many different slides. 🔬 Lots of interesting info on alligators including an example of a nest! Puzzles to put together and much, much more! 🐊

There is so much to see and do there that we were amazed! Well worth the money for admission, this has fast become one of our favorite places to spend the day. 🤩

After we explored to our heart’s content, we drove back to the hotel to plan our next adventure. So much to see and do, what will we find next? 🤔

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Thanks so much and stay tuned for more Traveling with the Trapps!

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